Live Review: Buried In Verona, Antagonist AD, Stories - Fowlers Live

1 January 1970 | 10:00 am | Cameron Doyle

An eclectic mix of hardcore smashes Adelaide in full force

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Locals Hindsight bared all in their opening set on the Adelaide leg of Midyear Mayhem tour, performing with ample heart in front of a rather inactive crowd.

Despite the locals’ tendency to be, at times, quite awkward and reserved between tracks, the highly emotive melodic hardcore outfit still demonstrated tremendous improvement and it will not be long before even greater opportunities arise.  Adelaide heavy scene veterans Jack The Giant Killer then showed their experience with an aggressive and well-executed set. Vocalist Aeden Cooper was undeniably the highlight, showing great range between both clean and screaming over instrumentation similar to that of an amalgamation between genre heavyweights Architects and For The Fallen Dreams.

Stories were the first of the touring acts to grace the stage and did so in a major way. Significant use of samples was employed to fill the void of a missing guitarist, which for a band so heavily reliant of intricate guitar work was the only applicable solution without finding a suitable replacement.

The Sydney-siders illustrated professionalism beyond both their age and experience. Vocalist Morgan Dodson was unworldly in his delivery, regardless of sustaining an onstage ankle injury. The low dominating vocal Dodson consistently hurled upon the audience complimented the refined instrumentation perfectly.

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This perfect marriage of vocal and music can also be said for the best act of the night in metalcore outfit Antagonist AD. The New Zealand natives turned the heat upon an audience unwilling to move but by the end of the set, the small Sunday night Fowlers audience was electric; this energy was solely due to passionate frontman Sam Crocker.

Crocker spoke of depression, and the importance of love and friendship in difficult times; Antagonist AD shared a powerful message and conquered as main support. This made it difficult for Buried In Verona to successfully close out the night. Unfortunately, the headliners from Sydney were outshone by their support acts; though it was an admirable set consisting of energy one would expect from a touring band, the audience had considerably diminished by the time the quintet had taken to the stage and made one wonder what bands had actually brought punters into the venue.