DREADNAUGHT LIVE IN SYDNEY

Dreadnaught, Switchblade, Be'lakor, Darker Half, From Winter's Grace
August 8, 2009
Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt


When veteran campaigners Dreadnaught announced a Sydney date with a bunch of staunch up n' comers, it was time to once again come out of gig-going hibernation and try to find a parking space in Leichhardt on a Saturday evening to catch a show that held the promise of awesomeness. By the time I arrived, From Winter's Grace had already played and the room was full and vibing greatly to the melodic strains of Darker Half. Tonight was the first time I'd seen them since their early days when they really weren't very good so the change I noticed was stark, if not unexpected considering only one guy is left in the band from back then. While it was new guitarist Brad Dickson's first show with them tonight, the rest of Darker Half have spent much of the year touring and becoming a lean, mean metal machine in the process. Their slick trad/power sound struck the right chord with the crowd which was quite large and eager considering how early it still was.

Melbourne's Be'lakor have been getting all kinds of wraps for their dark noise and tonight was the proof as to why. These days the term "melodic death metal" conjures up images of Swedish metal-gone-lame acts like Soilwork and In Flames and their myriad of clones, but these guys who were scarcely out of nappies when The Red in the Sky is Ours came out go back to its roots and produce a dark, heavy and crushing style like early Dark Tranquillity crossed with the progressive meanderings of Opeth's Morningrise period. Be'lakor might not have moved around as much as the Darker Half lads, but they held the audience just the same with a tight set of great songs with real death metal vocals and not this raspy scream that masquerades as same so much lately. They really are something to check out.

Much like Darker Half, Switchblade has seen some line-ups come and go but it hasn't slowed them down. While Dreadnaught were the deserved headliners, it was no surprise this band drew the biggest crowd. These guys are arguably Sydney's most popular metal act at the moment, and I have never seen them play a bad show. This evening was no exception. On the back of several other high profile shows and a killer new album, Switchblade cut a swathe through the Bald Faced Stag crowd with a high-energy assault of aggressive groove and twin-guitar modern metal that highlighted the choicest cuts off both their albums. Andrew Najdek and Anthony Delvecchio make a formidable guitar partnering and Mat Picco nails everything behind the kit.

Dreadnaught has been under-appreciated in this city for too long, so the brilliant undercard meant they had a really decent crowd when they unleashed "Tattooed Tears". A few people may have left by then, but more fool them. With former bassist Squiz making a special appearance on behalf of an injured Ando tonight, the Naughties tore through their latest album in its entirety, omitting only the acoustic tracks and replacing them with a trilogy of earlier songs with the same level of venom as their newies. Just like the band to precede them, Dreadnaught are always awesome and explosive live, Greg Trull the angry, tortured front man, Richie and Damon trading melody lines and carving out catchy rock-inflected riffs while up the back drummer Racca rolls out the beats effortlessly. By the end of the set they had the crowd wanting more, and only finished up because Squiz "didn't know anymore songs" but they had rounded out the night with a devastating performance that may well have gotten though to the Sydney fans at last.

Dreadnaught set list:

• Tattooed Tears
• The Push
• Save Your Life
• Collapse
• More Than One Way
• Agony/Ecstasy
• Dead in the Dirt
• 10x the Pain
• Twist the Knife
• The Game
• The Gobbler
• Buried

DREADNAUGHT: Dreadnaught

Produced by Reggie Bowman and Dreadnaught
Released: 1 May

Dreadnaught's latest album starts off rather subtly with a nice melodic guitar line. After exactly one minute, a choppy staccato riff slams you in the face and it's all in from that moment on. The Melbourne quintet's fifth album all but dumps the dirty raw rock sound of their last for the more metallic stylings of earlier days, but that hasn't stopped them sounding pissed off.

