Live Review: Baroness, Skullcave, Bayou

To say that Bayou are loud would be the understatement of the year; every cell in your body shakes from the four-piece's smoked-out sludge. The sound dissolved slightly into incoherent distortion at times, which is a shame considering the technical ability of the band is clearly there. When you're the opening act and can still pull a crowd of that size from the bar outside, it hardly matters about the sound.

Skullcave are a band that are crushing every set they take to lately. Sweltering post-rock-influenced rhythms and doom-gazing riffs cut into the crowd and demanded attention. Their brief set was strung together largely with instrumental jams under the command of drummer Liam Young and had the room salivating with heavy distortion envy.

Wrapping up their first Australian headline tour and finally making a welcome return to Perth, Baroness delivered exactly what fans were hoping to see. Their gargantuan beast of a sound delved through everything from prog to sludge, bellowing from the four-piece with all out aggression. Playing heavily from their most recent release Purple, hits like Morningstar and Chlorine & Wine completely slaughtered the room, while Try To Disappear drew vocalist John Baizley to the mic stand like a battle cry as windmilling and raised drinks reigned supreme. Slower paced tracks such as If I Have To Wake Up (Would You Stop The Rain?) felt no less impactful. Through the synth additions of Nick Jost, the band played the perfect meld of light and dark melody to create an air of anticipation in each track before shattering the room under a hammering riff. Closing off their set with a humbling thank you to crowd and crew and the power of Yellow & Green's Take My Bones Away, Baroness ensured that their next Australian tour is going to be one of the hottest tickets in town.