Venom @Agincourt Hotel

 (Absolution, Arteries, I Shall Devour, A Night In Texas, Miazma, To Engineer An Exorcist)

3 August 2013

 

Before Venom closes down, we really had to go there. Good opportunity for us last Saturday with some bands we haven’t seen before – including Miazma, a band from NT.

 

I had forgotten that you stand in Venom almost immediately on the stage. This creates an intimate atmosphere but the bands stand almost in the audience or the audience in the band. So, with the energetic singer from the first band, To Engineer An Exorcist, it came to some collisions when he started to bounce around. The band from “pretty much down the road” played some grindcore before Miazma from Alice Springs were taking over. I was interested how Death Metal gets to the Red Centre and had some questions (see below). The 5 long haired guys (not that usually anymore apparently) played solid old-school Death Metal and are so worth seeing!

 

It was quite an interstate evening with the next band from Cairns, A Night In Texas, grinding some more deathcore, followed by I Shall Devour from the Gold Coast. I was fascinated by their bassist who either perfectly lip-synced the songs or was giving quite a zombie show.

 

Back to Sydney artists, Arteries started off with some impressive balancing act of the singer on the speakers. They play a diverse mixture of erratic riffs, brutal grooves and technical time signatures (confirming triplejunearthed.com here) - combined with the singer’s entertainment interludes, it was a good show. The evening ended with some more Deathcore from Sydney’s Absolution.

 

--- On a cigarette break with Miazma’s singer ---

 

So how do you get into Death Metal in Alice?

-          Alice Springs has actually quite a metal community. We play a show every 2 or so months and metal gigs have crowds of around 150. At the Blacken Festival (pronounce it right and it’s rhyming to Wacken) in March, there were even more – 450! Metal’s pretty big.

 

But the community must be smaller?

-          Of course. But smaller communities also mean stronger support. People just stick more together and help each other out.

 

So, your new album (“Bacteria Of This Earth”) is out and you are touring. How many shows are left?

-          This here in Sydney is actually the last one. We did 13 shows all over the country. We also play on the Terrorfest at home on 31 August.

 

You were playing really good solid Death Metal just now. I am looking forward to your album. Is it self-produced?

-          We flew in one of the top producers from Melbourne to get it right. The album is a big investment for us. We even built the studio (together with Alice Springs' bands Uncreation and The Horror) – basically a room in a room – and we are proud of the outcome.

 

The album is worth it. Miazma means taste of death (it’s a gas). So listen to their album and get a good taste of death!

 

-- Anja