Obituary, Wormrot & LO! - Metro Theatre Sydney 17th January 2020
First up on the bill was Sydney’s own LO! (Look & Behold) the punters who arrived early to the venue were in for an absolute treat. The almost packed room was ready for the crushing and technically explosive set from the local lads. Front man Sam Dillon’s commanding presence on stage is like what you could imagine the aftermath of a dense forest that has been hit by a tornado leaving twisted limbs and utter chaos; but at the same time creating something of absolute beauty.
His voice slams you in the ear holes, bounces off the walls and then crack you in the back of the skull for a pleasantly unexpected head spin of euphoric proportions. He vocalised the current plights facing Australia and encouraged the crowd to all come together under the banner of tragedy we are currently facing to attempt to make things better; reminding us that we should by all means be angry about the current state of affairs.
The whole band flawlessly grinded through their set with Sam clambering into the crowd to join the frenzy and hype them up for the upcoming acts.
Up next on the bill was Singapore’s grindcore giants Wormrot, forming in 2007 there was a huge amount of buzz in the crowd for Arif, Rasyid and Vijesh to take the stage.
They were more than rewarded with what sprang forth from the lads.
Arif ignited on the stage with the power of 1000 suns darting back and forth; whilst jumping onto the barrier to scream sweet nothings into the crowd's face. Whilst the band shredded and walloped everyone's senses into a climax that everyone soon realised that the word of mouth about the outstanding performance of this band was 100% true.
With the two support bands having finished their sets, and wetting the palate of the punters; the crowd was both ready, and unprepared for the sheer overpowering presence that is Obituary. This band formed back in 1984, went through a couple of name changes before settling with Obituary in 1988.
Taking to the stage the crowd just about lost their minds seeing the lords of death metal in front of their eyes.
The combined enthusiasm spewed out amongst all that were attending the show and from the moment that the band hit their first note people began crowd surfing and tumbled into the photographer's pit with security working hard to keep up with the rolling bodies.
Before we could even get through our allocated 3 songs to shoot, we were advised to leave the photographers pit (this is why we LOVE and respect Soundworks Touring; not only are they the hardest working crew in the industry but their concerns always focus on everyone's safety as a priority).
Pushing my way through the sweaty wall of human bodies getting a human shower of combined moistness from everyone around me, I took a vantage point at the rear of the venue to witness absolute organised chaos not only from the band but from all of the punters. The combined heat from all the bodies in the room and the magnificent show that the band put on made for a perfect evening of a delicious metal feast; the whole night left me with wanting more but also overly fulfilled to complete satisfaction.
