Live Reviews : Kataklysm, Gotsu Totsu Kotsu & Eternal Rest @ The Crowbar, Brisbane 04/12/13

Images: Amanda Brenchley
Words: Andrew Kapper

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With the undesirable task of having to take the stage in front of a fairly empty Crowbar, locals Eternal Rest comfortably take it in their stride. With a healthy Nile influence on their collective sleeves, the five piece’s tech-death is frustratingly muddy sounding, with the drums and guitars getting mushed together in an unforgiving mix. It slightly improves towards the end of the set, as bassist Jannico Kelk’s two handed taps and runs just manage to push their way into the forefront, and come the last two tracks a few patrons decide to start warming up their necks with windmills up the front, led by an eyepatch wearing older gentleman who seems, for whatever reason, to be dressed like a cross between Odin and Richard the Lionheart.

Eternal Rest

It’s not often you go a gig and come across a new genre of music; tonight, however, this reviewer has been treated to his first experience of ‘samurai metal’. Hailing from Japan (where else?), Gotsu Totsu Kotsu take to the stage decked out in traditional robes, and lyrical content/image aside, deliver a set full of mostly straight forward death metal. The trio do throw in the occasional musical curve ball though, not only is guitarist Atsushi Takahashi a total shredder, bassist/vocalist Haruhisa Takahata’s unique slapping and popping bass technique is certainly from the left-field – as is a brief foray into Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”. They receive a deservedly big response from the slowly building crowd, and Takahata’s between song banter and appreciation, in broken English, is almost heartwarming. If tonight’s support slot is anything to go by, than this certainly will not be the last time the Tokyo band will grace our shores.

Gotsu Totsu Kotsu

Kataklysm are almost like the AC/DC of metal; the know their style, they’ve got the template and they always deliver the goods. The Montreal quartet have built their two decade long career on putting on a flattening live show, whether it be at a huge festival, or to a hundred or so people in a club like tonight. Aside from a handful of tracks from the new album, “Waiting For The End To Come”, the headliner’s hour plus setlist is a straight up ‘greatest hits’ performance. And it’s when the tunes come one after another that you realise how many standout songs Kataklysm have in their cannon; “Taking The World By Storm”, “Prevail”, “Like Angels Weeping (The Dark) and “As I Slither” are absolute barn stormers, loaded with ramping fast sections, melodic guitar passages and crushing riffs. Maurizio Iacono is a commanding, yet personable frontman, not only leading the crowd into chants and headbanging, whilst casually engaging in banter with the crowd.

Kataklysm

He also draws attention to the high amount of other metal tours that have recently hit the country, and conveys genuine thanks to those who made it out this evening. The relatively new fill-in drummer Oli Beaudoin (who is currently standing in for Max Duhamel) is punishing behind the kit, with his tremendous gravity-blast technique worthy of the man whom he is standing in for, and he also leads the band in keeping the set airtight. With the closing notes of “Crippled & Broken”, it’s plainly obvious that Kataklysm are masters of their own sound, and whilst the turnout at the Crowbar is frankly weak, those who made an effort were rewarded with a destructive set of Canadian metal.

Kataklysm Australia Tour 2014

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