A huge number of international and local acts are performing this winter, warming up the season with their hardcore, classical and experimental tunes.
Call me crazy, but I love winter. The fashion is better (though admittedly as a metalhead, I’m always rocking a strictly black wardrobe), you sweat less, there’s justice in consuming hot drinks, and for the past several years it’s meant snuggling up on the couch to watch Game Of Thrones (one episode left, ermaghad!). It’s also the time of year when we’re graced with the presence of many metal monoliths who head on down from the Northern Hemisphere to warm the cockles of our hearts with some great music – and this season is set to be an utter inferno.
It’s an old-school industrial metal throwdown as the surviving members of disco metal band Static-X permeate the Australian scene with a performance of their classic album, Wisconsin Death Trip. It’s a tour that celebrates the band’s success and honours the spirit of their late frontman, Wayne Static. It’ll be a grimly glamourous show seeing as Static-X have invited that ghoulish kid of goth rock Wednesday 13 out, as well as post-industrial outfit Dope, whose catalogue invokes the best elements of speed, alternative, rap, and nu-metal.
Also braving a long-haul flight are British metalcore legends Architects, touring off the back of their banging eight studio album, Holy Hell, with special guests Ocean Grove. They’ve already sold out a Sydney show and had to add an extra date, so if you’re keen to get on the bandwagon for the Melbourne show, best get your ticket now.
Winding off the season as we step into spring are Finnish classical cellists turned metal masters, Apocalyptica, who will play some very special shows in concert halls across the land as they perform their 1996 debut album Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, the release that put them on a global radar and created a mad hybrid baby between two unlikely genres.
Of course, if you don’t want to spend the big bucks and prefer to support talent from home, there’s a bunch of amazing bands doing their thing, too. Victorian hardcore crew Mirrors see out May and enter June with a coveted spot supporting Alpha Wolf on tour, Adelaide melodic metallers Terminal Zero, off the back of the release of their second album, Control, are headed out this June supporting Superheist’s Ezekiel Ox, and it’s a Perth double bill as Voyager step out in July with enigmatic prog five-piece Chaos Divine in what promises to be a truly immersive live experience; both bands having released some killer new material this year.
Many, many more live music events are happening this winter, so be sure to check out the Beat gig guide. Now, go keep warm in a mosh pit, break a sweat windmilling, and don’t despair through the winter months for the night is dark and full of metal!
