Live Review: Psycroptic, Archspire, Hadal Maw, Heathenspawn

Sydneysiders Heathenspawn are only relative newcomers but relished the opportunity to kick off this sold-out bash marking 40 years of metal scene mainstay Utopia Records. Their solid brand of melodic death metal was fitting for the occasion and well-received.

Hadal Maw have been building an organic buzz via latest EP Charlatan. The Melbourne act has also performed alongside a slew of international and local heavy-hitters and were therefore well-seasoned. Tech-death boasting grooves wider than the Grand Canyon but fused with a healthy dollop of doom/stoner influences, the potency was accentuated by a blinding light show. Kudos too to vocalist Sam Dillon for delivering with vein-popping intensity. The well-populated room roared approval; this is a band on the rise.

Making their Sydney debut, Canadian death metallers Archspire were suitably motivated to leave a brutal initial impression on a packed venue brimming with both the already converted and curious onlookers. The Canucks applied themselves to the task, despite technical difficulties hampering them on occasion. There was no questioning their technical prowess though; aspiring musicians present may have been reconsidering their career options after witnessing Rapid Elemental Dissolve and Human Murmuration live. The "stay tech" sloganeering and ethos perhaps meant they couldn't exude a level of personality or charisma to engage more fully with punters, but by the conclusion of a 40-minute display they'd wowed existing supporters and had surely scored themselves a healthy crop of new devotees too.

"So, who do Psycroptic sound like?" this writer overheard one evidently uninitiated punter ask in the bar line between bands. "No one," his friend enthusiastically - and rather succinctly - responded. That encapsulated the Tasmanian quartet's off-kilter approach to tech-death that even after the best part of 20 years retained a distinctive quality. The crowd had perhaps thinned a fraction by the time the headliners arrived, but they nonetheless executed with their usual efficiency, tautness and frontman Jason Peppiatt's sizeable presence.

Six months prior when they were main support for an overseas group at the same venue, this reviewer noted that after supporting their latest LP for three years perhaps the hard-touring mob's set-list could utilise some new material to freshen it up. That was a notion reinforced here, but with the likes of Carriers Of The Plague, Ob(Servant) and The World Discarded in their arsenal, such concerns meant little to the diehards who lapped up their set. Another triumph, but bring on that next album, lads.