Blog — Page 230 of 279

Entombed AD

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 10, 2017

One would need more than one flipchart to scratch the surface of how influential Entombed have been throughout the nearly three decades of their existence.

Emerged under the moniker Nihilist in the mid-80ies and coining what eventually  became trademark Scandinavian death metal,  their unique Clandestine album became  an instant and timeless classic that has never lost an iota of relevance.

However, by the early 1990s their sound branched out and opened up to included garage rock and other influences.

This new mélange of hard rock, heavy metal and death metal would eventually be described as “death’n’roll”.

What followed were the kingpins of heavy music taking pages out of Entombed’s book and sourcing more than mere subtle influences to enrich their musical emissions.

2014 saw a name change and a continuation of their path with the adage “AD”.

In a live environment, Entombed AD is everything you would hope for and more: Charismatic, engaging Swedes unleashing the fury like the well-oiled machine they are, delivering a variety of old, tested and tried classics along with new emissions of their varied discography and artfully switching between bludgeoning and brutal yet groovy onslaughts, blast beats and virtuoso, thrashing riffing, effortlessly walking the chasm between death metal, punkish and rocking elements and pretty much all of the other ingredients that make heavy music worthwhile.

The legacy of Entombed looms large despite internal strife, yet the 2017 Entombed AD incarnation sounds as ferocious and savage as you would hope them to be

It was good to see them in the third dimension proving that they have lost none of their relevance.

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Photos by KAVV

Snakehips

Metro Theatre

Sydney, AU

May 8, 2017

The London-based electronic chill duo Snakehips with their hypnotic, trap-inflected songs that are reminiscent of Odesza, Kelala and Cashmere Cat are the incarnation of the post-party cool-down with a jazzy flow and their funky sound mixed with hip hop beats clearly indicated that the night is not over yet.

For not being an actual band in the traditional sense, the stage presence and crowd interaction is not dissimilar to a rock show, with the visuals projected as a backdrop enhancing the setting with its animations and blue and white lights flickering to the extent that might be conducive to elicit epileptic attacks.

Their set was based on a solid foundation of a blend of tested and tried pop and R&B tracks running the gamut from smooth to funky and back.

The audience was completely captured by the thudding basslines, the smooth, down-tempo reworking of rap, swirling synths and had a good time dancing along.

A fun, dance worthy, highly energetic show the concept of which follows the distinct Snakehips narrative and attracted a sizeable crowd on a school night.

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Photos by KAVV

Botanica

Royal Botanic Gardens

Sydney, AU

May 06 – 28, 2017

Botanica 2017, focused on the nexus between the disciplines of art and science, is Australia’s premier annual botanical art exhibition promoting and protecting Australia’s rich diversity of plant life, features works by some of its leading botanical and natural science artists.

In this bicentenary year of the Garden, Botanica explores the theme of Farm Cove, the original farm of the first settlement that was established on the current site of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Botanica explores the complex and remarkable relationship the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney has with its plants. The annual showcase, now in its 17th year, features work by some of the best Australian and international established and emerging botanic and natural history artists and is considered one of the foremost exhibitions of its kind.

2017's Botanica theme draws its inspiration from the multiple ways we need, love and should appreciate plants - medicines, oxygen, poisons, fragrances, in celebrations and more.

Curator Judy Dunstan says the 2017 exhibition comprised more than 200 original paintings representing the work of artists from across Australia and beyond: “Works were selected on the basis that they are scientifically correct in both form and colour, and artistically pleasing and balanced to the eye,” said Ms Dunstan.

“It is the perfect opportunity to acquire works by talented emerging artists as well as those by artists with well-established national and international reputations,” added Ms Dunstan.  

Botanica is a beautiful exhibition and encourages the sale of all its artworks. Proceeds go to the artists and to help Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens continue to support horticulture, conservation, scientific research and education programs within the Botanic Gardens.

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Photos by KAVV

Opening times and more details can be found under:

https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/whatson/Botanica-in-Sickness-and-in-Health

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 6, 2017

After their last tour in 2014, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus returned to the land down under for a headline tour that resembles a victory lap to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their debut album Don’t you fake it in its entirety along with other ditties.

It would be an understatement to say that your humble narrator cannot claim to have ever been overly familiar with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, but the line-up looked intensely diverse both in terms of aesthetics as well as age-wise as they were covering a broad age bracket, with some current members looking like they might have not even been teenagers when Don’t you fake it saw the light of day for the first time.

Musically, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is based on a foundation comprised of alternative rock with pop punk peppered in and served with occasional screamo interludes.

In other words, even though it is not easy to decipher what exactly they are going for, the influence of more refined acts like Jimmy Eat World and The Used is omnipresent in their oeuvre.

The standout songs of the band with the exotic name – both of the evening and the not exactly cohesive album Don’t You Fake It - are Face Down, an anti-domestic violence song, and Guardian Angel, which were enthusiastically eaten up and celebrated by the predominantly young and willing audience that granted Manning Bar a sold out night and radiated appreciation for the band’s Christian beliefs that inform the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ message of hope.

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Photos by KAVV

$uicideboy$

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 4, 2017

Having joined forces in 2014, the prolific $uicideboy$, a.k.a. Ruby da Cherry, a gentleman with punk rock roots, and $lick $loth, former DJ and songwriter, they have become a staple in the spheres of horrorcore glitch-trap bubbling with booming bass, ominous atmospherics, and occultish, drugged-out rhymes.

In a live scenario and before a sold out crowd, their set is reminiscent of a more condensed and to-the-core version of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony peppered with streaks of Three 6 Mafia and based on a solid foundation of heavy sub bass, while retaining their own flavour and signature style:

Short bursts of trapped out bleak and grimy cloud rap sounds adorned with violent and grim lyrical content and delivered in a style that marries grungy cadences and leany, sizzurped fluid flow transitions, which was enthusiastically celebrated by the Sydney crowd.

While some of the $uicideboyS’ emissions take at times pages from the books of metal and punk, even their more traditional trap songs evoke crowd reaction that resemble in many aspects a traditional hardcore show, with crowd surfing, the occasional wall of death, mosh pitting and obligatory finger pointing singalongs, which is amplified by the stage antics and the way the two MCs work the crowd.

It is the mélange of their vocal flows that drone together while covering death, suicide, plans for suicide, drugs, violence and more of the aforementioned in combination with the interesting sound sequences that creates the twisted realm they capture their willing audience in and makes them an act you want to check out if you have a remote interest in cloud rap and trap of the more intense kind.

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Photos by KAVV