The Best of 2011 - in recorded form, that is!

I have definitely taken my sweet time getting this one out there - god this time of the year is busy! But there's no way in hell that I wasn't going to post this, as it's something I've always loved doing and so, because this thing is well overdue, let's get it started... with the TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2011, AND THEY ARE, IN MY HUMBLE LITTLE OPINION:

10. Noel Gallgher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
It's fair to say I was pleasantly surprised by this one! But then again, it was always something I needed to give at least a few listens to, given my past musical affinity with Gallagher, or to be more precise some band he used to be in called Oasis. Anyway, as we all know Noel finally left Oasis in 2009, finding himself no longer to put up with the constant war with his dear brother Liam; this would eventually see the Oasis name retired, with the remaining members continuing as Beady Eye, and Noel putting out a stellar album under this moniker. Not too far removed from the Oasis sound, there's plenty of upbeat guitar-driven material with some great hooks, balanced out with a few more reflective slower-paced numbers. Again, a surprisingly good release!
LISTEN TO: The Death of You and Me, AKA...What a Life!, Dream On

9. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
One of the earliest releases from 2011, it's nonetheless obviously made an impression as it's managed to carry itself through the year and have its high quality music stand up alongside all the other brilliant tunes that came along after it. Colin Meloy and his troupe of alt-folk-rocking friends have decided to simplify a bit on this album, cutting back on the lengthy songs and longwinded (but enjoyable!) concepts that have been a noteable feature of the two previous Decemberists albums The Hazards of Love and The Crane Wife. It's all still a very enjoyable listen; Meloy clearly hasn't lost his lyrical eloquence, nor his amazing voice, as he tells those stories as only he can in the form of song.
LISTEN TO: This is Why We Fight, Down By the Water, Dear Avery, June Hymn

8. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
Who would've thought that losing their drummer of 25 years could actually inspire a band to release one of their best albums in quite some time?! With the departure of Mike Portnoy, drummer and one of the two major creative forces behind Dream Theater, in late 2010, many were sceptical of how the band would recover from such a blow. That, coupled with the fact that Dream Theater have arguably been on musical autopilot over the past few albums they've released, meant that many fans of the band were going to treat this album with caution. However, once the new album arrived, there was a genuine sense of surprise in the air that Dream Theater had managed to shake off such a loss and still create an album that sounded fresh and inspired. Though nobody would deny that Dream Theater have slipped comfortably into their sound over their career and that this album is certainly going to sound familiar, on this particular album the ideas seem to be flowing a lot more than than on some of their previous albums. It's a solid album for a band that perhaps some were starting to give up on! I know I wasn't expecting to give this one a top 10 spot here!
LISTEN TO: Build Me Up, Break Me Down, Bridges in the Sky, Outcry

7. A Lonely Crowd - User Hostile
Here's a band I would never have been expecting to place in this countdown, as they're still a relatively underground group from my hometown of Melbourne, and one would think that their material just wouldn't have demanded the same attention as releases from other, more established, acts. However, I've thoroughly enjoyed the handful of live performances I've seen this extremely talent four-piece do, and when this album was released, I thought it might be something I'd enjoy - but not this freakin' much! A Lonely Crowd is the brainchild of the two Ancell brothers, Luke on guitar and Scott on drums, who have been going since 2008 with a variety of musicians getting involved in the lineup at various points. They've finally settled on the immensely talented David Morkunas on bass and keys and Xen Pow on vocals and flute. This album contains recordings from across their career however, so you still get to hear former band members Leah Ceff and Shane Lieber popping up on various tracks, as well as some handy guest vocals from Ennis Tola mainman Tomas Fitzgerald on one track! The band describes themselves as "experimental progressive-acidmath", which despite sounding a little ridiculous, is a good way of describing a sound that has many twists and turns - steadily rocking one minute, gentle the next, absolutely all-out thrashing metal madness the next! Recent live sets have featured a whole lot of new tracks, and the Crowd are currently recording their second album - who knows where they're going to go after this one!
LISTEN TO: Bipolar Bear, ADJustify, Barbed Haywire, Tyranny of Dissonance

6. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Ah yes, we are now truly in the business end of things, with an album that received almost unanimous critical praise and earned the Canadian hardcore group a whole new audience. Despite being a pretty sonically abrasive act in the past (and with a ridiculously intense live show to match), on this album Fucked Up try their hand at some new, slightly more accessible ideas - and it's all presented in the form of a concept album, a love story between David and Veronica. You'd never know a band with a name like that could create something so catchy, so melodic and yet still retaining plenty of the intensity that the group have been previously known for. It really was the album that put the boys and girl on the musical map last year, and Australia was blessed to have them tour here twice!
LISTEN TO: The Other Shoe, Turn the Season, Running on Nothing

5. Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors
I was a bit late in getting this one; despite persistent recommendations/reminders from a great friend of mine whose musical opinion is ALWAYS one I value, it just didn't make its way into my collection until the very end of the year. Nevertheless, as you can see it's made quite an impression! The progressive rock/metal sound is one that always pleases my ears, and with Fair to Midland, it's nice to see them throwing some new ideas into the mix, including some folk-ish experimentation and some truly varied and impressive vocals (Rikki Tikki Tavi anyone?). Considering I hold bands such as Dream Theater, Karnivool and Dead Letter Circus very dear to my musical heart, this just seemed like a band I should have gotten into years ago! And they've JUST announced an Australian tour, count me in!
LISTEN TO: Short Haired Tornado, A Loophole in Limbo, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Golden Parachutes

4. Floating Me - Floating Me
Ah yes, a band that I've given quite a bit of attention on this blog (and my contributions to Fan Made Recordings as well), and with good reason, given that the five blokes involved with Floating Me have all made themselves a name with other musical endeavours that I've enjoyed in the past. Namely, the musical recipe that is Floating Me is made of three parts Scary Mother, one part Karnivool and one part Cog! Tasty! After a good response to first single Sugar, released in late 2010, 2011 was the year when Floating Me really began to take off in their own right, as they began the year touring with the likes of Shihad and Dead Letter Circus, then released their debut album and headed off on a few very successful headlining ventures! The album itself is quite a mixed bag of sounds; there's plenty of dark and brooding atmosphere present on the likes of Deathless and Xtoto, while upbeat numbers such as Narke and Breaking to Breathe show off this band's incredible rhythm section of Jon Stockman (Karnivool) on bass and Lucius Borich (ex-Cog) on drums! Throwing off the ties to their other work, this album and the live shows they performed throughout the year really showed that Floating Me just might be one of the most exciting acts to come out of this Aussie heavy/prog/rock scene in some time!
LISTEN TO: Narke, Bezhumous, Breaking to Breathe, Across the Gulf

3. Gotye - Making Mirrors
If you have ANY interest in music whatsoever, and live in Australia, then Gotye is a name you probably heard quite a bit in the year 2011, no matter how much you tried to avoid/deny it. It was a mammoth year for the man known to his parents as Wally de Backer, as the second single from his third album, Somebody That I Used to Know, propelled him to far greater heights of fame than he'd previously reached. Well, other than that particular song, the album served as a worthy follow-up to the critically-acclaimed (but not quite as commercially successful, let's not deny it!) Like Drawing Blood. With a five-year gap between albums, it was going to be interesting to see what Wally delivered this time, but his idiosyncratic cut-and-paste style of sample-based composition remained firmly intact on this recording! Yep, on here you can find plenty of musical ground covered, from the smooth jazzy groove of Smoke and Mirrors, to the outrageous 60s-esque pop of I Feel Better, to the outright bizarre sample-driven State of the Art - which just happens to be a song entirely about an organ! Ahh, Mr de Backer, Wally, Gotye, whatever, where will you go next?!
LISTEN TO: State of the Art, I Feel Better, Eyes Wide Open, Bronte

2. Battles - Gloss Drop
Battles' last album Mirrored was one that I enjoyed a HELL of a lot. I enjoyed it so much that when it got to the end of the year 2007 and the time came for me to do my beloved end-of-year chart, I placed that particular disc at POSITION NUMERO UNO. Not like my opinion actually counts for anything, but yeah, in that year I just thought that album particularly ruled (and it had one hell of a competitor in a certain prog-rock/metal album...). Anyway, fast-forward four years and well what do you know, Battles have released their long-awaited second album! But there's been one pretty big change happen in the band - vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Tyondai Braxton left during the recording of this follow-up, deciding for whatever reason that Battles just wasn't the band for him anymore. Fair enough. Nevertheless, Ian Williams (guitars/keys), Dave Konopka (bass/guitar) and John Stanier (drums) decided that Battles was still the band for them, and kept on keeping on to finish this longplayer. And I think we can safely say thank God they did, for this album is sheer brilliance! It's really the kind of album you would have expected them to make; it's a perfectly natural follow-up to Mirrored, with plenty of their trademark mathy noodling and electronic-ish loopy experimentalism present and accounted for. They've even managed to keep vocals present, although not quite in the band - outside help was called for, and Matias Aguayo, Gary Numan, Kazu Makino and Yamantaka Eye responded! All in all, there was a pretty high level of anticipation and expectation for this one in the music community, but Battles managed to deliver and then some!
LISTEN TO: Sundome, My Machines, Futura, Wall Street

It's now time for the big one, and from the moment it was released somewhere in the middle of the year, I knew that it'd take something pretty special to dethrone this one from its position at the top - unsurprisingly, nothing did. But what was it, you ask...

