Harm's Way - Gig Review 21st February @ Crowbar, Brisbane QLD

Harm's Way
Crowbar, Brisbane QLD
February 21st, 2025
Supports: Terminal Sleep, Bloodmouth, Half Man, Wetwork

It’s a busy Friday in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, with the recently re-christened Crowbar – FKA The Zoo – playing host to one of many gigs in town. Despite Jinjer and Denzel Curry pulling massive turnouts down the road at the Fortitude Music Hall and the Tivoli, respectively, Brisbane hardcore has once again shown up in their droves nice and early to support the international and local scene. Headlining this week-ending evening of hardcore and heavy music is Chicago’s finest Harm's Way for the first night of their long overdue Australian tour and 2025 touring schedule. It’s hard to put an exact label on the group’s sound; certainly in the world of aggressive music, yet with metallic, industrial, and subtle-melodic edges to keep them separate from the pack and away from the clichés. With well over a decade of vein-popping history behind them, tonight sees their return to Brisbane for the first time since 2019.

With the venue’s prime real estate already being filled, Wetwork wakes the Crowbar crowd with an immediately energetic set, with the mosh firing up from the first note. Armed with plenty of riffs and grooves, there is a crossover/thrash-edge to the young group’s sound, with endless two-step moments scattered throughout to keep the audience moving. Admittedly a tad-loose at times – this is hardcore to be fair – Wetwork endlessly, and successfully, baits the crowd into more movement throughout their feedback-filled 15 mins. A strong start to the evening from the five-piece. Following a pit-crew-like changeover, fellow Brisbane heavy act Half Man hit the stage as the second of the locals for tonight. Their sound is not as mosh-friendly as the other’s on the bill, moving between moments of furious down-picking and warp-speed drumming, to more chunky riffage, with only a couple of dedicated punters keeping the pit active. As focused as their brief set was, it feels like the energy has gone down a notch following Half Man.

Self-described vegan deathgrind entourage Bloodmouth from Canberra is an addition to both the Brisbane and the first of the two Sydney shows, bringing their chaotic sound to the Crowbar stage. Decked out in full camo and ski-masked up, Bloodmouth’s uniformed look is a little out of place with the more casual attire of the other bands on the bill, while their overly aggressive pro-vegan message – literally threatening death upon those who aren’t vegan during one between-song moment – is posturing to the point of parody. All that aside, the quintet’s hyper-aggressive stylings are at their most interesting when the tempo is dropped and stretching out the moment, but this doesn’t occur enough, while with their foot on the gas, all of Bloodmouth’s intricacies are frustratingly lost in the mix.

Scoring the national support slot for this seven-date run with Harm's Way is a major coup for the hotly rising Terminal Sleep – but then again it should come as no real surprise to those following the Sydney metalcore crew. Freshly back on home shores having kicked off their 2025 by sharing stages with Kublai Khan TX across Europe, it’s an immediate step up from the prior acts from the get-go. Frontwoman Bec Thorwesten pushes her voice hard to be heard through the mix – she admits coming off the back of a huge cold – with her bandmates all pitching in with strong backing vocals. Loading up their set with heavy hitters ‘Spineless’, ‘Death Therapy’ and the bouncing ‘A Liar’s End’, their recent onslaught of touring has kept Terminal Sleep both razor-sharp and highly energetic, with the Brisbane faithful generating the most pit action of the night thus far. Some left-of-centre guitar parts keep things fresh, as well as some smartly-composed beatdowns. Oozing world-class energy, it’s no wonder Terminal Sleep are becoming this country’s fastest-growing heavy music export; it’s certainly not hard to envision them headlining this venue in the future – and beyond.

With anticipation rising, the first date of the tour means that both Harm's Way and fans alike are raring to go, with the building drone of noise welcoming the group on stage before launching into the powerhouse-and-a-half ‘Human Carrying Capacity‘. The perfect set-starter sees Crowbar’s dance floor open behind the thunderous rhythms, with man-mountain vocalist James Pligge marching on stage with a vice-grip on the mic. Commanding the stage with minimal banter, Pligge‘s bellowed vocals are enhanced with subtle – and at times, not so subtle – modulation and delay, and to general apocalyptic vibes. The stomping ‘Terrorizer’ achieves the gig’s first crowd-surfing action, while the older cut ‘Breeding Grounds’ highlights the band at their most visceral. Almost half the set is lifted from 2018’s Posthuman, with the middle of the brooding ‘Temptation‘ is extended out, playing even further into the song’s industrial atmosphere. Surprisingly no more tracks from their excellent recent LP Common Suffering are aired, fortunately, we still get the groove of ‘Devour’, while monitor issues aren’t enough to derail the crunching ‘Cyanide‘.

Having been on the road lately with the likes of seasoned vets Hatebreed and Carcass has no doubt helped Harm's Way become an even more well-oiled machine, leaving no dead air on stage, with every moment filled with walls of noise and feedback. The huge riffs and lurching rhythm of ‘Call My Name‘ cause the biggest pit of the night, with an absolutely colossal ending beatdown seeing bass drops and swinging fists equally testing the newly renovated venue’s historic foundations. ‘Amongst The Rust’ gets another massive crowd reaction during the near-singalong chorus, while the one-two assault of ‘Become The Machine’ and ‘Infestation’ are the obvious set closers. Just north of 40 minutes is on the short side for a headliner, but there wasn’t a single wasted moment of Harm's Way‘s tour kickoff and first Brissy show in six years.

Full of power and passion, both the Brisbane hardcore faithful and Harm's Way have undoubtedly had an evening that was worth the wait.

Review by Andrew Kapper @andrew_kapper

Harm's Way - Australian Tour 2025
with Terminal Sleep

February 26 @ Revolver Upstairs, Melb
February 27 @ The Bendigo Hotel, Melb
February 28 @ Jive, Adel
March 1 @ Lynott's Lounge, Perth*
*Terminal Sleep not appearing

Tickets via beastmode - right here