22/11/2025

Beastwars – Double Whammy: November 21, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Pōneke four-piece, Beastwars, described as Aotearoa’s premier doom-sludge bootstrappers, have just released a brand-new album, their sixth, The Ship//The Sea, fitted in a four date Australian tour, and are midway through a five date tour of our nga motu’s.

Infamous…fearsome in fact…for their metallic impact live, their Tamaki Makuarau show was ominously hemmed by shows from Metallica and Tool on either side of tonight, and I wondered if the money and energy being sucked overseas by these titanic bands and would impact attendance tonight. However, with a mammoth line up that included Demons of Noon and Soft Bait on the bill, those that risked and ventured were sure to be thrice rewarded.

Demons of Noon

I’ve previously described these doom-metal merchants as thespians, ‘tis. because they put body (and soul) into their performances. Their bodily contortion, their vocal inflections and the wall of doom, guitar driven, drum and bass led creations, create a recital that enthralls.

Tonight this five-piece, a group, coven, a cult, I’ve not seen live for a while, are in top form, there is controlled gothic/metal energy emanating from the stage, as the room fills. I suspect many haven’t seen Demons of Noon previously, as the group swings between orchestral doom, and complex, tricky ephemeral co-constructed sabbath riffs. The tag-teaming between dual female and dual (sometimes trio)-male vocals creates movement, and the band’s avoidance of easily recognisable chorus lines (conscious or not) only adds to the theatrical nature of Demons of Noon’s performance. The five, tonight, as one, succeed, and hold the audience in state..

Soft Bait

The phrase post-punk is used far too loosely, lazily, easily by many (including myself) But if there is a current Tamaki Makaurau band that does deserve this honorific, it is Soft Bait, who (conscious or not) draw on the legacy of bands such as Gang of Four, Bauhaus, as well as contemporary such as Idles and Turnstile. Their brilliant sophomore album Life Advice, recently released, filled with live favourites and newer creations, took their sound beyond the confines of their 2022 debut – Plots Points.

The room is packed now, I wonder if the band are nervous, as Hunter (singer/guitar) fiddles with his mic stand, and the others test and tune. Their set is heavily drawn from Life Advice – Highly Recommended, Safe As Houses, Neighbourhood and Applause, all appear through-out, and though-out, Hunter switches between just vocal duties and guitar/vocal duties. When free, he roams the stage like a Nick Cave/Ian Curtis figure, seemingly sanguine, but secretly conflicted, his reflective words scathing of the world around him.

Tonight Soft Bait play loud, bass heavy, when the twin guitars hit, there is battling. There is space for finesse and fidelity, and the songs so carefully crafted in the studio, have an abraded presence in the room tonight. Tonight, there is a creeping gothicism in the sound, a guitar riff here and there, reminiscent of bands like UK Decay and Virgin Prunes, again, conscious or not, I’m enamoured, The band members are comfortable onstage, the touring has refined them, but I feel a void, there is space, an enervated connection with the crowd, like there is a veil between giver and receiver. The band delivers their art, masterpieces they are, but where is humanity, the vulnerability.

Beastwars

To the sounds of The Stone Roses, the four take the stage, and singer Matt Hyde comment that they haven’t played to a crowd this big in Auckland for years.

The room is heaving now, Hyde is wearing a Sonic Youth t-shirt, while bassist James Woods is adorned in cryptic Princess Chelsea apparel, subtly they message that Beastwars are not prisoners of presupposition. They reach back to their 2016 album The Death of All Things to start their ascension with Call to the Mountain, a gentle ornamented start that leisurely turned into what is to be expected, a combination of harshness and elegance.

In a set almost dominated by songs from their new album, Beastwars reach back for the first third of tonight’s voyage, to play from earlier albums, and then deliver a thrice from The Ship//The Sea – The Storm, Guardian of Fire and Levitate. Through this onslaught of sound and light (it’s distortingly live at times) guitars and drums created a metallical atmosphere of doom and dark, that flaunts Hyde’s ability to to switch between vocal deliveries. On stage, Hyde is a morphing beast, swaying in lost abandon (at times) to his bandmates distorting and rolling sound waves.

The crowd is enthusiastic and receptive, dwelling in the energy, the mighty upfront are the manic, there a few sound issues early, but a sprite bass change rebalances. As alluded to in the album title – The Ship//The Sea, Beastwars rise and fall, not just in volume, but also in form, their wider influences, get a look in, and the difference between past material and now easily recognisable (Though it must be said The Ship//The Sea is a hat-tip to earlier, heavier songs) The second half of the show again reaches back and return.

I make the mistake of standing by one of the PA stacks (should’ve realised why others were shunning them) Beastwars reputation for loudness (like past icons The Gordons) precedes them, but it is voluminous with a groove, the sludge, wall of sound filling the whare, is balanced, enveloping, memorising, and pleasurably retrogressive.

Tonight Beastwars deliver the mahi, the set is a perfect balance between new and past, the Australian shows have tightened, refined them adroitly, and with such a large turnout, we can hope a return visit to Tamaki Makaurau is not too far away.

Simon Coffey

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje:

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