1349 – Gig Review 25th February @ Crowbar, Brisbane
1349
Crowbar, Brisbane, QLD
February 25th, 2016
Supports Gravier, Pestilential Shadows
The black metal keepers are burning their black flame in Brisbane for the first time tonight. The Crowbar are serving their own special brand of ‘Cauldron’ beer to mark the occasion and as one punter blares Toto’s ‘Africa’ over the jukebox; you should forgive this writer for believing he was in the wrong venue.
Concerns were soon rectified as the doors opened and we all descended into the basement below where Graveir kicked off our funeral procession. Sporting a lead singer who looked uncannily like my father, the band battled through sound issues and a rather muted response from the crowd. Unfortunately their particular brand of run-of-the-mill black metal was unable to rise to the occasion and it was up to the next band to keep the black flame burning.
Pestilential Shadows were the complete opposite of this, with a sound deeply reminiscent of seminal acts such as Wolves in the Throne Room. They finally brought the much needed darkness to tonight’s proceedings. Powering through their forty minute setlist, they injected the crowd with some much needed energy, the lead vocalist screaming like a banshee from the depths of hell, their atmospheric black metal winning them more than a few new fans tonight.
Finally 1349 grace the stage, wasting no time in bringing their fans into the abyss, starting off tonight’s proceedings with the brutal ‘I Am Abomination’ which wastes no time in whipping the crowd into a frenzy; vocalist Ravn commanding the crowd with a wave of his fist.
The songs come thick and fast, with Ravn stopping only to scream the titles of certain songs before continuing to batter the crowd with old school tinged black metal. ‘Sculptor of Flesh’ sees a moshpit open up in the small room, with one happy punter attempting to crowd surf before falling on his arse. ‘Slaves’ intensifies the black metal flame burning within the crowd tonight, with Ravn commanding everyone to pump their horns in the air and the crowd responding with an almost religious fervour. 
The beginnings of ‘Cauldron’ have one particularly enthusiastic man screaming “kill everybody” and as the song kicks into gear it’s hard to argue with his logic. The chorus of the song almost anthemic as Ravn screams “massive cauldron of chaos’’ the crowd meeting his words with their own. The song putting a finality to tonight’s sermon, with Ravn grasping the hands of everybody who witnessed it before bowing and leaving the stage.
It wasn’t over though, as the punters chanted for one more song. Taking to the stage one last time, the band finished tonight’s set with ‘Postmortem’, a cut fresh from their latest album Massive Cauldron of Chaos which saw the moshpit reach power levels of over 9000, before finally bowing out and leaving us all in a sweaty, broken mess.
Here’s hoping this wasn’t the last time we see these keepers of darkness on our shores.
Written by Kaydan Howison
