The word on metal with Josh Nixon

Summer is over. As the trees begin to prepare to fill the streets with leaves, one can look forward to donning their battle jackets and whipping out the long sleeves once again.

Still, a few molten hot shows take us through the change of season, and an absolute ripper kicks off this reporting period that will unquestionably provide bangovers to all who attend.

Midnight and Stalker

The USA’s highly vaunted Midnight joins New Zealand serial visitors Stalker for a Sunday afternoon Baso brutalising on 3 March. The four band build rounded out by Blasfemancia and FLESH, and plays out thusly:

3pm – Doors
4pm – Blasfemancia
4:50pm- FLESH
5:40pm – Stalker
7pm – Midnight

The hooded menaces are set to fire up the stage to fulfil your hellish expectations. Tickets on The Baso ticket site; get on those at once.

Two Big Baso Shows!

Wednesday, 10 April is about as big a gig juggle as I have had to manage at one venue with two separate shows.

The Baso has landed one of the most extensive international stoner rock tours in years, with the UK’s Orange Goblin taking in the Canberra leg of their Australian tour, joined by two of Australia’s absolute best proponents of the genre.

Melbourne Simpsons stone(r)cutters, Dr Colossus, and Sydney’s hardest working 2-piece, Astrodeath, make for a tantalising bill presented by the fine folks at Soundworks. Tickets from The Baso website.

That’s the big room.

Out the back room are 2 absolutely killer internationals in the form of USA’s death metal darlings Gatekreeper and crushingly heavy Japanese slam lords Kruelty. Both bands played Australia last year to rapturous responses from those lucky enough to attend.

This will be a mental amount of riffage to fit into that tiny room along with Aussie’s World of Joy, who are along for that whole run thanks to Destroy All Lines. You can get your ticket from the Destroy All Lines website. Choose wisely!

Scar Symmetry

If the In Flames performance with Kreator last month didn’t satiate your desire for Swedish melodic death metal, The Baso will host Scar Symmetry on 12 April.

Canberra gets a welcome visit from the Swede’s brandishing their new album The Singularity (Phase II Xenotaph) and a stop off on the Xenotaph Australian tour to promote it. You can also pick up a ticket at The Baso website.

Suffocation

As if that’s not enough international action for the month, how about a 4/20 visit from an absolutely titanic death metal band? Suffocation makes a warmly welcomed return to Australian shores with equally welcome guests for the whole jaunt, Revocation.

The Hymns From the Apocrypha tour lands on 20 April at The Baso with GA and VIP ticket packages available for all of you long-time Suffo-natics.

The new album was rapturously received at the end of last year, so there will be a welcome serving of new and classic riffs from these pioneering explorers of brutality. With Revocation bringing material from their 2022 album Neatherheaven to the fore, it’s a night not to miss, so ensure you pick up a ticket from The Baso website.

Rotting Christ

Rotting Christ announced an Aussie tour recently with the Greek black metal pioneers booking a May 3rd date for the Baso that you might want to squirrel away a few back to save for this one.

In other news

On the black metal front, I’m hearing some really unexpected and exciting rumours for an extensive tour in Q3/4 this year, which I will tell you about once the promoter has nailed down the venues; it will be one the tree will not want to miss.

Of course, Sunburn tickets are also on sale at the Baso site, and I got RSI typing out the names last time, but Clagg, Goat Shaman, Isua and Budd are more than enough to get me out of the house for a riff-fest, let alone the rest of that enormous bill.

Pleased to see The Ocean have announced an Australian tour for the start of winter, and that will take in The Baso on 7 June. Even more amped for the show because the band have announced Cave-In are in for 7 of the 8 Australian dates. The Bostonians released an absolute ripper of an album in late ’22 in the form of Heavy Pendulum, and I can not wait to cop some of that material live this winter. Tix via The Baso.

Canberra bands with a new release or upcoming gig, hit me up at doomtildeath@hotmail.com so I can give you guys a glow-up on these pages, too. See you up the front.

NP: Sparagmos Spectral Voice – for fans of .dISEMBOWELLMENT, crushingly heavy death doom.