Live Review: Nails, Sumeru, Dark Horse

Sydney locals Dark Horse opened up a long night of aural brutality with a ragged and combustible set. It's hard to pin down their sonic landscape, the band offering up everything from blistering grind through to sludgy riffs as they ripped through a set that included a good chunk of last year's Bomb Thrower LP.

Just as hard to get a handle on were Sumeru, although genre niceties ceased to matter when the majestic riffs started to flood the stage. Part Black Sabbath, part Church Of Misery with a good chunk of stoner fuzz thrown in for good measure, the quintet delivered a powerful set that even had Nails frontman Todd Jones raving. These guys are definitely worth checking out.

Nails have made news for all the right and wrong reasons. Right, because they've delivered some of the most righteously 'direct' powerviolence/hardcore/grindcore (yeah, they're a little hard to categorise) albums of the past decade. Wrong, because the band's creative force, Jones, seems continually cloaked in drama - internet feuds, unexplained hiatuses and accusations of bullying behaviour. Thankfully none of the latter was on display during tonight's off-the-hook set. Jones seemed positively at peace with the world, thanking the support bands, praising Australia and talking about the need to look after each other as he and his fellow bandmates churned out a pummelling selection of tunes. From the highlights of Unsilent Death (I Will Not Follow and Scum Will Rise) right through to their spectacular recent material (​Parasite, You Will Never Be One Of Us, Made To Make You Fail and Savage Intolerance) and a quick cover of GBH's Sick Boy this was a masterclass in pure aggression. There's a reason Nails have stayed at the top of a very-crowded field.