Gig review: Harakiri For the Sky + Austere + Burden Man at The Basement, Canberra

Live review: Harakiri For The Sky, Austere and Burden Man at The Basement, Canberra, Friday, November 15 2024

By BRENDAN DELAVERE

WITH the fog and rain playing havoc on the road from the coast to Canberra, I unfortunately managed to just miss openers Immorium. And with some sound issues delaying their start, Sydney depressive black metal four piece Burden Man set the pace for tonight for this reviewer.

Slowly building soundscapes is their weapon, deliberate yet wholly free-feeling, each composition ascends from a slow-picked note to a wall of noise. Feelings of sorrow and foreboding emanate and frontman Justin Finch’s deep voice sits heavy in the mix, echoes of inner demons droning. The final track is uneasy and heavy – it’s screams and darkness to close.

Their first ever Australian tour, the depressive post black metal project of Desolate and Sorrow, Austere are supporting on all dates of this tour. Having disbanded in 2010, they returned in 2021 with new music and their first ever live shows, playing Dark Bombastic Evening in Romania. Their second show on home soil was plagued by sound issues. Monitors and backing tracks are unplugged and once those were sorted, the four piece unleashed. The melodic noise of “Sullen”, “This Dreadful Emptiness” and “Cycle of Collapse” follows, layers of frenetic riffs and Sorrow’s haunted banshee screams piercing the evening. Sadness and desperation can be raw, heavy and beautiful.

Austria’s Harakiri For The Sky have been making waves in the burgeoning post-black metal scene. The brainchild of Matthias ‘MS’ Sollak and vocalist Michael ‘JJ’ Wahntraum, the five piece has been churning out incredible bodies of work for over a decade, with the beautiful Arson and Mærerecords at the forefront of that list. Opening with “I, Pallbearer”, frontman JJ kneels with his back to the audience. Arson opening track “Fire, Walk With Me” with its piano melodies and driving riffs sees bassist Thomas Dornig disappear off stage with a broken bass string; the band forges on, guitars covering for the missing bass. There’s “Homecoming: Denied”, “Funeral Dreams” and the self-hatred of “Heroin Waltz”, the set list is only eight songs long, but when those songs each average about nine minutes of relentless drumming and riffage, the smaller number can be forgiven. A momentary clearing of the stage follows for ‘encore’ and cover “Song to Say Goodbye”, JJ climbing into the crowd for the set closer. Dornig is flat on the cold floor, sweat dripping. Placebo has never sounded so heavy.

The Canberra crowd may have been a bit light on tonight, but they’ve made up for that with enthusiasm on the barrier and emptying of wallets at the merch desk.