1. sleepmakeswaves - ...and so we destroyed everything

Holy mother of God, what an album. The Sydney post-rocking foursome have been doing their thing and doing it very well since their inception in 2006, but it's been a slow ride in terms of studio releases up until now. There's been a demo, an EP and a split with Tangled Thoughts of Leaving. But it's certainly been quality over quantity and the group have won themselves many fans and lots of positive feedback - and it all resulted in quite a lot of anticipation for this, sleepmakeswaves very first full length album. It's been a long time coming, but my goodness it has been worth it; post-rock is becoming a little overdone for some people, but then again, they probably just haven't heard albums like this. A very large part of post-rock is the extreme variance in dynamics, and sleepmakeswaves certainly know what they're doing in this department. Opener to you they are birds, to me they are voices in the forest (one of many delightful titles on this here album) begins with almost inaudible synth sounds before, without warning, a shrill burst of rapid fire musical mayhem EXPLODES out of nowhere, and then things settle down again, and then things get louder - and so on, and so forth. Elsewhere, the band's command of electronics and glitches are also given a healthy workout here - see the beautiful interlude-ish piece our time is short but your watch is slow for that - and when the album finally reaches it breathtaking conclusion in the title track, there's even vocals. Is there anything this album cannot do?!

LISTEN TO: a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, to you they are birds, to me they are voices in the forest, ...and so we destroyed everything

SO. It took quite a while, but we finally fucking got there! 2011 was a bit of a slow year for me in terms of discovering new music, but as you can certainly see, there were still a few quality releases that pleased my ears immensely. And as always, not everything can make the top 10! Here is, in no particular order, a list of honourable mentions!
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao of the Dead
Absu - Abzu
Alarum - Natural Causes
Art vs Science - The Experiment
Black Devil Yard Boss - Black Devil Rising
Frenzal Rhomb - Smoko at the Pet Food Factory
Geamala - Forking Paths
La Dispute - Wildlife
Laura - Twelve Hundred Times
Mastodon - The Hunter
Meniscus - War of Currents
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
Whew! There was quite a few of those. Maybe I need to do a top 20 next year? We shall see!

Moving along then, to the top five EPs of 2011! They were...
5. The Khyber Belt - The Khyber Belt
4. I Am Duckeye - Die
3. Heirs - Hunter
2. Solkyri - No House
1. [Me] - Naked
(Again, all Australian acts!)

Top five songs of the year:
5. Fair to Midland - Short Haired Tornado
4. Battles - Sundome
3. [Me] - Like a Fox
2. sleepmakeswaves - a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
1. Sheriff - What You Want (because I can!)

Best live release:
Engine Three Seven - Becoming Atmosphere DVD

Another year comes to an end...

Well then, it's certainly been a while between drinks/blog posts, so I thought I'd just post a little something here to try and sum up exactly what's been going on in my musical world in the past month or so? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It's been a busy month! Too busy, apparently, to post regularly... so as I did around this time last year, here's a quick summation of the final gigs of 2011!

So, since Harvest there's been almost two solid months of gigs. The first really notable one was a typically thrilling performance from Sydonia (19/11), and if you follow this blog regularly, then you must know that I. FUCKING. LOVE. THIS. BAND. Especially this year. But this performance was certainly one that stood out from the rest, and you know why? The band decided to treat their loyal fans to a start-to-finish rendition of their debut (and thus far, only) album Given to Destroyers, giving every track a healthy full-blown live rendition! The full-album-in-order-live format has been used with increasing frequency by many bands over the past few years and for good reason - it works an absolute treat, especially if the album is as good as this one is! It was definitely nice to hear all of these songs together, as a lot of them aren't really staples in the Sydonia set anymore due to them working in new material from their LONG-AWAITED second album! Anyway, a cracker of a show!

More than a few eyebrows were raised earlier this year when it was announced that Fucked Up were joining some rock band called Foo Fighters on their sold-out megastadium tour of Australia. But it was no mistake - Dave Grohl's apparently a bit of a fan of the Canadian hardcore troupe, like we all (read, anyone with a half-decent taste in music) are really; the band's third studio album David Comes to Life has been getting almost unanimous praise from critics and fans across the board, and though quite a few of the less knowledgeable Foos fans were scratching their head as to who and why that fat guy on the stage was yelling things, the more openminded were more than happy to see the Canadians return to our shores for the second time in the calendar year (they'd been a part of the Soundwave juggernaut in early March). The band also got the chance to squeeze in their very own intimate performance at the East Brunswick Club (30/11), and what a show it was. The band didn't waste the chance, obviously performing a lot more songs than they would at the Foos shows, and knowing that they were performing them to an audience who were actually Fucked Up fans! A few days later (03/12), of course, Foo Fighters, Tenacious D and Fucked Up (as well as local duo DZ Deathrays) rolled into AAMI Park for a mammoth stadium rock extravaganza, and entertained the capacity crowd immensely. You can say what you like about some of their recent material (although Wasting Light is arguably a cracking return to form), but the fact is Messrs Grohl, Shiflett, Smear, Mendel and Hawkins are pretty damn comfortable on a live stage, and this performance was a true stand-out for the year, as they ripped their way through a healthy TWENTY-SIX song set, covering just about every single facet of their extremely lengthy and productive career.

Meredith, Meredith, Meredith. Just saying those words makes me miss the place. So the second weekend (9-11th) of December rolled around once again, and once again the trip was made to the Supernatural Amphitheatre. Where to begin? Grinderman were pretty much the name on everyone's lips in the lead-up to the festival and naturally, Jim Sclavunos, Martyn Casey, Warren Ellis, and Nick fucking Cave did not disappoint at all - however, they played an extremely unexpected card at the very end of the set, with Cave annoucing that the band was "over", and that they'd "see (us) in ten years, when (they'd) be even older and uglier". Who saw that coming, hey? Other than that though, there were plenty of musical highlights scattered throughout the two nights and three days - Icehouse played to everyone's undeniable love of nostalgia, Future of the Left brought their raucous filthy noise, Explosions in the Sky chilled things out quite nicely with their sublime brand of post-rock, Barbariön allegedly spent most of their budget on literal explosions and had the entire amphitheatre fist pumping and shouting along to their hilarious take on the excessive side of heavy metal, hardcore supergroup Off! played a ridiculous amount of songs in a very short time, and well, that's about it really isn't it? Well done Aunty. Happy 21st!

Just two days later, it was off to the East Brunswick Club for a night of SHRED (followed by ANOTHER NIGHT) (13&14/12). And who better to deliver it than Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, a man who has released a shitload of albums and been the driving force of two of my (and everyone else's with a decent music taste) bands, The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In. On this occasion he would also play bass in Le Butcherettes, a wacky Mexican/American punk rock group fronted by the extremely unique Teri Gender Bender who played quite a different style of music to the headliner! Then once that was done, Omar, backed by his Mars Volta cohorts in Juan Alderete on bass and Deantoni Parks on drums, treated the audience to a mind-boggling display of his amazing axe abilities. With a set that consisted mostly of tracks from the forthcoming Vato Negro album, it's fair to say that most of the audience was unfamiliar with the material being aired, but when the talent onstage is that fucking good, who cares?!

At Meredith, I had woken up on the second day with absolutely no voice as a result of Future of the Left's massive Friday night belter; suffice to say, I was keen to attend them again, albeit with a little more sobriety and common sense on my side. After all, they are releasing an album this year entitled The Plot Against Common Sense. Anyway. Falco and his band of merry men (and woman) were given the opportunity to play their own gig at the Corner (16/12) and they delivered another absolute ripper, with tracks from across their career (including PLENTY from the new album), which was of course interspersed with the usual witty banter, which covered such topics as Australian made keyboards, cricket (numerous times), dead celebrities, and the Olympic Games. Not necessarily in that order. And concluded with an extended jam involving plenty of audience participation...

The final (well, major) gig for the year? One I had fucking high expectations for, given that in July, Sydney post-rocking godchildren sleepmakeswaves had delivered a magnificent set from the soon-to-be-non-operational stage at the East Brunswick Club. The announcement of another date in December later in the year saw me marking the date IMMEDIATELY on my mental calendar. Due to some other things happening earlier in the evening, Meniscus were the only other support band I managed to see, but my god were they impressive, resulting in me immediately purchasing their War of Currents album. And then we made our way to the front, took our seats on the floor (yes) and braced ourselves for... a setlist identical to the aforementioned East Brunswick show? Though it has to be said that the band did deliver a brilliant show again, the fact that they didn't go out of their way to mix it up even a little bit was slightly disappointing, and meant the show just wasn't as awesome as the previous. Nonetheless, this band DID release an album that I enjoyed the shit out of in 2011 (hell, I still am!) and it was a great show regardless. And hey, it was our first live introduction to the band's new drummer, Tim Adderley! So that was nice.

