Under The Southern Cross Bring Trans-Tasman Metal To Galatos

Under The Southern Cross is a Trans-Tasman metal festival that marked its tenth year last night showcasing local and Australian metal acts. Quite literally an underground event, Galatos Basement catered to a crowd of scene stalwarts in the mere dozens, no small number of those in bands themselves.

With six bands to cover, I don’t have a lot of spare page space for this review. But there’s room for some simple statements about New Zealand’s local metal scene. It’s really good.

The depth of talent we have bubbling away here is truly impressive. Some acts are better than others, naturally, but very rarely do I go to a show and see anything disappointing. In fact I’m much more likely to have my socks knocked off. Judging by the caliber of the three Australian bands I saw, they must be doing ok themselves.

Openers Sciolism are a new band, but one whose members have done time in Nullifier, Metal Tower and Exordium Mors, all of whom put on superb live shows. Sciolism lived up to the pedigree, playing a no frills set of black/death with hints of tech, thrash, and melodic black occasionally rearing their heads. There was a nice balance between chaos and catchiness, and frontman Daniel Bernstein has a lovely resonant growl.

First of our Australian guests, Fenrir were next, with a joyous trad-speed metal romp through Norse mythology. They had just enough grit and aggression to keep their theatrical style from descending into cheese, and enough songwriting and performing chops to sound fresh while being firmly in an old school style. Unfortunately this was the first point in the night I noticed some sound problems, especially with the vocals which at points sounded completely buried. Fenrir weren’t the only band to suffer from this, and I don’t think it was necessarily even the sound guy’s fault- we were, again, literally in a basement. The ceiling was low and the setup was looking very bare bones.

Kaerulean were progressive death metal with an emphasis on heaviness, theatricality and fun rather than technical ego stroking. Not that they were lacking in ability- the tightness of rhythm section was particularly impressive. It’s just that Kaerulean were obviously there first and foremost to have a good time with the audience. They mined their music for all the tight wound energy it was worth, headbanging over their intruments and pacing the stage restlessly. Frontman Adrian Pagano and guitarist Blake Neverov got down amongst the crowd to jostle aroud and get us moving about. Pagano even had a punk rock moment and sprayed his beer all over the front row. He’d perhaps been enjoying it so much he felt compelled to share his experience with all of us, which sums up the whole band’s approach to their stage show.

Our own Forsaken Age were up next. Musically they were very similar to Fenrir, complete with galloping trad metal riffs and  Viking bloodshed. Last time I saw them I very much enjoyed the instrumentation and old school vibe, but felt the vocals didn’t summon the power the style demanded. Last night was better, though again the sound clarity did singer Chrissy Scarfe few favours, and I’d still like to hear much more clarity and projection. Forsaken Age are so much fun that it’s easy to forgive the rough edges, with tracks like Denim, Leather and Damnation bringing such unapologetic 80s camp, and bassist Lee Scarfe’s consistently hilarious banter between songs.

If you pay attention to Auckland’s metal scene, or my reviews of it, in any degree, Silent Torture should be familiar through sheer exposure. New to the scene compared to the old vets, they’ve nevertheless become a constant, playing a huge amount of shows. It’s getting silly the amount of times I’ve reviewed them, and they deliver such a straightforward slice of excellent death metal, it’s hard to know what’s left to say. We got treated to a new song last night, which was more of the same, but in a very good way. Same classily executed death metal, same precision in the instrumentation, maybe a little more technicality than previous material. This is a band that I predict only getting better.

Annihilist closed out the night for Australia, doing an admirable job of bringing energy to an audience that had begun to flag between sets. They played fast tech-death accented with melodic passages and proggy dialogue between impressive guitar duo Miki Simankevicius and Josh Voce. Vocalist Harry Pendock had an unusual style for the genre, more legible than most extreme metal but far too harsh to be called clean, with something of both a hardcore yell and a death growl in there. His stage presence was great, using his height to loom over the audience and throw his bulk about. The style isn’t one that usually grabs me, but I was won over by the band’s commitment, technical prowess and undeniably headbang inducing riffs.

At ten dollars on the door, no venue in Auckland could have boasted a better talent to cost ratio. Remember, this wasn’t a top of the heap, cream of the crop kind of gig. I had never heard of four of the six bands before the announcement. The level of entertainment I got considering this, and the fact I wasn’t even very surprised, is the best argument I can think of for supporting your local metal acts.

Under The Southern Cross, Galatos May 05 2018 (hosted by Downfall Productions)

Cameron Miller

Click on an image to see a photo gallery by Axel Pelisch: