Live Review: Make Them Suffer, Silent Planet, Oceans Ate Alaska, Thornhill

What a marvellous multi-national heavy music bill we have at Corner Hotel tonight, two Aussies, one Brit and one from the US. All four bands exist loosely within the 'metalcore', 'post-hardcore' or 'deathcore' scheme of things, however, all four put a different slant on what can be somewhat of a cookie-cutter scene.

The openers, ridiculously promising Melbourne five-piece, Thornhill, absolutely hold their own on this line-up when it comes to adding some distinctive flavour to tonight's mix. They display a stronger reliance on enormous grooves than on relentless double-bass drumming. They know how to create an atmosphere as well, and these things serve to set them apart nicely. At the same time, they still appeal to the metalcore crowd with their trade-off vocals, soaring choruses and wild onstage antics. These guys are relatively new on the scene, but if their debut EP and their live show are anything to go by, their future looks very exciting indeed.

The venue is filling beautifully throughout the opening set, and by the time the UK's Oceans Ate Alaska hit the stage it is packed to the back. On very early impressions, these guys resemble an everyday metalcore act - they have the look, the sound, the moves - but there is way, way more going on than that when you delve more deeply. It's that progressiveness, the odd timings (drummer Chris Turner smashing out some very nice off-kilter patterns), the subtle use of electronica and experimentation, their innate ability to shift from pounding brutality to heady poppiness in the blink of an eye. They are sweet and savage in equal measures, and this is best exemplified by their song Hansha, which comes out mid-late set. Singer Jake Noakes' voice is highly versatile, switching up from abrasive to melodic and everything in between on a dime, and overall the band's live set tonight is beastly.

There is a real sense of drama and urgency to the Silent Planet live set. This is achieved through the combination of a number of things; their enormous, bass-heavy sound, the strong social and political messages that run through their songs and singer Garrett Russell's authentic earnestness in delivering them, and the fact that they write short but highly impactful songs. Again, there is a progressive bent to their sound and in the delivery of their live performance that makes these guys stand out in the crowd. 

Perth's Make Them Suffer are well on their way to becoming an Aussie heavy music phenomenon, if they're not already there. They have refined and expanded their sound in recent times, and the newer, more mature material sits seamlessly alongside the older, more deathcore-oriented stuff. That said, they do split the two eras of their career up over the course of their 55-minute set, with their extraordinary and grandiose standalone single of 2016 Ether being the bridge between them. 

There is a true beauty in this band's brutality, with Booka Nile's symphonic keyboard work and ambient vocals offsetting the grind beautifully. While their extremities may prevent them from getting there, ultimately this band belong in stadiums, there is more than enough of a fist-pumping anthemic quality to their music and live show.

This is a metalcore/deathcore show with a real difference, four bands that very much belong on a bill together but are still highly distinctive from each other stylistically and in terms of their live approach.