2011, 2011, 2011. It brought many highlights, musical and otherwise. Live music this year, oh we had a belter. Too many great acts doing amazing things to possibly mention here... and yet, in the coming weeks, I will have to mention them. That's right, my end of year top 10 gigs are beginning to take shape, mentally at least, and hopefully will be posted in completed form before the month's end. And what was I doing when I wasn't at a gig? Listening to music, of course! Though I must say I didn't really keep up with new music last year as much as I usually do, obviously my (not-so-) hard-earned cash was often spent on CDs, and quite often, some of those were new! So yes, there WILL be, as always, a top 10 countdown of 2011's best albums according to yours truly. It will probably be posted quite soon, as I've had quite a good think about it and I've got a clear idea of where most things are going to land (or not land, as the case may be).

OH! One thing I do want to mention about 2011 is my introduction to the wonderful world of bootleg recording. For those who aren't aware, in late 2010 year my friend Chris Jacques, the founder of the wonderful Fan Made Recordings blog invited me to join the team, GIVING me his old recording equipment after he purchased some new stuff. Though the microphones were a little bit dead, I got a few good uses out of them before a new pair arrived in about April, and then the real fun began! Though quite often my err, state of inebriation lead to obnoxious conversations and RIDICULOUS singing, rendering some (quite a lot, really!) of the recordings unpostable, there were plenty more gigs where I managed to keep myself under control and it lead to some truly amazing gigs being captured for my own personal enjoyment AS WELL as sharing them with the wider world. I really can't thank Chris enough!

Anyway. That's about it. Top 10s are coming soon!

"I wanna be original, I wanna be surrounded by art" - Soundwave Festival 2011, Melbourne Showgrounds, 04/03/11

Well, after a cracking year in 2010 at my first Soundwave Festival, I was definitely looking forward to seeing what AJ Maddah and his team would deliver this year - and when the lineup was released last year, I instantly knew I'd be attending. Soundwave began as a slightly more punk/hardcore/emo oriented festival a few years ago, something I really had no interest in, but in the past few years they've certainly branched out with some great rock and metal acts taking to the festival's many stages (there's now EIGHT of them!). Having Iron Maiden on the bill was a sure-fire way to get me to buy a ticket, even though I didn't actually end up seeing them on the day! Nevertheless, it was still a highly enjoyable day out with several incredible performances.

I wasn't really interested in any of the first couple of acts on any of the stages so I decided not to hurry myself in getting there. When I did, I headed in the direction of the two stage 4s to see Texan stoner metal (a genre that was certainly not in short supply at Soundwave this year) act The Sword. While waiting it out in front of the Stage 4 "annex", Las Vegas's Taking Dawn were doing their thing on the adjacent stage. It comes as no surprise to me while reading up on this band to learn that they've supported Airbourne before, as their music definitely has that old-school revival approach to heavy metal and hard rock. Frontman Chris Babbitt certainly had his 80s frontman showmanship shtick downpat too, as he soloed down on the ground in front of the barrier, climbed up speaker stacks, and even ran over to the annex stage, much to the bemusement of the crowd waiting for The Sword. I never know whether to take bands like this seriously or not, but at least they provided us with some good laughs and good riffs early in the day.

It was perhaps a little early in the day, but there was still a very decent turnout for The Sword, and most of the crowd seemed to be genuine fans; right away, from the opening riffs of Acheron/Unearthing the Orb, long-haired heads began banging and horns were pointed skyward. I'd only listened to one of their albums prior to this set, but Gods of the Earth luckily got a bit of a look-in with the track How Heavy This Axe. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of the ol' doom-stoner-sludge metal in general, so those low-end heavy riffs coming out of Orange amps (of course) sounded pretty damn awesome - and apparently I wasn't the only one that thought so.
SETLIST:
Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
Barael's Blade
Freya
Tres Brujas
How Heavy This Axe
Night City
Winter's Wolves
(The Sword score 8/10.)

