"It was a cold and stormy night~" not even close. In fact, it wasn't even typical Auckland weather; relatively dry for a night in town, in fact. The King's Arms Tavern, one of my favourite concert venues, was looking suitably packed, and rightly so; New Zealand Sludge Metal veterans BEASTWARS brought with them cult Doom Metallers WINDHAND, hailing from Virginia, US. I was wishing I had heard of these bands years ago, because the experience was quite unlike any other. By the time the support act was up, the venue was nearing capacity; talented Doom Metal trio GREENFOG emerged on stage.
As opposed to other genres that I frequent, I am relatively unaccustomed to anything remotely Doom related. Nevertheless, their set was a thrilling spectacle; smoke, dry ice, or whatever it was aplenty, the lighting veritably set it on fire, enveloping the trance-like drummer in an ethereal veneer. Performing a handful of stupendously long tracks, even mostly without any kind of vocal presence, it was far from boring, as one might expect. The bassist, clearly from a jazz background, appears to rightly fancy himself a talented musician well-suited to the style, and I have to commend the guitarist for not abusing the crap out of the fuzz pedal, and delivering deliciously heavy, droning riffs. I can't name any tracks off the top of my head, but it was definitely a splendid way to commence the show.
Almost right on time, WINDHAND appeared out of nowhere; facing the bar, I instantly knew what was happening, because the intro to "Orchard" began blaring in all its overdriven glory. What initially took me by surprise, was the fact that they are apparently one of those bands that sound even better live, than on studio recordings.
On their albums, vocalist Dorthia tends to blend in with the riffs, with a spacy, ethereal, atmospheric approach; whereas that night, she was singing with quite some prominence and power, and was seemingly hypnotised by the band's own music, commanding the presence on stage. The entire band seemed self-absorbed (not in the bad way!) in their own little bubble, letting themselves be carried on the tidal waves of their riffs.
Another highlight of the setlist was the inescapably melancholic "Feral Bones"; the riffs' depressing atmosphere weighing heavy on the shoulders, the airy vocals keeping us above water. Looking forward to "Boleskine", I realised that 30-minute monster would take up nearly all of their allotted set time, so they closed with the next best thing; "Cassock". A massive piece, even by Doom Metal standards, clocking in at over 13 minutes, blew us away.
The final and longest stretch of the show, BEASTWARS took me by complete surprise. While I had an inkling of what to expect with GREENFOG and WINDHAND, their set was easily one of the rowdiest I had ever experienced; the crowd were abso-fucking-lutely mental, each track pummelling everyone into a frenzied bloodlust.
It probably helps that vocalist Matt Hyde's riot-inspiring stage presence would throw any crowd into a violent trance. The music itself, groove in its heaviest, purest, dirtiest form; "Dune", easily a crowd favourite, let me know immediately, through an assault of bass-heavy riffs and startling crunch that it was time to wake up from the ethereal doom and gloom. Swampy, mid-tempo chugs, through to frantic assaults leaving pockmarks on the back of your skull, varied enough throughout the night to keep their albeit lengthy setlist from going stale.
"Lake of Fire", one of the band's greatest creations, was the wildest 4 minutes I stood through in a long, long time, it's jarring crescendos ringing in my ears, even throughout the other performances. There's absolutely no wonder they're considered one of our country's metal scenes greatest achievements.
For me, a frequenter of extreme metal gigs, this was an opportunity I relished undertaking, and it needs to happen again. Soon. If I could criticise anything, it would be that I wished lighting was used more creatively as the gig progressed; quite frankly, it peaked during the support set, but became a relatively non-factor. No matter; my sense of sound was beyond satisfied.
Photography: Ken Harris
