Unfortunately I got to the show late and missed Stormtied so I was a little upset that I didn’t see them but I was lucky enough to catch traditional metallers Espionage set from the start. Up coming local metallers that specialise in classic old school heavy metal really made an impact on stage. Vocalist “Frosty” has a very impressive range and showed he can match most 80s metal frontmen when it comes to soaring notes and lead guitarist Dennis Sudzuka showcased his technical chops. The band got a massive crowd response and closed things out with a covers of “I Want Out” from Helloween and “See You Hell” from Grim Reaper which is still stuck in my head right now.
ext act up was blackened thrashers Maniaxe who came to destroy. They quickly ripped into their set with a lightning pace. With the bassist sporting signature army helmet they played their patened brand of no bullshit metal and didnt mess around on stage at all. They are musically like a modern continuation of the sound started by Motorhead, continued by Sodom and now molded again in the hands of Maniaxe. They closed out their set with a blistering rendition of Motorhead’s “Iron Fist”
Now Damnations Day had to cancel at the last minute so luckily Dark Earth stepped up and filled in at the last minute. I’ve seen this guys before and they’re always great. Showing of their amazing skill with their patented brand of technical death metal and proving they had a great sense of humor by cracking jokes between songs, asking all the Damnations Day fans not to boo them when they couldn’t have been further from the truth. Their set was short but sweet and like the last time I saw them left me wanting more.
Now was time for the headliners, Tasmania’s own Taberah. Now this is where the show kind of fell apart from me. After sitting through and enjoying so many blitering fast and intense bands these guys came out and just looked kind of week. Their hard rock styling were completely lost on me and most of the original crowd had disappeared and seemed to be made up of people who had turned up just to see the headliners and missed all the openers which is sad. So much for supporting local metal. After a few songs from Taberah I was just bored. Maybe if they had support who played a similar style it wouldn’t have seemed so polarising but it was like if the present day Foo Fighters had to follow Slayer and Metallica of 1983. It just didn’t work and it didn’t do them any favours. I’m sorry to say Taberah did nothing for me and left me disappointed. That being said i did leave with “See You In Hell” still stuck in my head from earlier so what does that say about how great Espionage are compared headliners?
https://www.facebook.com/espionageband
https://www.facebook.com/maniaxeAU
https://www.facebook.com/darkearthmetal
https://www.facebook.com/taberah.tas