Live Review: Deez Nuts, Antagonist AD, Earth Caller

If you’re after cliché-ridden guitar riffs, distasteful lyrics and a pretentious atmosphere then the Word Is Bond tour certainly delivers.

Melbourne hardcore band Earth Caller were set to kick things off and certainly didn’t waste any time jumping into their stale set with an unceasing amount of profanities and less than stellar vocals. Thankfully guitarist Lachlan Monty took centre stage with his powerful energy, impressive guitar swings and crisp backing vocals. Meanwhile, lead singer Josh Collard was finding himself out of breath towards the end of their set and struggled to hit required pitch and robustness. Earth Caller is just another run of the mill Australian hardcore band.

Expectations were at an all-time low and with Sydney’s Relentless being a no show, Antagonist AD were second on the bill. It was a welcome surprise to see the New Zealand five-piece display a stronger sense of creativity behind their guitar work. The crowd lapped up their swaggering version of hardcore rock’n’roll, but nonetheless the band found themselves falling into the same trap of the typical djent-y breakdowns. 

Now for the crowd to hold down their beanies and snapbacks for the moment they’ve been waiting for. With no hesitation, Deez Nutz were straight into it, meaning straight into the monotonous riffs and every song cluttered with breakdowns, though seemingly enjoyed across the board as the crowd had more than a few heads banging. Deez Nuts are notably good at working the crowd, allowing stage-diving, starting off chants and provoding infinite opportunities for microphone grabs. Second song played was the nostalgic scene anthem, Stay True, which pleased fans and left them hungry for more from the past. “Sex sells. Play Sex Sells,” the crowd belted out, but were instead confronted with The Message. This was a painful attempt at paying homage to a veteran of a genre they’re seemly desperate to be recognised alongside. With the setlist being littered with new songs from Word Is Bond, each song merged with the next to make the riffs indistinguishable, rendering the performance that bit more tedious. Their finale, Band Of Brothers, actually turned out to be the highlight of their set, unfortunately leaving the eager fans high and dry with no encore.
The overall feeling was one of being cheated with such a mediocre evening full of predictability musically and aesthetically. If these bands are the new pioneers for the hardcore subgenre, then we’ll miss it dearly.