Dark Mofo is accustomed to welcoming a plethora of intense, obscure artists each year and this June it will be privileged to the presence of the band dubbed ‘UK’s Most Extreme Metallers’, Dragged Into Sunlight.
Since forming in 2006, the band of four have managed to keep their identities undisclosed, maintaining their anonymity as they’ve built their fandom. This is assisted by the fact they only go by their initials, wear balaclavas for all live shows and shoots and play their live shows with their backs to the audience or in a semi-circle facing the drummer.
As bandmember known as T describes, “It’s something we chose to do, that the band should remain anonymous – mainly because of the number of people involved, we didn’t want it to be attributable to one person or one identity.
We prefer the music as a blank canvas where people come to shows and don’t have these preconceptions of what people look like, instead they know and they feel it’s just the swelling of darkness.”
Having edged their way from underground metal in the UK to international recognition, the group have summoned a fan base Down Under. T might be familiar with darker themes in Dragged Into Sunlight’s music, but that doesn’t stop him being humble.
“If you told me a decade ago that we’d be able to travel to the other side of the world – legitimately the other side of the world – and people would share our passion for what we do out there, it would be unbelievable. So, to make that reality decades later is pretty exciting,” he notes.
“We’re excited because everywhere we go we give people a new experience. It’s a lot harsher than a lot of what they’ve heard previously and visually it’s a lot different, so it’s a different experience. So, I’m almost excited because of the anticipation.”
What Dark Mofo attendees can expect from Dragged Into Sunlight’s show is a complete sensory overload, which will stay with them even after Mona’s winter festival is over and daily routines resume.
As T explains, “We want them [the audience] to take something wholly unique from it. Something they haven’t seen at countless venues across their own country before. And we tend to find through a combination of factors we’re able to deliver that.
So, what can you expect from the noise-filled abyss that is a Dragged Into Sunlight show? Well as T puts it, “It’s sort of a swelling void of volume around you. You’re sort of convulsing alongside it and it sort of carries you with it.
“It’s sort of an overwhelming feeling of volume and that reflection time; fifty-five minutes trapped in the void just sort of thinking about your life flashing before you.”
Playing at a festival that celebrates the dark seems all too fitting for this band who, along with the other artists, music, light and noise of Dark Mofo, promise an experience that will take you away from the every day.
“I have countless people come up to me after the shows and say, “God, I just drifted away”, says T. “I think that allows people a lot of self-reflection and a lot of analysis. It’s that cleansing feel and after you think, ‘Ah God, I’ve got the solution to life’.”
Dragged Into Sunlight come to Dark Mofo as part of Hymns to the Dead on Wednesday June 19 at Hobart’s Odeon Theatre. More info and tickets available via the festival website.
