Live Review: Baroness, Child, Crypt

After multiple festival and sideshow appearances over the years, Baroness finally returned to Australia for their first ever headline tour of the country. Locals Crypt kicked off the proceedings with their brand of thrash, crust punk and surf rock with a heavy Southern tinge. Crypt's vocals are a relentless onslaught of furrow-browed spite. Everything is their enemy during a set. Fast-paced and groove-soaked songs emanated from the stage which, quite frankly, isn't big enough for a band such as this.

Child played main support for Baroness, bringing with them songs from their second record, Blueside. Imagine a band with the crooning vocal delivery of Hendrix's The Wind Cries Mary, matched by slow, reverberating notes that would be comfortable on a Sabbath record. There you have Child, a classic rock band with a coating of doom elements.

Baroness took to the stage to cut sick from their massive arsenal of tunes. The evolving aural tone of the band, from their first LP Red Album all the way through to 2015's Purple, created a multi-dimensional live show. The material moved from heavy, to melodic, to shredding and beyond throughout the set. Singalong tunes such as Take My Bones Away and March To Sea showed the band's penchant for hooks. Stompers like Isak got the crowd moving with their heavy swing and crowd favourite A Horse Called Golgotha left the audience in awe of John Dyer Baizley's and Pete Adams' bewitching fretwork. 

However, it's the mysterious new material on Purple that took the crowd over the deep end. Sebastian Thomson remains one of the most doubtless perfectionists in rock drumming, and bassist Nick Jost experimented with piano, synth and keys to great effect. Looping soundscapes between songs kept the energy flowing, and the stage presence of each member was beyond any expectations. As they delved into the lesser known tracks from Purple, it became abundantly clear how this heavy sludge outfit from Savannah, Georgia became a Grammy-nominated rock band.