Void Of Vision - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 18th August @ 170 Russell, Melb VIC
Void of Vision
170 Russell, Melbourne VIC
August 18, 2023
Supports: Like Moths To Flames, Varials & Annalynn
Enter summer in Berlin. The history is rich, the fashion is viciously intentional and the party culture is unique. This is the atmospheric immersion that Void of Vision brought to Melbourne on a wintery Friday night with a few friends for the Das Ende Australian Tour.
The geographic bottom of the tour saw all the bands reach fine form from their initial shows starting in Brissy. 170 Russell in Melbourne was a clean sell-out with a stacked lineup, an explosive record to play from the headliners, and some high calibre music from top-to-tail. Let's get into it.
Thailand's Annalynn could not be more excited to be visiting Australia to play some heavy tunes to a starving crowd. With highly impressive stage-production, the band leapt into some of their best, culminating into an eclectic force of nu-metalcore and experimental hardcore. To call it like it is, the band stapled the scene together, calling out their Asian background and and testing the crowd's inclusion community provocatively with the question "do you care that we're Asian?"- Melbourne passed. Closing with some bellowing breakdowns and gutturals, Annalynn planted their seed for tour number two. Greyscale Records are definitely onto something with these guys.
Varials are fresh off their third LP Scars for You To Remember, boasting a sizeable shift in style and direction, whilst retaining their originating roots. In devastating news a few weeks ago, vocalist Mitchell Rogers was in a serious van accident and couldn't make it down to what might just be the band's first ever Aussie tour, but they had a fill-in Eddie Knight who did them justice. After opening with a tight delivery of the latest record's opener 'A Body Wrapped in Plastic : Prologue', they soared into explosive track '.50' which literally blew up the band with perfectly executed machine-gun blast-beats across the endorphin-packed release. Varials were left picking up the pieces from the song for 5-10 minutes before recommencing their set with some bangers off their back-catalogue. Melbourne was also lucky enough to witness a headline tour of the Philly group at The Workers Club two days later.
The crowd isn't warm, they're HOT. After a few cheap vodka-pops, punters are ready to blow a gasket for Like Moths To Flames, who by our calculation mightn't have been downunder since 2015 with Northlane. With a nod to the time apart, they hosted a headline show at Stay Gold for the diehards. Safe to say, it'd been a hot minute and Melburnians were whet at the idea. Chris Roetter knows how to grab a crowd and take it for an entire set. Without a dramatic intro where the band makes way for the vocalist, he sprinted across the stage looking directly at the front third of the crowd and demanded movement.
Like Moths To Flames are top-tier metalcore and they lived up to their reputation. Bursting through the most recent half of their back catalogue, the Ohio group created shocks with delivery of opener 'Ameliorate' and 'Habitual Decline' with fresh hit 'I Found the Dark Side of Heaven' sandwiched in between. The metalcore titans pumped through some of their best off 2021 EP Pure Like Porcelain, 2020 LP No Eternity In Gold and even treated us to some OG LMTF with 'GNF', where punters really exploded. It was cathartic to finally see these guys again with unmatched energy and passion.
"This is Void Of Vision". Let's go back to our summer in Berlin fantasy. The house-lights dim a song or two before they hit the stage, to really double-down on the 3am German club mood Void of Vision promised us after dripping Chronicles to us in piecemeal (the Dom/Sub energy started before we knew to look for it). The four-piece were locked and loaded to show their hometown what they've got and to witness a summersault of a performance.
Cementing the Berlin party vibe, VOV opened with 'Berghain' with Jack Bergin sporting his signature spiked gimp mask, channelling a Slipknot/MM persona. With stage-production and volume dialled up to 110%, the locals injected a hormonal energy into crowd as they delivered some of their best renditions of Chronicles tracks like 'Vampyr' and 'ASMR'. With cognisance of crowd favourites, Void of Vision employed a teasing EDM technique to tease the crowd before finally dropping the opening notes to tracks like 'Ohne Sicht' and 'Into The Dark'.
Bergin is one of the most stunning frontmen in modern metalcore. With bright and bold costume changes for every track (that only he could ever pull off), the crowd's connection with the vocalist felt personal. Everyone wanted a piece of the gothic Jack Bergin. Complemented with fitting dark and unsubtle makeup that defines his on-stage persona, the vocalist lapped it up and gave his fans what they wanted. With a closing voiceover announcing the end of Chronicles, Void of Vision closed their monumental set with brand new single 'Angel of Darkness', the start of a new era for what must be the beginnings of arena tour potential.
Move over Wednesday 13, your move Chris Motionless.
Review by Ricky Aarons (@rickysaul90)
Photo Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Follow Clinton on Instagram.
Please credit Wall of Sound and Clinton Hatfield if you repost.
Annalynn
Varials
Like Moths to Flames
Void Of Vision
