Live Review: Saint Vitus, Monarch!, Agonhymn

Despite having a catalogue filled with pearlers about the more depressing side effects of alcohol abuse, the drinks are flowing freely and the crowd is jubilantly toasting the first ever Australian show for LA doom metal pioneers Saint Vitus. Melbourne two-piece Agonhymn kick things off with a hearty drone dirge, quickly finding the right tone for their set as the leaden rhythms crawl from the PA: they bust guts and melt faces with their doom madness.

A 'health concern' keeps Monarch!'s lead singer from making the trip from France to play the Vitus tour, but the legion of lonely-hearted doom nerds needn't worry, there's another woman behind the table of effects pedals and candles, serenading us with blackened doom hatred. The 11^th hour vocalist change doesn't detract from Monarch's always potent live show.

Saint Vitus' back catalogue feel like Raymond Carver prose set to music; the band's earlier records deal with the crushing banalities of reality, and the hardships of addiction, in the sparsest, most straight-forward terms. Their records feel like the perfect storm of bleakness, sorrow and regret that must be as much a bummer to play as it is to listen to. And in 2013, when things seem to be going pretty well for Vitus – they're down in Australia for the first time ever, their first album in 17 years is getting a great, greatly-deserved response and they seem to have a lot of their former demons in check – it would seem ungenuine for the band to focus on the past. So as much as the crowd wants to hear the old stuff, the band focuses their effort on last year's Lillie: F-65 record. It pays off too, Blessed Night is a molten barn burner and The Bleeding Ground plays superbly. It takes a very special band to tour somewhere after 30-plus years and play a set supporting the new album instead of a greatest hits tour, but Vitus are that band. Scott 'Wino' Weinrich stands behind the mic in double denim, no shirt, his voice as powerful as his stare towards the back of the room, guitarist Dave Chandler's riffs are evil and heavy regardless of their vintage and the axeman is clearly getting a kick out of slinging them in front of the crowd, while the rhythm section of Mark Adams and Henry Vasquez finds the perfect equilibrium between dirge and boogie.

With a near-perfect (no, Thirsty And Miserable, guys?) encore of Dying Inside and Born Too Late to keep fans of old happy, Saint Vitus take their leave from the stage. Whatever your take on the set list, there's no denying the staggering power of what this band can do.