In Hearts Wake, Paledusk Swiss, King 810, Gravemind @ The Gov, Adelaide 13/9/2024
Tonight is a full stop. A definitive end. From that end also births the next stage of evolution. An evolution in a bands career. An evolution in musical expression. An evolution in raw power. In Hearts Wake bring their Incarnation Tour and with it an eclectic line up that stretches your musical concepts. Tonight is almost theatre.
For In Hearts Wake, this tour is important. A massive new album in Incarnation dropped, the bands heaviest to date, and with that a musical line up change pushed the boundaries of the band. Tonight, we watch the two chapters overlap.
Opening with new album fire starters in Spitting Nails (Wheel Of Fortune) and The Flood (Justice) from the new album, it’s clear what mood the band are in as Jake Taylor’s frame looms large on the small stage like a giant beast set to attack.
The packed room a metropolis of hurtling bodies, drinks spills and chanting resemble something from the apocalypse as the band go through their whole catalogue leading to recently departed bassist Kyle Erich being introduced for a selection of songs he had performed on.
This embracing mood over the venue serves to somehow uplift the crowd further as they rip to Passage, Hellbringer and Farewell with a video montage set to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. Nice wry touch.
Before I divulge the encore, it’s important to note that theatre has been a prevailing art all night. Openers Gravemind brought thunderous breakdowns right from opening track The Effigy that spilt the audience time and again in a vortex of pitting and crashing bodies. Vocalist Bailey Schembri looking down like a Roman emperor at the coliseum, enjoying his own entertainment.
King 810, with a lot of hype pre-show, are dramatic in a horror movie way. The played-out intro presents the masked and sinister drummer, who contorts with each beat like a possessed demon. Singer David Gunn eventually appears like an adult sized Chucky, conniving, plotting, growling and manically circling the stage.
The hype seems justified by those on the floor, who engross themselves in Gunn’s Gollum like stage presence during Heavy Lies The Crown and Vendetta’s for the bands short punchy theatrical set.
On the subject of punch, Paleface Swiss first sojourn to Australia has been the talk around the water cooler for some weeks and I’ve tried to stay away, wishing for my first experience to be actually seeing them. Wow.
It can be difficult to absorb which songs finishes into the next because this band is the equivalent of being put into a headlock, thrown the ground and having a foot put on your throat that doesn’t let go. And we are all for it.
Opening with Please End Me, it’s a scene to behold. Vocalist Marc Zellweger becomes at one with the crowd, the band a slamming machine not seen since Terminator, and the pit a disorganised anarchy of a mess. A pseudo throwing Christians to lions moment.
Ending with The Gallow it’s impossible to not be punch drunk, dazed and in wonderment of the nuclear energy they brought to the room. If it’s this chaotic here, imagine the east coast and bigger rooms?!
Which brings us back to the headliner and their encore. After three bands that destroyed the place previously, it is clear to see why In Hearts Wake are so sharp. Nothing less than 100% required and they have brought it.
The encore itself brings more heat with World-Wide Suicide before finishing with Hollow Bone (The World) shortly before the clock strikes midnight. The band covered in sweat and exhausted a mirror of how much of the audience is exactly the same this evening.
The theatre of a departing member, the unknown drama of the future, the complex characters, the plot twists. Tonight had it all. The evolution of music in King 810, the evolution in carnage in Paleface Swiss, the evolution of a band for the headliner. For In Hearts Wake and their fans, the future is in good hands.
Live Review By Iain McCallum