When Sydney groove-metal exponents Black Rheno make the trek north for Dead Of Winter (Brisbane) in July, they'll be road tripping with Melbourne technical death metal outfit Hadal Maw for the co-headlining 'Gospel Of Heavy' tour.
“Basically we got asked to play Dead Of Winter festival and we were looking to do something around that time of year anyway,” Black Rheno vocalist Ryan Miller explains.
“So we thought we'd hook up with one of the bands from the festival and make something out of it. We like Hadal Maw, they're music is rad and we hadn't played shows with them before so we hit them up to put something together for a tour leading up to the festival.”
Not unlike their melt-your-face-off brand of metal, Black Rheno's rise through the ranks has been short and fast, having formed less than two years ago. In that time, Ryan says they've worked tirelessly to cement their place on the scene. “It's not even two years since we started playing together,” he says.
“We got together I think in August of 2015. We've all had experience playing in bands before and it's not our first rodeo or anything. We've been going super hard, we know what we want to do, we believe in our music and we just work our butts off and try to play as many shows and do as many cool things that are fun to do as possible.”
Black Rheno's last visit to Brisbane was for the Thrash, Blast & Grind tour, which also featured King Parrot, Revocation, Psycroptic and Whoretopsy, who are also playing at Dead Of Winter. Ryan's pretty sure he had a good time, but has a hard time remembering. “I went to run out and jump off the stage to run around the pit in one of our songs,” he begins.
“One of the guys at the front of the stage, he's actually a mate who plays in the band Kold Creature, he grabbed my legs because he's pissed and having a good time, being cheeky and I went head-first into the concrete.
“Proper head first into the concrete. I've never had a hit on my head like that before. I was mid-verse, jumped out, went head first into the ground and I just kept singing. I got back on stage to finish the song, holding my head and wondering what had happened.”
Black Rheno released their debut EP, 'Let's Start A Cult', last year and Ryan says their first album isn't far away, with the lads heading into the studio this year to write and record. “We're definitely working on the album at the moment,” Ryan says.
"We've got about ten or so songs up our sleeve for an album and in another month and a half we're going to be laying down the demos and starting pre-production and this year we'll be recording it.
“I don’t know a release date yet, there's still a few things to work out but expect something and it's going to be good. If you listen to the EP, it's going to be a definite progression from there. It's going to be a bit more crazy, a bit more groovy and a bit more grindy.”
Black Rheno & Hadal Maw Shows
Fri 14 Jul - Barwon Club (Geelong)Sat 15 Jul - Pelly Bar (Melbourne)
Sun 16 Jul - The Tote (Melbourne)
Fri 21 Jul - Vic On The Park (Sydney)
Sat 22 Jul - Panthers Port Macquarie
Sun 23 Jul - Born 2 Rock Studios (Gosford)
Thu 27 Jul - Miami Tavern (Gold Coast)
Sat 29 Jul - Dead Of Winter Festival (Brisbane)
