The sound of harrowing despair slowly brewed inside Brisbane’s Woolly Mammoth (19 January).
It’s a sound American metal duo The Body have perfected over 20 years. But one, forceful crash from drummer Lee Buford during their second song silenced the room.
The band left the stage and a stagehand informed the crowd that Lee had broken his bass drum and we (the crowd) would need to wait for a replacement. A broken instrument so early in their set was greeted as a sign of their heaviness, with a crowd excited to hear how much heavier The Body’s ceaseless doom would become.
Soft, gentle strums reverberated when Gold Coast shoegazers Empress opened their electrifying set. Vocalist, Chloe Cox softly murmured before a wave of noise crashed from their amps.
Rifle-shot drums accompanied black metal tremolo strums, and Chloe swooped down from the stage with a rose dangling between her fingers, kneeling on the floor as she shrieked over the swelling noise.
“If you take a few steps forward, I’ll bite you,” joked Fergus Smith, singer/ guitarist of Frown. The mock threat didn’t stop anyone moving closer, with one fan even leaning on the band’s front-speaker to feel the low-end of their heavy doom.
Riffs moved slowly, beats came hard – to the point of wood peeling from the drumsticks – and fans’ heads nodded in unison to the glacial pace.
A last minute issue saw support band SHACKLƩS pull out, being replaced by grindcore duo Sh.tgrinder.
Guitarist Matt Dearling turned his distortion pedals up to their maximum setting, causing his amplifier to buzz. Clouds of smoke came from the amp, but relief came when it was revealed the smoke was emanating from a poorly placed smoke machine.
Eddie Kimura battered his drums with speedy fills as fans put as much force into shoulder-barging each other.
Cheers erupted when a stagehand approached the stage carrying a bass drum above his head. The Body returned to the stage, and singer/ guitarist Chip King joked: “I hate Mondays.”
Despite the damage, Lee proceeded without caution; he raised his arms high and used his whole body to slam his drums with more force than before. Chip’s guitar let out long moans, with each chord ending in whining feedback.
Hunching over his guitar, Chip’s posture straightened when he took a deep breath in and threw his head forward, letting out a bloodcurdling scream resembling a seagull’s squawk.
The same fan from Frown’s set took his place front-stage and leaned on the speaker. Standing from a distance, the floor vibrated from Lee’s jackhammer beats and Chip’s drones rumbled inside fan’s guts.
Heads moved with the beat, while the faces of the crowd were entranced and showed love for The Body’s ugly noise.