I then made my way over to a stage I didn't even go near last year, Stage 5, aka the big shed, for a performance from mathy Oxford quartet This Town Needs Guns. They were certainly a bit out of place on the overall lineup of the day, something vocalist Stuart Smith referred to several times throughout the band's set. "We're not anywhere near as punk as that (referring to whatever band had just come off the stage at the other end of the shed) but hopefully you'll still enjoy us", he noted early on. However, it soon became clear that the crowd weren't simply waiting for the next band on that stage, but were actually genuine fans of TTNG. They did have a pretty short set, but it was jam-packed with plenty of goodies off the Animals album, a pair of old favourites from the self-titled EP, and even a new song! They were one of the bands on the lineup I decided to check out only a few weeks ago, and I'm really glad I did, as I enjoyed their set immensely. Hopefully they'll be back in Australia soon, as I'd love to see them at a headline show.
SETLIST
Chinchilla
Baboon
Lemur
Gibbon
Want to Come Back to My Room and Listen to Some Belle and Sebastian?
Adventure, Stamina and Anger
26 is Dancier Than 4
(This Town Needs Guns score 8.5/10.)

I then bolted over to Stage 3 (AKA "the other shed") just in time to catch a stellar performance from seminal UK post-punkers Gang of Four. Certainly another band that was a bit out of place amongst all that noisy metal and hardcore, but it didn't seem to faze them one bit. Frontman Jon King may be 55 years old, but for all the energy he displayed on the day, you could more accurately say 55 years young! Running around onstage like a madman, even doing a somersault at one point, all the while spitting his lyrics out with typical venom, it was really inspiring to watch. Unfortunately for the band, the slightly younger generation of the Soundwave crowd obviously had other interests in bands at that timeslot, and the Stage 3 shed was looking a little sparsely populated. That said, the small crowd was genuinely getting into the sounds of such classics as At Home He's A Tourist and Anthrax, performed with genuine effort and energy despite the age of the musicians in question. Before I went in to check them out I was reminded of a performance by a band from a similar era and style of music, The Fall, who had put on a really bizarre set at Meredith Music Festival at the end of last year. Frontman Mark E Smith evidently decided that he wasn't going to put in much of an effort, and simply stumbled around onstage, yelled his lyrics in an indecipherable manner, and sporadically turned his bandmates' amplifiers down, up, or even completely off. In complete contrast, Gang of Four were still electric on stage, but at least they had the sense to actually perform their music properly - and the crowd loved it.
SETLIST
(pending recording)
(Gang of Four score 9/10.)

I then made my way back to Stage 4 for a performance by Norwegian melodic black metal stalwarts, Dimmu Borgir. As All That Remains vacated the annex, the crowd grew extremely restless, and one inebriated punter yelled to the sky joyously, "DIMMU BORGIR ARE FINALLY IN AUSTRALIA!" It was certainly a fair statement to make - in their career of almost 20 years, the band have never once set foot on our soil until today, and were a highly anticipated act for many. However, as blasts from smoke machines tried in vain to set some sort of atmosphere for the upcoming performance (at 3:25 in the afternoon, the clouds of dry ice simply blew away and dispersed as soon as they appeared), it became clear that the band weren't appearing any time soon. Roadies continued to do their thing onstage for quite a while, at which point I looked at my phone and realised I'd been standing in front of an empty stage for ten minutes. That was enough for me, and I wandered back over to the Main Arena, for one of Soundwave's major drawcards this year, a little Californian band by the name of Primus.

The funky sounds of Here Come the Bastards were extremely pleasing to hear, particularly as I and the rest of the crowd at the band's sideshow the night before had not witnessed the trio playing this particular song live. Following it up with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers was even more enjoyable! I've only recently started listening to this band properly (I must admit, I bought that sideshow ticket mainly to see Melvins), but they've definitely found a place in my musical heart quite quickly, and how could they not? It's always a bit of a risky decision to see a band play twice in a row, especially if one of those performances is a festival. Will they play different songs? Will the stage antics be the same? Will the crowd like them? Well, there was no need to worry about that first point, as the band's 9-song set only reprised three numbers from the night prior. The delightfully odd frontman/bass GOD Les Claypool was in fine form too, as he spotted a few fans in the front row holding a banner in appreciation of Slash. "I hate to tell you, but Slash is performing on that stage over there!" he said, pointing in the direction of the adjacent stage 1, before suggesting that maybe the security guards would be nice enough to escort them to the other side. However, whether Claypool was joking or whether he was genuinely incorrect, it became apparent to those checking their timetables that he had got it wrong, and Slash was due to play on Stage 2, after Thirty Seconds to Mars on Stage 1. "I'm sorry, I have been misinformed!" Claypool apologised a few songs later, to general laughter. "It just goes to show, never trust the fuckin' bass player!" His antics, and indeed, the eccentric funk stylings of the music, may have gone over the heads of some of the younger members in the crowd, but by the end of the set, most of the audience was smiling and left feeling very satisfied. The set concluded with a very-crowd pleasing double of My Name is Mud, which Claypool introduced as "a Van Halen song, pre-Jump", and the immortal classic Tommy the Cat, introduced as "another Van Halen song, this one from the Sammy Hagar era". My only complaint with this set was it wasn't dark enough, therefore the visuals on the giant inflatable spacemen's helmets were not used like at the sideshow. But a great performance all round!
SETLIST
Seas of Cheese
Here Come the Bastards
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
Pudding Time
The Eyes of the Squirrel (new song!)
Over the Falls
John the Fisherman
My Name is Mud
Tommy the Cat
(Primus score 10/10!)

