END – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 8th June @ The Brightside, Brisbane QLD
ENDThe Brightside, Brisbane, QLDJune 8th, 2023Support: Blind Girls, Resin Tomb, Crossface
As an enormous line of Babymetal fans wrap their way around Brisbane's Fortitude Valley in preparation for the Japanese group's showing at The Fortitude Music Hall, Wall of Sound are a street over at The Brightside for a somewhat different live music experience with the mighty END. A supergroup featuring current and former members of Fit For An Autopsy, Counterparts, Misery Signals and The Dillinger Escape Plan, their hardcore/grindcore/mathcore mashup is as visceral and vein exploding as the scene gets. Having just torn through Japan and SouthEast Asia, tonight's Australian kick-off date sees The Brightside quickly filling with both punters and anticipation of a wild night to come.
Opening this evening of intensity is fresh local's Crossface. With only a demo worth of material under their belts, sets don't get much direct then sub-15 minutes, but in that time Crossface pull the building crowd onto the dance floor, getting the first movement in the pit. Vocalist Matthew Budge immediately ditches the close-quarters of The Brightside stage and leads from the front, roaring whilst pacing back and forth in the trenches with furious cuts like ‘Burning Hammer’. Their riff driven hardcore is drenched in feedback, and though short and sweet, is a great bar setting performance to start off the night.
Last minute fill-ins for Descent, Resin Tomb - featuring members of previous act Crossface - pack some of the most ear-twisting and musically dense passages of the whole show. Though not as pit friendly as the other bands on the bill, Resin Tomb’s dissonant/tech death metal stylings create a literal wall of sound that has The Brightside’s floor rumbling. With open-string ringing riffs and pile driving drums, their intense sound is pushed evening further with the punishingly loud mix, and they get a great response from the crowd. Wrapping up their 20 minute set with a couple of new tracks of their yet to be released full length, pinch-hitter’s Resin Tomb have proved themselves as a killer 11th hour call up, and a fantastic Brisbane artist to keep an eye on.
The final support of the night, eclectic five piece Blind Girls take to the stage to an almost full venue. Despite their impassioned performance, the dynamically diverse group - who’s sound touches on Converge and Deafheaven with melodic moments behind shrieking vocals - seem to be the most hamstrung with the live sound. It takes a couple of songs until the guitars and bass are audible, but it’s vocalist Sharni Brouwer who seems to suffer the most. Her vocals, despite clearly giving it their all, seem to sit below the rest of the instruments and are a struggle to hear - with her bandmate’s backing vocals overpowering her with ease. It’s a shame, as the Gold Coast quintet are clearly tight and well seasoned live - with no dead-air during their set - but their lack of any real interaction with the crowd seems at odds with the rest of the performer’s tonight. However, with the growing pit consistently swarming throughout Blind Girls short slot, there’s no dip in energy or momentum before our headliner’s arrive.
With The Brightside seemingly the sweatiest room in South East Queensland right now, END receives a huge response from a fired-up Thursday audience. The mayhem-inducing two-minute opener ‘Fear For Me Now’ segues perfectly into the huge ‘Pariah’, which grabs the first massive vocal call-out of the show. END - like every act this evening - are here for a good time, not a long time. With only a full length, an EP and a split release to pull material from, 35 minutes of pure power is what we get from END tonight, with the pit easily matching the violence coming from the stage and PA. Though the mix never fully improves - the intricacies of Will Putney and Gregory Thomas’ playing gets lost in their nasty guitar tone - the heaving crowd cares naught, with chaos erupting during the breakdowns of ‘Absence’ and the title track to their debut From The Unforgiving Arms Of God.
Frontman Brendan Murphy endlessly demands, goads and flat-out insults the crowd in his efforts to pull even more energy from the mosh, with crowdsurfing breaking out towards the tail-end of their brief showing. Wrapping up proceedings with the immense ‘Necessary Death’, there’s clearly no going through the motions here, and END have undoubtedly put on a performance worthy of their supergroup moniker. The very first date of their debut Australian tour proves that this crushing five piece is more than capable of standing on their own accord next to their member’s ‘main’ bands. Furthermore, despite The Brightside’s usual frustrating live sound, tonight has also been a great advertisement for the Brisbane/QLD hardcore and heavy music scene - it's hard to imagine much more musical carnage on a school night.
Setlist
Fear for Me Now
Pariah
Love Let Me Die
Chewing Glass
Usurper
Covet Not
Hesitation Wounds
Absence
From the Unforgiving Arms of God
Eden Will Drown
Necessary Death
Review by Andrew Kapper
Photo Gallery by Luke Morgan. Insta: lukexmorgan
Please credit Wall of Sound and Luke Morgan if you repost photos.
