Jan
18
3.03pm

UNIFY GATHERING // Top 3’s Of 2018


A desolate paddock in rural Victoria, run down by storms and littered with scene kids, both grown and young, trudging through the mud. While the setting was bleak, the spirits were high, because the bond of all individuals who are united by Amity anthems and Architects merch had become realised.

MORE: The Loosest Units At UNIFY 2018 // Earth Caller Premiere Exposed Film Clip // We Set Signals Premiere Remember Me

Australia’s scene kinship is too strong, we need to be ‘unified’ by the largest show Australia can put together with the biggest bill they can get, and that is what Unify Gathering is. Headlined by the first names you associate with Aussie heavy music–Parkway Drive and The Amity Affliction (both doing throwback sets)–this festival was by no means centred around them. There were various acts on this lineup and incidents which stole a chunk of our attention during the festival, enough so that we’d like to go into detail about the few things that really stuck out to us. This will be cooler than giving you a recount of our weekend.

We’ve conjured up our Top 3’s for the festival, because there is too much that went on to just outline in one holistic description of the 3-day event. So without further ado, here are some.



Craziest Mosh Pits:

Knocked Loose: Kentucky five-piece beatdown bandits were relentless and uncompromising towards our crowd, with pre-song aggressive pit-calls that eventually initiated the widest wall of death in Unify history. You know it’s crazy when a shoe flies over the roof of the stage.

Knocked Loose // By Bree Wallace

50 Lions: Not very long after Knocked Loose with fans pumped for a round 2, 50 lions proved to have aged like a fine wine, coming back to show us how veterans run the pit. Taking what Knocked Loose had birthed and raised it to a new level continuing with community tackling.

50 Lions // By Bree Wallace

Parkway Drive: Can we really be surprised? As anticipated as it was, there is nothing quite like watching people mosh to The Siren Song and Idols and Anchors in 2018. A truly surreal moment of watching a Parkway set littered with classic material, owning their place as the forefathers and ground layers of this entire community.

Parkway Drive // By Bree Wallace

Smaller Acts Who Blew Us Away:

Introvert: This Newcastle UNFD signee who have yet to unleash their big magnum opus with just a small EP and a couple singles, but they perform like they’re at they’re in their finest form and hungry for more. Giving a heartfelt, true blue emo set, this is an act that stopped us immediately and have us swept up with them.

Introvert // By Bree Wallace

The Beautiful Monument: Gothic heavy rock amplified by confident stage personas and immersive sounds. For a relatively new band, they look like refined performers who have been aching to let free their creativity for a long time.



Arteries: One of the left-field outfits on the lineup, Arteries combine mathcore with metalcore and play it with larger-than-life attitude, and it just cuts through the rest of the acts. Mixing The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge and Meshuggah, with that scene-appeal of Architects and Northlane, this band threw it all in a mixture and exploded it onto the stage.

Surprises:

The Amity Affliction Setlist: Despite a rather weak performance (like they have anything more to prove anyway), it was quite a shock to everyone when they opened with Severance, then into Stairway to Hell. We weren’t sure how to feel, these songs were a bit rusty but it was certainly interesting to see them be played. This whole chronological setlist may have been a ploy to end with This Could Be Heartbreak and I Bring the Weather With Me like they probably wanted to.

The Amity Affliction // By Bree Wallace

Cursed Earth with no Jazmine: As many Cursed Earth shirts gathered round at the time of the controversial grind/hc band, waiting for their signature extreme live show. But their vocal powerhouse was missing, and instead stood Mark Poida of Aversion’s Crown. While he certainly did the part justice, and was actually an impressive fill in as he provided on par levels of energy, we’re left questioning why Jazmine wasn’t there.

Cursed Earth // By Bree Wallace

Marcus Bridge Joins Hellions On Stage: While Hellions in many ways won unify by dominating a night-time set, racking in a crowd that went into the horizon only to satisfy all of them with their infectious on-stage energy and captivating chemistry. But if it wasn’t enough to just have them bring the party on their own, Northlane’s Marcus Bridge hopped on stage to sing along to Nightliner Rhapsody to provide some otherworldly vocal harmonies.

Hellions // By Bree Wallace

Rockstars:

Jamie Hails of Polaris: Wow this guy knows how to rock an audience. The up-and-coming metalcore superstar’s commanding presence swept away the monumental crowd that Polaris has pulled. Placing his knee firmly on the speaker when forcefully letting out his ferocious growls, this is a frontman for the scene history books.

Polaris // By Bree Wallace

Jelena Goluza of Outright: The lack of females on this line-up was irritating and upsetting, but there was a true heroine to be found in Jelena. While it’s never going to be in her power to make up for the issue, she stood a firm ground and showed off more punk attitude than a good majority of the males that bookended them. Viscerally fierce with a razor-sharp attitude, Jelena had us glued to her command.

Outright // By Bree Wallace

Joe Taylor of Knuckle Puck: The Midwest emo/pop-punk powerhouses Knuckle Puck warmed our hearts with their charm and sentimental new school emo anthems. But fronting this heartfelt act was one of the most frenetic, mobile frontmen to be on the stage. Joe Taylor was overflowing with energy and exuding a strong confidence, which really helped back this gut-wrenchingly emotional set.

Knuckle Puck // By Bree Wallace

Shoeys

Joe Taylor of Knuckle Puck: The Nike-jacketed frontman stepped out assertively, shoe in one hand and beer in the other. Before the first guitar chord was hit to their track Double Helix, the Chicagoan showed an immediate understanding of Australian punk rock protocol and chugged that beer down immediately. It truly set the tone for his wild performance.

Jesse Barnett of Stick To Your Guns: One of the more badass ones, the California native got a firm grip of the Vans shoe and skulled right out of it as if it was his morning shot of coffee. It looked completely badass, and Jesse didn’t break the passion for it, even the shoey was performed with conviction.

Stick To Your Guns // By Bree Wallace

Jack Bergin of Void of Vision: Jack made sure he pulled out all the stops of a modern metal trouper; crowdsurfing, pitcalling, flailing the mic in the air etc. But all of this cultivated in his legendary shoey, which elevated his rap-metal set to another echelon.

Void Of Vision // By Bree Wallace

A lot went down here, but only because a lot has been pent up for this weekend. It’s one to never forget until next year’s UNIFY festival, so let’s see who changes 2018 to land on that bill.




Latest News

MORE MUST READS >