Ne Obliviscaris
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Ne Obliviscaris

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He is also the brains, and brawn, behind Welkin Entertainment, a rock and metal booking, management and promotions agency that is growing in stature every day, putting on local, national and international shows, festivals (such as the imminent third instalment of Sonic Forge at The Espy, which Ne Obliviscaris are headlining), managing and promoting bands – the works. On top of this he also teaches violin, and recently became a first time dad. One wonders if the guy ever sleeps.

Ne Obliviscaris have had a fantastic year. Their album, Portal of I, has put them on the world map. So much so that they have recently signed a deal with a prominent European record label. At the time of writing, we still weren’t allowed to announce exactly which label it is, but this will become clear very shortly. Tim is very excited about this and the opportunities it may open up for them, and he was actually able to find a few moments recently to speak to us about all of the above (well, except maybe his recent fatherhood).

“It’s definitely very exciting to be in a position where we have prominent people in the international metal scene believing in what we do,” he states, “and definitely looking forward to 2013 and hopefully getting overseas to Europe and North America and all of these places that we’ve been wanting to play for so long. And after having such a fantastic year, and with our album Portal of I being received so positively, this (headlining Sonic Forge) is a fantastic way to finish the year. This will cap the year off before we start 2013.”

The band have even bigger and better things in store for next year as well. “Yeah, the plan for next year is that at some stage we’ll do another big Australian tour,” he foresees, “and aside from that we’ll probably spend a fair chunk of the first part of the year writing for album number two, to be released in 2014. And then there’s the plan to get overseas, we’re not sure if that’ll be to Europe or North America, or both. But that’s the big aim for next year, to really expand after having done so much in Australia, and start taking our music to the world.”

The purpose of the festival is actually twofold. Firstly, its aim is to showcase the absolute best bands that Australian heavy music has to offer, in one venue across three stages on one day. This will be the festival’s third year, and so far it has done exactly that; it is a veritable feast of Aussie metal. But it also raises money for a very important world charity.

“The lineup is pretty massive,” he says with a heavy degree of understatement. “I guess every year we try and put on a lineup featuring some of the best and biggest metal bands from across the country, so we’re really excited to have Be’Lakor, and we also have Death Audio who are using this as their album launch which is fantastic, that album’s really great. Dreadnaught, Alarum, as well as really great interstate bands like The Schoenberg Automaton from Queensland, Myreath from New South Wales, Gods of Eden from there as well, plus The Levitation Hex which features some Alchemist guys as well. So yeah, we’re really happy with the lineup and its got just about every genre covered.”

And so what does the event raise money for? “The charity involved is an orphanage in Hinche, Haiti, called ‘The Centre of Hope’,” he explains, “which is a newish orphanage, it actually only opened in 2010. It’s been one of those things where, when I first did it (the festival) and decided to make that the charitable focus of the event. I did entertain the idea that I might change the charity every year. But I actually had the great fortune in January 2011 to meet James Lipscomb, who is one of the heads of the orphanage. He himself is based in New York, and was here in Australia on holidays. It was really great to make that personal connection, he made me understand exactly where the money was going and what impact it was having, and it’s because of that I decided to stick with that charity.”

BY ROD WHITFIELD