BREWTALITY FESTIVAL // Pots, Pints and Rock n’ Roll

BREWTALITY FESTIVAL with Fireballs, Frankenbok, South East Desert Metal + more- 29 July, 2016 – The Tote Hotel and Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood

In it’s fourth year, Melbourne’s Brewtality Festival served as a barometer of the current climate of the Australian underground.

It was nothing short of heartening to see two venues on the same strip packed out with a markedly eclectic audience. It wasn’t cheap to get in, but this year’s Brewtality proved that a great line-up and two of Melbourne’s best pubs were enough to draw the punters.

Some of the newer kids on the block kicked off the festival, with Annihilist opening the Bendigo stage and Shepparton duo Rathead down the road at the Tote. As Annihilist charged through a polished set of death metal, Rathead’s snotty brand of grunge was just as appealing upstairs at the Tote for its lack of polish. A few minutes at the tail end of their set justified marching up the street. Downstairs Stay Sharp did more of the same, but with the advantage of a little more maturity.

Back to the Bendigo and Daemon Pyre from Sydney set the bar high for confrontation. Their brand of Gothenburg inspired death metal is a little generic, but would pique the interest of fans of Phil Anselmo’s heavier projects. Visually, vocalist Sam Rilatt is a unique presence. “Come forward, I know I look disgusting”, he challenges them whilst covered in black greasepaint and stating the obvious.

Join The Amish // Photo: Breanna Wallace

Having played the original Brewtality Festival, Join the Amish blaspheme and blast their way through half an hour of short and sharp sermons delivered by a baseball-cap wearing Malt-Loc. Like Rilatt before him, Malt-Loc occasionally descends the stage and spits words like gunfire in the faces of those who are game enough to stand at the front. Playing to a smaller crowd upstairs at the Tote are the equally intense, but slightly more destructive, Peg Bucket. At times, they sound like a massively slowed down Jesus Lizard, but are like Hot Water Music shifted up a few gears. It’s only logical a schizophrenic approach ends in instruments being thrown and their singer collapsing in a heap screaming bloody murder.\

Crossing the Nullarbor from Perth, Devil Rides Out hit the main stage at the Tote and it’s a credit to the promoters for looking beyond state borders and making yet another shrewd line-up choice. As Joey K bellows in a similar key to King Buzzo of the Melvins, Andrew Ewing’s innovative guitar work sees the band cover a broad spread of styles without necessarily sounding unfocused.

Frankenbok // Photo: Matt Allan

Similarly eclectic are Brewtality mainstays Frankenbok, returning for the third time in the festival’s four year history. Where Frankenbok’s diverse approach has sometimes come across as slightly unfocused, their set at this year’s festival is straight-down-the-guts metal.  By this point of the night, the room is packed and the beer is well and truly flowing. Newly arrived vocalist Dan White projects an equal level of intensity to his eponymous predecessor and the strictly metal approach suited his style perfectly.  There was nary a slapped bass in sight between the forest of divebombs and distortion.

One band that certainly has no time for stuffing about is New Zealand’s Odiousembowel. Having recently reformed and returned from a US tour, the quartet stood out like a sore thumb being the heaviest band on the bill. No brand of deathgrind is extreme metal in the truest sense of the word and it’s a credit to the promoter for booking something just that little bit heavier than the rest. Although the crowd was relatively sparse, they were one of the best bands of the day and the few who had the guts to withstand it were nothing short of blown away. There’s no doubt Brewtality would be well served by having a couple more bands of their ilk on future lineups.

Brewtality Photo Gallery – by Breanna Wallace and Matt Allan

Returning to the Tote to watch Southeast Desert Metal, the crowd was nothing short of blown away by the quality of metal that had flown in all the way from Alice Springs. Their approach was one which gave a nod to each of metal’s subgenres, as their recent guest programming slot on Rage showed. Given their removal from the kinds of resources and opportunities bands in capital cities enjoy, it was a real credit to both the band and the promoters for making their presence at Brewtality a reality. For the audience, it was a privilege to have men of their experience embrace the culture of heavy metal and come all the way to Melbourne to play for us. Ultimately, their sheer presence highlighted the power of this music and this scene to bridge the cultural nexus between white and black Australia.  

Capping off the night on the Bendigo stage were the Fireballs, who were as incendiary as their name suggests. For over twenty-five years, the psychobilly legends have stayed true to their style and are doing it harder, faster and louder than any other band going around at the moment. Much like bassist Joe Phantom’s hairstyle, the band are truly one of a kind with Eddie Fury’s drumming verging on black-metal grade brutality at the climax of the festival’s wildest set. “I’ll cut your heads off and mount them on my wall”, declared a grim-faced Fury. Whether or not he actually would didn’t matter, since a good portion of the audience was well and truly off their heads after ten hours of pints, pots and rock and roll.

Happy Punters // Photo: Breanna Wallace

Brewtality expanded into Sydney for the first time this year and after the success of this year’s Melbourne show, it would be little wonder if it became a truly national venture down the track. Given the kind of line-up Melburnians were offered this year, it’s comforting to know that there are still promoters out there putting on successful festivals for the right reasons.

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Brewtality comes to Sydney on Saturday August 13th, at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville.

Tickets Available at http://www.factorytheatre.com.au