LIVE REVIEW: KNOTFEST AUSTRALIA AT CENTENNIAL PARKLANDS, SYDNEY. 8 MARCH 2025
by BRIAN GIFFIN
TODAY was the final round of Knotfest Australia and Sydney was putting on an ambiguous day weatherwise. The addition of Drain to this city’s bill provided the early arrivals with an added bonus of legit hardcore but they, Sunami and Vended were all on a bit early for his old guy so it was veteran metalcore campaigners Miss May I that provided the soundtrack to my entry to the festival. Never a band that’s been on my high on my listening list, they proved to be an energetic and dynamic live act getting the early crowd into the spirit with a short set of solid, classic metalcore.
HEALTH have been in the country quite a bit over the past couple of years, but this time it’s been on festival stages. Their electronic-driven sound made them significantly different from most of the rest of the bill to come, danceable beats and hard industrial sounds with heavy guitars and huge, clattering drums getting plenty of movement from the crowd. Jake Duzsik’s clear, high vocals carry a melodic resonance reminiscent of Brian Molko, a striking contrast to the darkness of their pounding industro-electric rock as it pulsed across the field, bringing a few minutes of rain and causing many to scramble for ponchos. HEALTH’s throbbing music seemed almost perfect for the brief downpour.
In Hearts Wake took to the stage next. Opening with “The Flood” should have set them up for a powerful entrance but the mix was bad. Jake Taylor was struggling, so maybe he couldn’t hear himself on stage, the drum sound was clipping and the guitars were in and out. By “Hellbringer” it should have been fixed, but when Jamie Hails from Polaris came out to join Taylor, his mic wasn’t on, gutting what should have been a knockout blow. Not even Elmo could help them. The singer’s callouts for activism and positive resistance were heartfelt but their sound was so bad it was hard to watch.
A trip to the bar was almost derailed by the payment system crashing just as I got there, but everything came back online at the same moment Hatebreed hit the stage, so maybe Jamey Jasta is some kind of miracle worker. I’m putting it down to him, anyhow.
After an absence from our shores of more than a decade, Hatebreed ripped into the Knotfest crowd with a furious barrage of hard and fast, breakdown-ridden hardcore. Billed as a celebration of Perseverance, there were plenty of other goodies in the set as well as they stirred the crowd into a succession of circle pits. “To the Threshold” got a huge response and “A Call for Blood” had the crowd doing exactly that until a guitar blow out just ahead of the breakdown sent them off the rails for a moment. Following Jasta’s assertion that repeating a song is bad luck, they ploughed on, continuing to bombard the crowd with anthemic hardcore with a punishing set in the early afternoon. It may not have been the complete Perseverance show that some wanted or expected, but it was Hatebreed smashing all before them.
Enter:Shikari aren’t really my thing at all and even so, it was time for another bar run and explore the food options. The burger place I liked at Good Things was supposed to be here again but wasn’t; no matter though because there were plenty of other alternatives. I also didn’t completely miss Enter:Shikari because the festival set-up means they can be heard across the field and while their electro-core thing isn’t too bad, I’m not really into it. Oh well.
By the time I had come out from the shade of some spreading trees to get back into festival mode, the crowd had increased significantly, in time for Dutch symphonic metallers Within Temptation making their debut Sydney appearance. Being a festival curated by Slipknot, masks seemed to be the order of the day, with huge-voiced Sharon den Adel matching a spiky gold and black number with a Ukrainian flag daubed on her forearm as she led her band into “We Go to War”. The only thing close to a traditional metal band playing today, Within Temptation positively sparkled under the Sydney sun. Den Adel is a one-woman choir, backed up by a video appearance from Tarja on “Paradise (What About Us?)” as the band weaved their melodic metal magic around her, each song apparently taking on a different guise as their eight-song set shimmered. Going in to this performance I had never been a fan but by halfway through I had completely changed my opinion of them – a stellar band.
Ultimate deathcore warriors Slaughter to Prevail wasted no time doing what they do best, stirring the pit ninjas into wild circles of flailing limbs. Alex Terrible starts the set masked also but that doesn’t last long. This type of brutality for its own sake had never been to my liking so it was off to the bar again for me. Again, they could still be heard, but without any of the clarity Enter:Shikari had – more like a series of loud thuds and monster noises.
Since the last time I saw Polaris they have risen above tragedy and taken on the world. Today they were coming back to Sydney as champions, and they couldn’t have been happier. Flame pots erupted across the stage as the local heroes ripped through a cavalcade of catchy, melodic metalcore, Jamie Hails and Jake Steinhauser trading off vocal parts as Jesse Crofts and Rick Schneider stepped out with some guitar shred, something that had so far been in fairly short supply on today’s bill. Tracks from across their catalogue featured as streamers and fire shot from the stage; Jack Bergin from Void of Vision joined them for a barnstorming run through “Hypermania” as Polaris made it their mission to be one of the true highlights of this Knotfest package – and they were.
Now it was time for the entertaining and confusing Japanese troupe known as Babymetal. Masked musicians wielding tight and furious heavy metal line the back of the stage while a trio of idol performers spin, dance, run and, occasionally, sing out front. Actually, only one of them sings. The other two just scream now and then. Their songs are basically J-pop tunes set to metal but the vocalists’ hyperactive antics, the seizure-inducing visuals and the insanely catchy riffing and choruses weave an unmissable spectacle of fun that’s hard not to enjoy. Even Electric Callboy drop by for a video cameo in “RATATATA”. Nothing about this act seems to make any logical sense, but the crowd loves it.
A Day to Remember is a band that I have had literally zero time for until today. Yet when a band can hit a cold stage and simply take command of a surging festival crowd the way these guys did, it pays to take notice. As the chant that opens “The Downfall of Us All” chimed out, I saw people LEAVE THE BOOZE LINE and run to go watch them. The first band to play in full darkness, they let off pyro and confetti cannons like they’d just been invented and the fans lost their shit. The band’s heady mix of hardcore and power-pop is a winner, Jeremy McKinnon’s banter with both the crowd and his band is engaging and funny and the songs are killer. Beach balls bounce out over the field as the guitarists rain down some blistering solos and McKinnon stirs the hordes into singalongs from across their catalogue. On a day where literally everything has been high energy, A Day to Remember aren’t afraid to roll out the only acoustic song of the entire event, “If It Means a Lot to You” only to bring back the pit action for “All Signs Point to Lauderdale” to close an action-packed set.
Finally, a near-hush of anticipation sets across the parklands. Gary Wright’s “Dreamweaver” drifts through the night and then the grinding drone of their long-established intro track builds the tension. “(sic)” rips it apart and Slipknot explode onto the stage, their eight members barely keeping still as they prowled the multi-level stage. Corey Taylor addressed Clown’s absence early on, and without him they veered into a different set than the 25th anniversary of their debut we probably expected. Still, we got “Gematria” as part of the set for only the fourth time and there were plenty of classics in the catalogue-spanning set. Newer members like Eloy Casagrande and Michael Pfaff have added a fresh energy to what is little short of a spectacular display. Sid Jones has his own turn to shine, dropping a remix of Tattered and Torn in between bouts of hanging almost fully upside down before the full band comes ripping back with nuts versions of “The Heretic Anthem” and “Psychosocial”. I saw Slipknot at Soundwave once where they sounded muted and looked tired. Tonight they were dynamic, heavy, loud and absolutely devastating. As the final grinding sounds of “Scissors” echoed across Sydney, few could deny that Slipknot are still one of the greatest heavy acts of the 21st Century and Knotfest had delivered yet again.
PIX BY BRENDAN DELAVERE at KNOTFEST MELBOURNE
