Live Review: Kadavar, Child, Mt Mountain, AVER

AVER started off a heavy rock-infused night of chest-reverberating cacophony and thunderous headbanging. The Sydney stoner-rock band provided some psychedelic riffs and some vicious lyrics.

Perth's Mt Mountain then took to the stage, throwing down some muddy bass lines and sonic dissonance. Dreamy, washed-out vocals were met with fuzzy guitars and earthy rhythms.

Melbourne's Child ignited the evening as we pushed towards the main act, smashing out new songs with extravagant guitar solos, heady and raw drum fills and thumping bluesy bass lines. The headbanging grew more intense as the heavy blues band laid down some seriously rocking tunes. Mathias Northway's rich vocals were complemented perfectly with fuzzy, hard-hitting bass from Danny Smith and savage rhythms from Michael Lowe.

Hailing from Berlin, Kadavar brought uncharacteristic flair from the land of bratwurst, steins and efficiency. The at times simple riffs proved primal in their ability to move a crowd of long-haired neck-bearded faithful. The band delivered heavy-rocking tracks showcasing not intelligent music, but dirty, bad fun music, the sort of music you might hear on a Tony Hawk soundtrack or on a biker joint jukebox, which roared at decibels ferocious and harsh to the human ear.

The aptly titled bass player, Simon 'Dragon' Bouteloup, made beastly expressions as he pounded out heavy fuzzy bass lines on songs like Doomsday Machine. Drummer, Christoph 'Tiger' Bartelt, a viking-like character with fills as untamed as his dirty blond locks, put on quite a show from behind the kit, laying into tom after tom. Tiger exhibited his heavy-handed talents on tracks like Last Living Dinosaur. While singer Lupus Lindemann's vocals were a little lost in the fuzz of the rhythm section, his guitar cried out with some Sabbath-esque riffs and classic screeching solos that delighted the crowd. These are not bands for the faint-hearted and while it's difficult to find much light and shade in these performances, the objective here is not to spot virtuosic movements but to lose yourself in the noise.