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Live Reviews : Be’lakor, Hybrid Nightmares, Eye Of The Enemy & Hadal Maw @ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne 23/07/2016

By on July 24, 2016

Words: Bailey Graham

Images: Mark Hoffmann

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Deep within the inner suburbs of Melbourne, four of the finest death metal bands in the scene today were set to take over Richmond’s Corner Hotel; a venue synonymous with hosting some of the greatest heavy metal concerts in the city, and tonight is no exception. Spearheading the night are tonight’s headliners; internationally-recognised, home-grown melodic death metal titans Be’lakor, who are embarking on a six-date Australian tour in support of their latest release, the critically acclaimed Vessels. Along for the ride are Melbourne’s own Hybrid Nightmares, Eye of the Enemy and Hadal Maw. Walking into the iconic venue, there was already an aura of excitement amongst punters for tonight’s show, with black shirts and battle jackets out in full force. If there was any live event that showcased why Melbourne’s heavy music scene is world-class, this would be it.

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Hadal Maw

Local death metal heroes Hadal Maw wasted no time in delivering their bone-crushing tunes to the crowd. Their unique blend of traditional death metal with modern technical twists proved to be quite a hit with the punters. The most visually entertaining aspect of Hadal Maw’s performance was the enthusiasm displayed in vocalist Sam Dillon who completely dominated the stage with his somewhat demonic-possessed display of movement and flawless death growls. Despite being only a recent addition to the band, Dillon proved to the crowd that after months of searching, Hadal Maw have truly found an excellent front man to propel them to new heights in the Australian metal scene. Another truly incredible sight was the technical proficiency of drummer Rob Brens, who’s seemingly effortless execution of blisteringly fast double bass technique would be enough to make Dave Lombardo himself proud. The highlight of their set was their performance of crowd favourite “Coil”, which saw hundreds of head bangers completely let loose and understand why this band is only just getting started, and has a long, successful career ahead of them.

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Eye of the Enemy

No strangers to the Melbourne metal community, Eye of the Enemy set to maintain the already high standard of the night. Not only did they maintain the standard, they completely crushed it. The eerie heartbeat opening track “The Vision” led right into a full frontal assault of non-stop riffs and head banging, to which neither the band nor the crowd let up in their display of energy during Eye of the Enemy’s set. Comprised mostly of tracks from their 2014 release The Vengeance Paradox, the band closed their set with more old-school fan favourites from their debut album, 2010’s The Weight of Redemption. Their performance of personal favourite “The Shift” saw the crowd completely lose their minds in the moment, starting circle pit after circle pit, it was obvious that these melodic death metallers completely won over the crowd in a matter of minutes. Finishing their set with the crowd-favourite “The Paradigm of Penance”, what little energy the crowd had left was sought to be erased as the flawless performance of the track brought out one of the most intense mosh pits I’ve ever seen for a support act at the Corner Hotel. Although their performance was pure brilliance, it must be stated that vocalist Mitch Alexander appeared to show signs of strain in his voice in a couple of instances during the performance, but his highly aggressive display of energy both on stage and up against the front barrier, coupled with a few Periphery jokes made the crowd completely ignore his incredibly minor signs of vocal strain and only reaffirmed that statement that this is a band that is only going to get better and better.

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Hybrid Nightmares

Providing direct support for the night were progressive extreme metal quintet Hybrid Nightmares; a band that have cemented themselves in past performances as being one of the most technically proficient and visually incredible acts in the Melbourne metal scene. Fresh of their latest set of four releases, aptly named The Four Ages, the band pummelled the audience with progressive style riffs and some of the best shrieking vocals I’ve heard in a long time. It’s no surprise that this band has such a huge local following after witnessing a performance like that. Every member of the band’s instrumental proficiency was as tight as ever, and front man Lachlan “Loki” Robson’s excellent display of vocal power and confidence only reaffirmed his position as one of Melbourne’s most entertaining metal frontmen. Closing their set with crowd favourite “The Obelisk”, Hybrid Nightmares are band that’s not only on top of their game within Australia, but are now in my opinion, ready to take on the world as one of Australia’s finest metal exports.

The crowd’s demeanour started to shift, the excitement was building to the point where you could feel it in every corner of the venue. As the curtains slowly unveiled, there stood Be’lakor. Their last Melbourne performance was 2015’s headline show with Orpheus Omega, which unfortunately was extremely underwhelming for Be’lakor as it was regarded by many fans and critics alike as one of their weakest performances in recent memory, so it goes without saying that they had a lot to prove tonight. Comprised of nothing but well-known hits from their most recent three albums, Be’lakor unleashed “Venator” onto those below, completely reinvigorating the crowd into a frenzy like I’ve never experienced or seen before. It was already apparent that they completely redeemed themselves within the first few minutes of their performance, but only sought to completely reach new standards with their performance of “Roots to Sever”; a highly sought after track from the latest album, 2016’s Vessels.

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Be’lakor

Going straight into older tracks “Outlive the Hand” and “In Parting”, the energy from the crowd only fuelled the band to make vocalist and guitarist George Kosmas look into the crowd in astonishment and state that “Melbourne really is the best city in the world for metal”. The latter half of their set continued to remain flawless, with another Vessels track “The Smoke of Many Fires” giving the crowd the opportunity to absorb more of what is widely considered to be one of 2016’s greatest metal albums. It was only a matter of time until the band decided it was time to unleash what was regarded by many as the highlight of the entire night, their performance of “Remnants” saw the entire venue erupt, with crowd surfer after crowd surfer pour over the front barrier and circle pits enveloping the floor. Closing the set with the epic “Countless Skies”, fans and critics alike were gobsmacked at the level at with Be’lakor performed tonight. Coming off one of the best album’s they’ve ever written, to unleash a live performance of such calibre, only cemented Be’lakor’s position as Melbourne’s greatest melodic death metal act.

I really tried to find any significant fault in tonight’s performances from all four bands, but alas, there just wasn’t any. Hadal Maw, Eye of the Enemy and Hybrid Nightmares completely owned the stage, as if they were headlining the night themselves, a trait seen in very few support acts, let alone every support act of the night. Be’lakor’s sound was not only perfect, but their execution and live delivery of the tracks was just utterly flawless. All these aspects provided Melbourne with one of its greatest live concerts of 2016 – a night filled with riffs, headbanging, beer and bruises. If there were any band I’d recommend seeing whilst they’re on top of their game, it’s Be’lakor. I promise you that you’ll be just as amazed as I was.