Drowning Horse – Dark Mofo – Gig Review 16th June @ Altar, Hobart TAS

Drowning Horse
Altar, Hobart TAS
Friday 16th June 2023
Support: Extortion and Ironhawk

“Darkness is full of possibility.” - Michael Leunig.

Often discovered across banners, posters and merchandise throughout Hobart during this time is the simple yet effective theme for Dark Mofo for 2023 which reads as: “A Decade Of Darkness”. For 10 years the festival has brought nearly every artistic expression of gloom to the capital of Tasmania to overwhelming responses and after the difficulties of a pesky virus, this year was shaping up to be one of the most memorable yet. This is where the above quote from the famed Australian cartoonist is flawlessly befitting as at this small intimate venue, three different acts all revolving around the “heavy and dark” musical scope enraged and engaged a capacity audience. Though if one was not aware of this amazingly austere venue, then an exploration of the dark should become the new motif.

Local trio Ironhawk were ready for flight once they marched on to the small stage. The three-piece know this environment very well and were ready in their home elevated platform having already gawked their potential prey (the crowd), they then attacked in rapid dives towards their quarry. Leading with ‘The Nightmare Remains’ from their Boozehounds From Hell demo which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary, the band were able to bolster the significance of this event with their feistiness.

What unfolded from here was a hazy blurriness, jumping bodies and three Taswegians maintaining a full throttle assault of thrashed up crust punk with early era Venom inspiration. ‘Ride The Wasteland’, ’Serpent Reign’ and closing track ‘Headless In Hell’ were peaks in the spectacle; in actuality though, this very well could have been Ironhawk’s headline show. In the dimness, the outfit glowed, especially drummer Vyvyan Bästerd who maintained machine gun fire rhythm throughout the thrashing campaign.

At this point it was impossible to have full vision of almost anything. A musk of sweat, Cascade Lager and excitement filled the already oxygen lacking air of the venue - if there was any confusion as to which band was to appear next, that was to be cleared up by the first minute and 20 seconds of sound emittance from four shadowy figures. The quartet was the one and only powerviolence pioneers Extortion and they ripped through the first two tracks ‘Conquest’ and ‘Run Dry' of their latest seven-inch Seething - a suiting title for the release and the crowd as this was frantic. Although the genre’s title encourages mercilessness, Extortion actually have almost a more melodic hardcore and fun punk attitude with their live delivery. It incites antics such as: Stage diving, pogo mosh-pit dancing and audience members colliding with each other willingly. However, after a near uncountable amount of songs, one admirer yelled out to his fellow enthusiasts: “Keep the balloon off the ground” in reference to a solitary balloon that had been floating around the venue since before the event had started, this was understandably met with cheers.
This writer is not exaggerating in admitting that the four-piece brilliantly bombarded the audience with 29 songs and denied the chance of an encore understandably (NB: the majority of the band’s songs go for under a minute); ‘Callous’ was colossal and close to a cardiac arrest while ‘Building Collapse’ had such an intense groove it almost made Altar crash. To wrap up the onslaught was ‘Ramirez’, a track that nearly hits three minutes and this is where Extortion go for literal broke; vocalist Rohan Harrison practically lost himself in a zonked-out fury of screaming ending up on his knees and this marked the conclusion vehemently.

As the full-house of spectators attempted to gather their breath and composure, an eerie wall of resonance and ringing invaded the room. It almost felt as if horns were blaring to indicate the beginning of an ancient tradition, although this wasn’t quite to the standing of drone trailblazers Sunn O))), the approach was fantastically familiar. Slowly the members of sludge and doom metal outfit Drowning Horse emerged into the misty darkness and a level of euphoric uncertainty became this show’s narrative.
After an immeasurable amount of time diving into the murky depths of post-metal, front-man Kim McConchie arose and the exodus was underway. Spine-chilling electronics often accentuate the ‘Horse's wall of noise which transports the observers into another universe, possibly in the distant realms of outer space, or even the lightless depths of somewhere like Loch Ness. In fact, Drowning Horse would be the perfect soundtrack to the monster’s documentary if it is ever properly found and filmed.

The experience is not one of visual engagement but more where one’s imagination can take them from the aural adventure which is astonishing. The sludgey growls and blackened shrieks of Mr McChonchie feel prehistoric as does the earth shimmering resonance each member contributes to in experimental ways - at one point all guitars were held upside down near their amps shaking the walls.

Progressively there was acceleration out of this trance, a possible emergence from the depths of obscurity or return to the gravitational pull of Earth, building continuously until fuzziness and dead air. We had returned to Altar.

“Darkness is full of possibility.”

Review by by Will Oakeshott @TeenWolfWill