Live Review: Drowning Horse, Ourobonic Plague, Grief Contest

A debut album launch usually embodies a beginning and an end; a beginning as it's the band's first feature length statement, an end as it finalises much of their formative work. Tonight, Drowning Horse were able to do everything their way, such as break out the smoke machine and play four full-length songs rather than the usual one and half they can fit into a 30 minute support slot. In support were Grief Contest, who could more accurately be described as a two man who-can-make-the-most-noise contest, although it's a tussle where the drummer seemed to have an unfair advantage as the cymbals and snare slammed through the cacophony of guitar. Displaying a good ear for tones and with a talent for gradually mutating simple drum lines into bloody complicated ones, they should be equally at home on metal and noise-rock bills.

In preparation for Nick 'Ourobonic Plague' Sweepah, Craig McElhinney DJed impromptu voodoo jams and sound effects from some future cannibal holocaust; appropriate omens as Sweepah then plundered sinister and weird drones from what might be WA's most evil laptop. Using a heavily distorted vocoder, he unloaded a torrent of verbal imagery of a diseased future that was barely intelligible but morbidly compelling.

As a hulking example of the drone-doom genre, Drowning Horse have classic riffs and a brute intensity best exemplified by drummer James Wills' maximum impact technique, requiring the playing of each beat to begin with hands poised way over his head, as if not only trying to murder his kit but obliterate all the evidence too. It was complimented by an acute visual dynamic; two blood red spotlights, a chain of matching floor bulbs and the odd smoke puff drifting through angular shadows of their towering amps – ones which were stress tested way beyond conventional means, particularly during Of The Wild when bassman Robin Mandar managed to deploy unfathomable amounts of feedback by pressing the neck of his guitar into the base of his agonized speaker. If that wasn't enough of a WTF moment, Sorrow saw Wills put down his sticks and begin blasting low, metallic notes from a trombone. Tonight may have ended Chapter 1 of the Drowning Horse saga, but with support slots already lined up for some very fine international bands, Chapter 2 is looking like they'll paint the town and beyond blood red.