After the necessary food-and-R 'n' R break, it was back to Stage 4 for a performance from thrash metal royalty. It's almost become something of a festival tradition to have a really terrible band play right before Slayer; all one need to do is look at YouTube to see loads of hilarious footage of such "bands" as My Chemical Romance having stuff thrown at them. And today the unfortunate band was Ill Nino. It was quite amusing to watch the end of their set, by which point the Slayer fans were no longing patiently waiting, and were throwing bottles, cans, middle fingers and a continuous chant involving a less-polite way of saying "Please leave the stage now, thank you." Poor old Ill Nino vocalist (I'm not even going to do him the honour of looking his name up on Wikipedia, they really were quite terrible) tried his best to be brave in the face of adversity, directly addressing the opposing crowd with "We won today Melbourne, and you lost", before leaving the stage quickly. And then the chaos began. A wall of no less than 36 Marshall cabs filled the stage - it could be no other band than Slayer. With an offstage intro booming out of the PA, the four thrash metal titans soon made their way onstage to blast their way through the title track to their 2009 release World Painted Blood. "Thank you for showing up today!" vocalist/bassist Tom Araya exclaimed early in the set. His choice of words were certainly deliberate, as some of the crowd shouted similar sentiments back to him. "I guess you're all glad that I showed up today," he continued, referring to his hospitalisation in Sydney that resulted in the last-minute cancellation of the Slayer set. The band ripped their way through a slew of new material and old favourites alike; unsurprisingly it was the latter that evoked the biggest crowd response. However, I'm not sure whether it was because I was pretty far back in the crowd or for some other reason, but this performance just didn't seem to live up to my expectations. The sound seemed a little off at times, which is something that, even though it's not usually the band's fault, can really detract from a performance. Also, I was a little miffed that the band didn't even finish Raining Blood, cutting the song off just before the thrashing madness of the guitar solo and finale. Speaking of guitars though, the other big news of this tour was the absence of Jeff Hanneman, who has contracted a very metal-sounding flesh-eating disease that has rendered him unable to play guitar. His replacement for the time being is Exodus axeman Gary Holt, who certainly put in a very capable performance on the day. However, in the end Slayer just weren't delivering as much as I thought they would; nonetheless it was still good to see an enormously influential heavy metal band playing in Australia yet again. Maybe a "Big 4" tour could happen soon? I live in hope...
SETLIST:
World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Hallowed Point
Americon
Payback
Mandatory Suicide
Temptation
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
(Slayer score 8/10.)

"Guess what I came here to do today!" proclaimed Josh Homme, frontman of the inimitable Queens of the Stone Age, as he took a healthy swig from a bottle of what appeared to be vodka, and his bandmates kicked into the familiar opening of Feel Good Hit of the Summer. With this particular choice of opening song, the crowd was instantly in Homme's pocket, as they enthusiastically helped him out on those very simple yet very fun lyrics! Straight away, Homme and bandmates followed it up with other Rated R fave The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret, and the pace was set early for what would turn out to be a really good set from the riff-driven five piece. In celebration of the recent reissue of their self-titled debut album, the band have stated that they will play it in its entirety at many of their shows throughout this year, and indeed did at their Soundwave sideshows. However, today not even one song made it into the set, as the band opted instead for a "greatest hits" package of sorts, featuring a wide variety of material from across their career, except for that first album. Queens have always been one of those bands I've sort of "casually loved" - never got "extremely" into them, but certainly haven't hated them either - and I was quite glad to see them perform on this occasion. I didn't really have any complaints with the setlist either - it was especially pleasing to hear I Think I Lost My Headache live, something I didn't expect them to play at all. I thought I'd better leave a bit early to make sure I was back at Stage 4 in time for Melvins; apparently I missed a guy in a wheelchair crowdsurfing during No One Knows! Ah well. Great set!
SETLIST:
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
3's & 7's
Sick, Sick, Sick
Misfit Love
Monsters in the Parasol
Burn the Witch
Little Sister
I Think I Lost My Headache
Go With the Flow
No One Knows
----Encore----
A Song for the Dead
(QOTSA score 10/10!)

