Morbid Mondays is a well-overdue booster to Melbourne's metal scene courtesy of The Old Bar.
Every Monday, The Old Bar’s giving Melbourne a chance to bid a cathartic ‘fuck off’ to the beginning of the working week and release some inner turmoil with their new Morbid Mondays series, featuring a plethora of excellent local metal bands that often don’t get the recognition they deserve.
If you’re a genre-fetishist, expect the best local thrash, death, post-lockdown hardcore, punk n roll, D-Beat, grubby sludge, cyborg disco grind industrial gabber, and other words we don’t know the meaning but love the sound of. The gig series kicked off in style last week with oldschool thrash metal outfit Vexation and feral, blackened hardcore group Choof, who describe their sound as “for your ears what chewing broken glass is for your mouth. Or kinda similar to taking a swig of VB.”
Here’s a look at what’s coming up over the next month or so…
What you need to know
Check out Melbourne’s most comprehensive gig guide here.
June 20: Nephalem and Iriak – $15, no presales
Nephalem, a four-piece from the suburbs of Melbourne, come together to give you a gritty exploration of the metal genre. With musical backgrounds varying from punk, to indie, to hardcore, and everything back again – their varied influences combine to create a unique take on metal while conveying a misguided apathy towards everyday life, delivered with a cheeky demeanour.
Iriak, hailing from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, a two-piece consisting of drums and guitar, playing good ol’ punk n roll with some D-Beat thrown in for good measure. Founded just before the coronavirus pandemic when the world went to shit! Now back with a vengeance to plague the Melbourne music scene.
June 27: Leaps and Bounds Festival – ESP Mayhem, Burn the Hostages, Gravitate
ESP Mayhem take you on bum trip to apocalypses of futures past with nothing to keep you fed but a stale diet of terror, shame, hubris and contempt. Cyborg disco grind industrial gabber metal to be simultaneously hated and/or loved only by those with the most discerning of tastes. Pick a side or take a hike!
If the idea of Eyehategod listening to Grief in a dank shed, with Buzzoven bringing them warm beers in Australia is up your alley, then this is the band for you. Loud feedback by a group of people who are simply ‘alright’ at playing their instruments – grubby sludge from the underside of the world, that’s Burn the Hostages.
One of the more fearsome outfits in the new post-lockdown wave of Melbourne hardcore is Gravitate. Their blend of metallic riffing and hardcore energy has been turning heads since they exploded into life late in 2021. With their debut EP coming in June, Gravitate are a live force you won’t want to miss.
On July 4, catch Myotragus and Headlopper, on July 11 you can see Carthus and Dark Necessities, and then on July 25 there’ll be Algaroth and Ashbel.
