Gig Review: Flaming Wrekage + Astrodeath + Celestial Oath at the Baroque Room, Katoomba

Live review: Flaming Wrekage, Astrodeath and Celestial Oath at the Baroque Room, Katoomba, Sunday, January 19 2024

By CORIN SHEARSTON

IN a moderately isolated area such as the Blue Mountains, live offerings of heavy music culture are few and often far between. As a result, the cathartic appreciation of such events by the local populace is nationally renowned, which makes many bands list the area’s central hub of Katoomba as a must-go area for any east coast or national tour. Fortunately, the art-loving town is only two hours west of Sydney, allowing city-based bands to cruise up in the course of a single morning or afternoon and depart shortly after.

To support the launch of their latest single, “Witch Hunt”, Sydney four-piece Flaming Wrekage added The Baroque Room in Katoomba as the first stop on their three-date east coast tour, from January 19 to February 3. No strangers to The Baroque, they were joined by two slower, sludgier bands that had also performed multiple times there in recent years – Astrodeath and Celestial Oath.

Having released three doom-laden singles between 2020 and 2021, Celestial Oath hail from Lithgow and the greater Blue Mountains while wearing their dual loves of slow riffs and weed on their sleeves. Over the past five years, the group has supported the likes of Sasquatch, Black Rheno and FANGZ. The trio, comprised of bassist-vocalist Tom Hine, drummer Mal McManus and guitarist-lead vocalist Matt ‘Pez’ Perry are all also members of Naugrim. Known for dark and lumbering tracks such as “The Devil’s Saxophone” and “Cult Classics”, Celestial Oath wasted no time in kicking off the evening in a rolling storm of crashing cymbals, churning bass and bulky riffs, to get bodies swaying and heads banging.

Carrying on in a similarly-slow, Sabbath-loving way, Astrodeath performed next. A groove-loving duo renowned for their strong core – unique sonic filth, guitarist-vocalist Tim Lancken and drummer Yoshi Hausler have released two albums, six singles and a split 7” with their friends in Mountain Wizard Death Cult. Upon hearing Lancken’s first strains of feedback, which segued into a fill from Yoshi’s deep, pounding drums before their live sound solidified into the mosh-friendly riffs for which they’re known, it’s easy to see why Astrodeath have been in such high demand recently. The seismic amount of thick tone and volume that they project as a duo is staggering. While blazing through their recent singles, such as “Leviathan Rising”, “Red Weed” and “Ceremonial Blood”, it was clear to see they were both having a good time and loving the reciprocal enjoyment of the more-frenzied, head-banging punters. The velocity of Hausler’s Bonham-Ward inspired fills from behind his sky blue kit was a sight to behold, amidst the crashing of three huge cymbals that helped to maintain the unique tone of their grim and groovy approach. Halfway through their set, Astrodeath encouraged an initially hesitant audience to slowly climb up onto the low stage and head-bang with them through their trademark cover of Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” – one of the main highlights of their handful of sets that they’ve performed at the Baroque Room. Tim even gave a special shout out to local musician Max Steel (Foothills, Ofox Olord), who had cut his hair into a short, spiky mullet in a small outdoor gazebo next to The Baroque before showtime. Lancken praised his new hairstyle as looking “crook”. Leaving us grinning with our ears ringing, Astrodeath retired to the narrow dressing-room corridor on the right of the Baroque’s stage to crack some well-earned cold ones, after two encores of single songs. We followed suit in the cracking of more cold ones, dispensed by the patient bar staff opposite three well-stocked merch tables, which were savoured outside or on the dangerously slippery dance floor of the venue, lubricated by much alcohol.

A major shift in musical pace occurred shortly afterwards, when Flaming Wrekage took to the stage to drop their furious, technical blows, highs and lows upon us. They proceeded to plow through a vicious set bolstered by the classical eighties shredding of Justin Humphry, Dave Lupton’s ferocious growls, riffs and charismatic frontman presence, Matt Thornton’s whirlwind, athletic drumming and Lachlan Campbell’s beefy bass chops. The group’s dedication to their art is often honoured by intense loyalty from their fans, such as one young man from who drove 2.5 hours from Cowra to see them, while wearing a handmade Flaming Wrekage t-shirt bearing the slogan, ‘Flaming Wrekage don’t have merch in my size’. As a return favour, the band were quick to upload a selfie post with the guy, in which they declared that they’ll have him covered on their next merch run.

Amidst recent singles like “Running Blind” and “Cataclysm”, choice cuts from their latest 2021 album Cathedral Of Bones were also dished out, such as “Sin Survives”, which closed the show. Just as “Ceremonial Blood” and “Children of the Grave” were highlight songs for Astrodeath, it was hard to look past “Witch Hunt” and “Sin Survives” as the main highlights of Flaming Wrekage’s set. Having recently passed the ‘pub test’ in Newtown – for which Dave entered establishments such as The Duke with headphones set to blast his band’s new single into the ears of willing drinkers – “Witch Hunt” impressed many of us with its rapid, molten riff sections and innovative drum rhythms, over which sailed Dave’s bitter, caustic growl. ARIA-winning electropop producer Paul Mac is a fan: “The thing that surprises me with some metal is that it’s really funky…with a really good groove. The accents are insane, and the second last section was like Sabbath but with [double] kick drums…great song”. If that isn’t enough reason to go and check out the latest single from Flaming Wrekage, I don’t know what is.

Image: Corin Shearston