At which point it was time to endure another average band running their set overtime at the expense of a much better band to come - this time it was Rob Zombie and his band that were torturing the poor fans of the next band, who in this case was Melvins. Could someone please buy this guy a watch? Despite the apparent fact to everyone in the crowd that their set should have been wrapping up, Zombie and his band dragged it out as long as possible, including throwing in the biggest metal-cliche cover that any band can ever do - Metallica's Master of Puppets. Ugh. They finally finished with Dragula (of course) before getting the crowd to chant "ZOMBIE! ZOMBIE!" one last time - naturally, the other crowd gave it their best "MELVINS! MELVINS!" to try and point out to this dickhead that he'd clearly overstayed his welcome.

Melvins, to their credit, didn't resort to tearing Zombie a new one, either literally or through their microphones, but simply stood onstage with their instruments - clearly frustrated and well ready to play - and waited until Zombie finished, before blasting into The Water Glass, with bass player Jared Warren chanting "WOO! WOO!" sarcastically at the crowd. The setlist was pretty similar to the previous night's sideshow, of course with a few omissions due to the reduced set time, but still highly enjoyed by the crowd, naturally considerably smaller now that a certain British classic metal band were doing their thing on the main stage. The band themselves didn't really mess around with any live schtick, although they were wearing some interesting costumes, but just delivered a solid no-frills set of mostly tracks from their most recent three albums - unfortunately, not albums I'm very familiar with. Nevertheless, it's always a good night when these gents are on the stage!
SETLIST
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
The Bloated Pope
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Anaconda
Electric Flower
Civilized Worm
(Melvins score 9/10)

The crowd was slowly dwindling, but the couple of hundred people that were left were extremely keen to see another smashing live performance from "motherfuckin' Los Angeles" punk heavyweights The Bronx. One can't accuse them of not being kind to their Australian fans (of which there are plenty!), with this visit technically being the band's fourth in just over two years (if you include their brief visit last year under their Mariachi El Bronx incarnation). However, the crowd still lapped up the incredible energy coming from the stage, ensuring that vocalist Matt Caughthran's usual commands for moshing, circle pits and "chaos" were obeyed with great enthusiasm. Playing in front a giant gorilla backdrop with flashing red eyes and the slogan "THE BEAT THAT KILLS", The Bronx tore their way through a great set of songs from their eponymous three albums, and even threw in one brand new song! Eventually Caughthran did what we knew he would do, and leapt into the pit during everyone's favourite, Heart Attack American, more than happy to share his microphone with the adoring crowd. As the band drew their set to a close with History's Stranglers, the crowd were all a bit worse for wear, but at Caughthran's insistence, thought they'd better drift over to the annex to catch the next band!
SETLIST
Knifeman
Rape Zombie
Shitty Future
White Tar
Inveigh
Under the Rabbit (new song)
Six Days a Week
Strobe Life
Around the Horn
Heart Attack American
History's Stranglers
(The Bronx score 10/10!)

Like The Bronx, Fucked Up delivered a stellar set of vicious hardcore punk with all the fury and intensity they could muster, which as it turns out was quite a lot! Vocalist Damian Abraham was also up for some in-the-crowd fun, in fact, he walked onstage, ripped his shirt off, smashed a beer can on his head, and then off he went, into the crowd where he spent the entirety of the set. The band onstage (talented as they are!) were mostly ignored as the crowd attempted to get their piece of Abraham, whether it be singing furiously into his microphone, giving him a high-five or a backslap, or even jumping on his shoulders and riding him around, as one punter managed! After a long day, everyone was a little bit wearied but a band like Fucked Up ensured that everyone tapped into their reserves to summon one last burst of energy. It all ended way too soon, as both Abraham and his new friends looked optimistically toward the stage in the hope of getting one last song. But it was not to be, and as the band walked offstage, Abraham stayed in the pit to thank each and every member of the crowd personally. A truly inspiring thing to watch.
SETLIST
Son the Father
David Comes to Life
Black Albino Bones
I Hate Summer
The Other Shoe
Baiting the Public
(Unknown)
Crusades
(Fucked Up score 10/10!)

Well, it seems that once again, Soundwave Festival brought a truly diverse lineup to celebrate the hard rock/punk/metal counter-culture that's usually pretty much ignored by the mainstream festivals out there. For a festival that only became truly national in 2008, Maddah's Soundwave brand has certainly been embraced with great enthusiasm, and with the acts he's bringing out, it's easy to see why. Fingers crossed that this "Soundwave Revolution" will be something quite exciting!