Melbourne’s heatwave did nothing to hold back the enthusiasm of either the crowd or the bands playing at the launch of Melbourne band Naberus’ new album The Lost Reveries. While the air-conditioner and fans were working hard in the band room at Fitzroy’s The Worker’s Club against the stifling heat outside, that was nothing compared to the work ethic of the four bands on stage that night – The Motion Below, Windwaker, Toxicon and Naberus.
The night kicked off a band that nearly stole the honour of Best Band on the night – The Motion Below. Led by vocalist Thomas Katgert, this metalcore band captivated the early arrivers on the night, while tracks like Duplicity and Reform/Converge show why these guys are one of the most promising bands in the Melbourne scene at the moment. As the set went on Ryan Matheson also revealed himself as one of the best clean vocalists going around at the moment as well.
The second band to hit the stage on the night was Windwaker who sadly had to perform without their lead singer. Not to be deterred the band showed maturity beyond their years and instead of cancelling went on stage and delivered a brilliant instrumental set they were to the elite level of alternative rockers Laura who made instrumental music a true art-form.
Third on the bill were the band that recently made a huge name for themselves as they played gigs right across country Victoria – Toxicon. A new level of brutality swept across the room as Toxicon arrived, defying the hot conditions and wearing chemical plant jumpsuits that looked like they made have been leftovers from Deepwater Horizon. While Thomas Nunan slaved away on the drums Jacob Maloney, Paul Jones, Adam Esposti and Wayne Clarris lined up along the front of the stage and looked like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse as the delivered one of the most brutal sets that Melbourne has seen for quite awhile. For a long time now many of us have known that Toxicon has what it takes to reach the big time, and this performance showed that there is no reason why they can’t follow in the footsteps of King Parrot and soon have global domination under their belt.
The night’s brutality then took another step up when the ‘launch boys’ hit the stage. Like Toxicon Naberus are a band that are destined for great things, and their set here was nothing short of perfect. While the heat got to one crowd member, Naberus arrived through a smoke screen and then delivered a brutal, yet very slick hour of music. Throughout their set Naberus just seemed to jump from level to level. Walk The Streets showed the real maturity of a band that are ready to take on the world, while the full force of Drones brought the pit alive while Vultures really got the circle-work going.
The multi-pronged vocal attack by Naberus’ members lifts this band to a whole new stratosphere and shows why this is a band that should wear the label of ‘Australia’s Next Big Thing’ as a badge of honour. There is no weak link in this band at all; the guitar work is amazing and when you are watching them perform a track like Cohesion live you can see why James Ash is easily one of the best vocalists in Australian metal at the moment.
As the Naberus set drew to a close with Close Your Eyes and Gallows, the crowd started a chant of ‘One more song, one more song.’ Time sadly didn’t allow it but yes this a band that you could easily watch all night long… and hopefully on the back of the release of their new album The Lost Reveries this is a band that we are going to be hearing a lot more songs from over the years.
