Metalise + Hard Out! Set Times with Josh Nixon

From the depths of the icy tundra and windy slopes of Moncrieff I greet you Canberra thrashers layered in several purchases of domestic and international merchandise and hope this missive finds you warm.

Hard Out! is nearly upon us and for our headliners Witchskull it was almost them being hard out, with their winter tour being interrupted having contracted Covid after their Melbourne performance, causing the cancellation of their Sydney leg.

The band are recovered enough at time of press to take on their show at Flamingo’s in Goulburn Saturday July 23 including Symptoms Persist, Bastardizer and Point 17.

I digress! Witchskull headline the southside’s best rock festival in Hard Out!, bought to you by the Greenroom Canberra team on Saturday, 30 July at Rose Cottage. Winter outdoors, fire pits, BBQ, cold beer and quadrophonic sound is the order of the day for all ages (with accompanying adult…not the cold beer bit).

Hard Out! Set Times

Street Trash 3-3.40pm
Grand Duke 4-4.40pm
B.C. 5-5.40 pm
The Vee Bees 6-6.40pm
Hydranaut 7-7.40pm
Witchskull 8-9pm

Killer show, be sure to grab your tickets!

In a more brutal affair, definitely sans BBQ, the East Coast Murder Sesh lands at Sideway on Thursday, 18 August. Further incendiary anti-carnist actions come from Burn In Hell, Bloodmouth, and Kid Presentable.

This will warm up the Bloodmouth boys in time for their Sunday, 21 August support of USA’s heavy-as-hell XIBALBA at The Basement.

Also appearing are Honest Crooks, Facecutter, and Trenchknife and you can pick up your tickets at the Basement ticket site.

Review – Facecutter Die Slow

Speaking of Facecutter, I have only recently been able to feel my face again having had it melted off courtesy of the bands ferocious new “full length” (if a 13 track album in 18 minutes can be considered a “full length”) album Die Slow.

Lashings of grind and death coalesce with a bleak as fuck outlook and pleasing head nodding slam influences to thoroughly achieve what Andrew Coxhead of the band described to me as an ambition to create something “…quick, unrelenting, and filthy”.

Well Andrew, mission accomplished. This is nastier than a ’70s cannibal exploitation flick. That level of rawness converts into the production as well with Andrew informing me:

“We wanted the production to be raw and as bare bones as possible. That way, each component of the music was clear in a chaotic environment”.

The lightning six studio days was distilled in a mix from local musician and Blight Worms member Elliot Johnson. Make sure you check out Die Slow on the bands bandcamp.

Best of The Rest of Gigs

Melodic death Melbournites Be’lakor hit The Basement on Friday, 26 August and bring the celebration of their latest album Coherence.

The band are fresh from a summer European metal festival appearance. And with heavyweights At The Gates and Dark Tranquility to boot you know they will be bringing it. Also along for the show are Orpheus Omega, Andy Gillion (UK) and Immorium. Tickets are available now.

Heathen Fest IV has announced its line-up for an absolutely savage bill on Saturday, 3 September at the Basement.

Anarazel, Auld, Bastardizer, Black Jesus, Black Mountain, Cemetery Urn, Destruktor, Plague Dweller, Project Ultimate Satan and Thrall will bludgeon the eardrums and challenge the necks of the Belconnen faithful. You can get your tickets on the Basement ticket site.

Finally Babirusa, deathcore warriors, are undertaking an Australian tour under the moniker Mandatory Malevolence Australian Tour in September. Canberra cops it on Monday, 6 September with support from Analepsy and you can pick up your tickets through the band’s facebook.