It would be hard not to sound this way really, with a voice like Greg Trull's out front. His distinctive, powerful roar is like pure anger unleashed. There's also a new weapon in the Dreadnaught arsenal: the clock-stopping drumming prowess of Matt Racovalis. These guys aren't as technical as Racca's previous band Alarum, but his stickswork still gives them an extra sting in the tail. And that sting is venomous.

"Tattooed Tears" opens Dreadnaught with the pain and frustration of loss. Three people close to the band died between this album and the last, including former drummer Suds, and this sort of emotion pervades the entire set. The first four tracks pile on anger and fury in heightening degrees until the first of the brief, moody "Reflections" interludes offers short respite. Trull evokes such rage in tracks like "Save Your Life" and "Agony/Ecstacy" you almost expect to cop flecks of spittle in your ears as you listen. Musically, the band never forgets the importance of dynamics, blending catchy riffs and short bursts of rock groove with controlled injections of melody and occasional splats of lead guitar. Racovalis (he of the traditional grip) proves his mettle more than once, and no more so than with the machine-gun drumming in "10x the Pain". Finally, if all that anger wasn't quite enough, Dreadnaught finishes with "Buried" that's nothing less than full-blast hardcore.

Just as good as anything they've done before, Dreadnaught's fourth album is a furious ball of rage that cements them as both the angriest and one of the best of Australia's heavy metal legions.

1. Tattooed Tears
2. The Push
3. Save Your Life
4. Collapse
5. Reflections Pt. 1
6. More Than One Way
7. Agony/Ecstacy
8. Reflections Pt. 2
9. 10x the Pain
10. Twist the Knife
11. Reflections Pt. 3
12. Buried

Rating: 93%

DREADNAUGHT: Body.Blood.Skin.Mind

Produced by Dreadnaught

Released: 1996

When people talk about Australian metal bands, for some reason Dreadnaught invariably gets overlooked. Just how much of an injustice this is becomes immediately apparent when the power and emotion of the band's first album is allowed to wash over you. My first experience of this was listening to a copy dubbed onto a cassette that was given to me by their late drummer Sudz; it was so different to so much of the metal I was listening to at the time that I at first didn't quite know what to make of it. But just as the first track creeps and builds under the swirling samples of the TV suicide of US politician Budd Dwyer, Body.Blood.Skin.Mind. took hold of me and now stands as one of my all-time favourites.

Dreadnaught's musical style on this album is far removed from the groove-laden dirty rock n roll they play these days; indeed they would sound like a totally different band if it weren't for the distinctive vocal presence of Greg Trull. From a truly enormous, powerful roar of frustration or rage to a threatening whisper or cry of despair, there are few other singers who exude such a wide range of emotions often in the space of a single song. The haunting "Flowers" is a case in point, a career stand-out for the band and the perfect showcase for Trull as his voice embodies the emotional battlefield of the lyrics. Throughout the album, however, the entire band simply shines, crafting a genius-like combination of early-90s alterna-metal with the progressive thrash of bands like Death only without the extended guitar solos. Here the guitars focus on measuring out melody while at the same time dredging up massively sludgy riffs like those in "Begotten Not Made" or at other times pacy driving metal like in "Harlequin". It really is difficult to pigeonhole Body.Blood.Skin.Mind into a comfortable genre because Dreadnaught makes use of so many of them. There are splashes of the groove rock they would adopt later, some of the industrial element borrowed from Trull's other band Discordia, melodic thrash and dark rock that hints vaguely at the likes of Tool, and all put together with a level of brilliance that remains under-rated even today.

The album is rounded out by "Return of the Astral Traction Bleeder", a 26-minute long ambient track of rumbling thunder and stormy weather that finishes with clashing riffing and rolling drums. Dreadnaught made a fantastic album here, the genius of which should remain overlooked by you no longer.

1. Dripping
2. Distant
3. Mindbend
4. Harlequin
5. Remote Control
6. Flowers
7. Twisted Prayer
8. Begotten Not Made
9. Return of the Astral Traction Bleeder

Rating: 95%