Live Review: Buried In Verona, Hand Of Mercy, Void Of Vision, Havoc

Due to freak traffic conditions in Perth (read: there actually was some) this scribe sadly missed Perth locals Havoc but managed to catch most of baseball-mad Melbournians Void Of Vision's set of short, fast and loud metalcore. The early punters were into it as circle pits quickly formed and continued moshing throughout their entire set.

Hand Of Mercy punched out lots of straightforward hardcore, galloping drums and guitar riffs that made you want to bounce. Lead singer Scott Bird (a bit weirdly) spent as much time facing the moshers as he did singing to the band's drum kit. That said, you couldn't fault their set for pure energy and intensity.

The moshpit in front of the stage was not a place for the faint of heart. Circle pits can be dangerous at the best venues but the pillar holding up the ceiling in the centre of Amplifier Bar adds a whole new degree of difficulty. Impressively though, the flying bodies managed to avoid it.

A decent sized crowd turned out to hear a set heavily weighted to their latest album Vultures Above, Lions Below and with good reason. It's their best album to date and it didn't take long to see why Buried In Verona are a headline act.

It's unfair to class the Sydney five-piece as metalcore: they're far more diverse and had the crowd onside right from their first track, Dig Me Out. There was a noticeable use of backing tracks for keyboard/synth which, rather than detract from the performance, added an extra element to songs like Extraction and Vultures Above. The opening line from Separation gave the happy moshers a chance at sweary audience participation with an angry chorus of "You fucking make me sick!"   

Guitarist Richie Newman's shout out for Pinjarra, his home town, drew good-hearted jeers from the locals. Whereas the opening bands had the front of stage jumping, dancing and generally losing their shit, Buried In Verona, led by frontman Brett Anderson, had the entire place losing it. The band deserves much larger audiences than were on show at Amplifier Bar but to their credit, they performed like they were headlining a much larger venue. If they keep up the quality of their impressive set, the crowds will undoubtedly grow.

After an encore the set still seemed a little short — or maybe, like many others, this reviewer was just enjoying it so much they didn't want it to end.