05/02/2026

Archspire – Double Whammy: February 4, 2026 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Archspire dined out on Technical Death Metal last night, and invited their fans to the banquet, with the second and final New Zealand show of their Return to Prison Island Australasia tour at Double Whammy in Auckland.

Hordes of black band T-shirts, skinny jeans and sneakers began to pour into the venue just before the doors opened at 7:30 p.m. They kept arriving in a steady stream throughout the evening, up until headlining act Archspire hit the stage.

The sharpied pitchfork-shaped entry mark of Double Whammy on my wrist felt like an initiation across the threshold of the church of death metal for the evening. There was no going back. It was time to experience the baptising tsunami of noise that was about to crash through the crowd, bringing with it an undulating, explorative journey into the unknown of death for the evening.

Paleflag:

The first group to hit the stage at 8:00 p.m. was Paleflag, an Auckland-based metalcore/deathcore inspired band that came to seriously shred last night.

As the powerful first chord of their opening song Argent roared through the room, there was no way to avoid the awesome, unforgiving wall of sound that had kicked off the evening. The band headbanged in unison, bringing an energy to the stage that set the tone for the rest of the set. Their first song rose to a climax and was closely followed by No Quarter and Demise, which ran smoothly into The Summit. These three songs showed the strong connection between band members as they deftly sped through technical sections, staying tight as a group.

Paleflag finished out their set with a new song Contemplating Mutilation and then, last in the set, what seemed to be an audience favourite in Human Error, from the approving reaction of the crowd.

As they finished and left the stage my ears were ringing and my pulse was rushing after a thorough, and filling, entrée of sound. An adoring crowd member yelled “fuck yeah!” and I agreed with the sentiment. With more people streaming in as the supporting acts played, knowing there was more to come only turned the excitement up another notch.

Utilize The Remains:

Dunedin-based slamming death metal band Utilize The Remains entered the stage around 8:45 p.m. with a new level of intensity. There was a ticking sound, almost like a countdown, before the band started, that got the crowd shifting on their feet. A deliberate distorted static sounded and then the music kicked off at full warped force.

Their singer brought a focused energy and a look in his eye like an angry bull – his voice the buzzing of a moth’s wings blown up to 3000 volume, beginning with the song Bludgeoned Beyond, which quickly rolled into Spawn of Delusion and Flesh Ripped From Bone.

The band took a moment to remind the audience of the importance of supporting local venues and artists – pointing the masses towards the bar and the merch stand. It’s a great reminder of the power we all have to nurture our homegrown talent and make sure these events are sustainable into the future. If we don’t support them, we’ll lose them.

Then it was back to the chaos of death metal with tunes Soul Rot, Devouring Neuropathy and Derealization hitting straight into my chest with the force of each cymbal crash, power chord, driving bass note and energised vocal.

Utilize The Remains finished their set with From Deceit Unto Disgust, with full contagious head banging from the band that rippled through the audience like a hairier version of the Mexican wave, split ends rising towards the roof and silhouetted against the coloured lighting backdrop. A brilliant show of local talent imbued with the sort of passion that you can feel from across the full, dimly lit room. The kind that inspires.

Archspire:

Archspire arrived onstage close to 9:30 p.m., ready to reach into each and every corner, crack and crevice of Double Whammy to delight and pleasantly horrify their New Zealand fans. The last time they played to an Auckland crowd was eight years ago, now back at long last – and oh boy were their fans excited to see them.

The band consists of technically accomplished musicians Dean Lamb (guitar), Oliver Rae Aleron (vocals), Tobi Morelli (guitar), Jared Smith (bass) and newcomer Spencer Moore (drums) who joined the band in May 2025, just in time to record their upcoming album.

Many of the gathered audience had taken the changeover time between bands to grab a lubricating drink, preparing their vocal cords to roar along with the main act of the night. There was certainly a change in vibe, a pronounced tension of expectation in the air.

From the first notes of Bleed the Future, Archspire sets themselves apart. They call themselves the fastest band in the world and it was easy to believe that claim watching them work their magic live in the cavernous room.

With their second song A.U.M all I could wonder is if anyone could hear this sick driving guitar all the way up on K Road, or if this was a delight reserved for us underground dwellers. It’s almost like being in the depths of righteous hell tortured with only the best of death metal – and if this is hell then sign up every single person in this room because it seems as though they’d actually enjoy spending eternity there.

Limb of Leviticus, one of the singles from their upcoming fifth studio album Too Fast To Die, being released 10 April 2026, was the next experiential wall of sound to hit the fans, the front five rows bouncing along to the driving beat. And if the night was a banquet, Archspire was the main course with Involuntary Doppelgänger, Remote Tumour Seeker and Human Murmuration reverberating off the concreted walls and coaxing the front of the crowd to jump around.

Throughout the setlist, frontman Oliver Rae Aleron hyped up the crowd, encouraging them to mosh, and interacting with the confidence of a seasoned professional performer. He told many tales – some sounding truthful, some dubious. A highlight was when the band replaced their famed Australian-leg shooey audience participation with a wet T-shirt contest, pulling up two unsuspecting blokes from the crowd and pouring beer down their chests. One of whom won a hand-drawn T-shirt that read “I do not fuck kids.” Now that’s metal.

They rounded out their set with another song off the new album, Carrion Ladder, to the joyous roars of the crowd. It truly displayed their finesse and technical abilities. Pretending that was the end, the band happily received the prolific shouts of “encore” and played one more song, Drone Corpse Aviator where they released bubbles and colourful balloons into the moshpit – maybe not generally on-brand for a metal band, but last night, in that room, it just made sense. And the moshers certainly thought so, enjoying batting the balloons around the front of the room.

Although Technical Death Metal is unapologetic in its thunderous crusade and might not be for everyone, for any music lover there was a way in to enjoy the spectacle. You can feel the influences in the music from death metal, to soft rock, with the complexity of jazz and the technicality of classical music.

It resulted in the powerful, punchy, all-consuming spectacle that Archspire pulled off last night.

A full body experience. Gladly received by their fans.

EJ Rzepecky

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ming Lyu:

Archspire: