Australian heavy music fans you are indeed a lucky bunch, as the mighty COG reaffirm their dominance as prog-metal luminaries on their 'Drawn Together' tour.
COG's 'Drawn Together' tour has seen them showcase their recent batch of singles 'The Middle', 'Altered States' and 'Drawn Together'. It also saw them hit Europe properly as a live band for the first time ever.
“First and foremost, doing the tour at the beginning of the year was great and also being able to release another couple of songs; for us it seems to take longer than most other bands,” the group's bassist Luke Gower says with a laugh, referring to the time COG takes to write and release new music.
“Then having the opportunity to go to Europe for basically the first time for us; we've been to London once before and played two shows over there in three or four days then we came home, and that was years ago with Shihad.
“So to go to these new places and play to new faces was something I dreamed of doing when we first started when I was probably 20 years old. That was a massive box [ticked], a massive coup for the band and we were so excited and so happy to get the opportunity to go and do it.”
The band finish out the 'Drawn Together' tour in July with shows in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, capping it off with a massive finale at Dead Of Winter Festival in Brisbane with the likes of Bodyjar, 28 Days and Mammal as well as Disentomb, Aversions Crown and Russian badasses Svetlanas.
Luke says COG's return to live performance, particularly headlining a festival, and the prospect of more new music on the horizon has been a source of reinvigoration. “It makes me hungry to get more music out there and I feel we have so much more to give musically as a band,” he says.
“The material that we've got that's not actually turned into songs is switching me into a good state of mind. I'm looking forward to moulding them into COG songs and see how they go.”
COG, who formed in 1998, are still known as one of Australia's most successful independent bands; they helped lay the foundation for today's exploding prog-metal field and are often cited as influences by modern groups, even outside of Australia.
Over 20 years later and although life has certainly changed for the members of COG – these days Luke is a family man and a mature age apprentice carpenter – fans both old and new have plenty to look forward to from the band over coming years.
“We've released those songs and these days it takes even longer for COG to write songs,” Luke laughs, “but that's just what happens – you get older and other responsibilities creep into your life.
“But yeah, there's definitely new music on the horizon for COG and I can't wait to get it out there and play it.”
