24 February 2024 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Luci Scott
I’m just going to say this straight out of the gate, but Cvltfest 2024 has to be one of the most well put together one day lineups of the last 10 years. An event, put on by arguably the hottest band in Australian heavy music right now, Alpha Wolf, which put together a live music showcase that quite honestly, rivals events that are 10 times its size. Internationally acclaimed bands like Crossfaith, Paledusk and Emmure, to bringing in newer bands that have never seen the market, like French hardcore group ten56., over to an entirely new fanbase, to positioning hot, upcoming Australian acts like Diamond Construct, Crave Death, and Vilify alongside them, this 100% had the potential to be a massive day in the Australian live music scene. And that’s not even including one of the most exciting acts in Australia right now, Ocean Grove, in the mix as well.
And I honestly don’t think there was a better way to start the day, other than with Newcastle alt-metal act, Vilify. The band only had 25 minutes, but holy hell they made the most of the time, belting out a rapid fire six song set, including their latest song ‘Light Bringer’, which is a certified banger. Not entirely sure what happened, but early in the set, bassist Lizi Blanco looked to have taken a stumble and fell over, which resulted in what appeared to be some tech issues with her gear. By the end of the set though, everything was all sweet, as Vilify closed out on ‘Take the Pill’, to massive cheers from the crowd.
L-R Vilify – Crave Death – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
Crave Death hit the stage next, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t even realize they were on the list of bands until they walked out. I caught them open for The Acacia Strain last month, and in that review, I said that “for an act I knew nothing about before tonight, I absolutely loved this band so much.”, and that sentiment rang true again today. They seemed to have taken from that show, and built on it, as I feel this performance was somehow even better. Lead singer Candice Bankovacki laid down some killer vocals live, with a real special shout out to drummer Lachlan Currie, who like last time, was super fascinating to watch behind the kit. The band looked comfortable playing bigger rooms like the Eatons Hill Ballroom. Let’s hope that momentum continues.
One of the bands I heard everyone talk about when the lineup for this show dropped, was the Taree based nu-metal crew, Diamond Construct. I’ve mentioned this in previous reviews, but I like to experience new bands live for the first time, so I was super pumped to check them out. Set opener ‘Jynx’ hadn’t even finished yet, and I was already convinced that I had found my new favorite band. It was another quick six song set, but Diamond Construct utilized every second, with huge circle pits and walls of death, balanced out with so much crowd participation. I honestly don’t know if the band were expecting the response they got, but vocalist Kynan Groundwater looked like he was having a blast, as he led the crowd through an absolutely musical assault of the senses. Super fun band.
L-R – Diamond Construct – ten56 – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
Before I had even realized it, it was close to 5pm, and we were getting our first international band of the day, ten56. The French metallers dropped their debut record last year, Downer, and with the exception of their latest song, ‘Good Morning’ (which only dropped 2 days before Cvltfest), the set was populated with nothing but tracks from Downer. ‘Diazepam’ damn nearly lit the place on fire, as that was just the opening song. A couple of stand out songs from the set include ‘Saiko’, ‘Ender’, and ‘Boy’. The one cool thing about setups like Cvltfest, is that you go for some bands, and be surprised by others. I think ten56. were a band that surprised everyone not familiar with them, and I totally expect them to be back within the next 12 months.
I felt kind of bad for the band that would have to follow up ten56., but in what I would consider a stroke of genius from the planners of the day, Japanese “what even genre do I use to describe this band” act Paledusk were up next. I caught Paledusk open for Alpha Wolf in 2022 on the Snitches Get Stitches tour, and Paledusk that night was absolutely incredible. Seeing the transformation of this band within the last 18 months has been staggering, and incredible. Blitzing through a set of all my favorite Paledusk songs, ‘AREA PD’ opened the set to sheer chaos. I swear this band is just an ADHD fever dream if you listen only to the studio recordings. Live, it’s somehow even more chaotic., but controlled. ‘SLAY!!’ went off HUGE with the crowd singing along to the chorus, and the set even got a guest appearance (the first of many for the night), with Crossfaith lead vocalist Kenta Koie jumping out for ‘Q2’ at the end of the set. I mentioned in my review of Paledusk’s latest album PALEHELL, that I hoped Ken would jump out for this track, and I’m so stoked he did. The set closed off with ‘RUMBLE’ from PALEHELL, capping off probably my second favorite set of the day.
L-R – Ocean Grove – Paledusk – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
We now have just hit the halfway point of the day, and with four bands left, I won’t lie, I was feeling absolutely knackered. All sense of exhaustion disappeared from my body though, as Ocean Grove tore out onto stage with their song ‘HMU’ playing through the speakers, before ripping into Superstar. I feel like Ocean Grove is a band in the wrong generation. Their 2020 record Flip Phone Fantasy feels like a mid 2000s throwback akin to the glory days of nu-metal bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. The set was full of surprises too, with it being exclusively tracks from Flip Phone Fantasy, with deep cuts like ‘Lights on Kind of Lover’ and Paledusk lead singer KAITO coming back out to assist with the vocals to ‘Stratosphere Love’. The set closed out with ‘Junkie$’ and ‘Sunny’, as the show was bookended with a reprise of ‘HMU’ hitting the speakers.
In their first shows on Australian soil since 2018, New York based metalcore icons Emmure made their long awaited return to Brisbane. Long time vocalist Frankie Palmeri walked out to absolute pandemonium, as Emmure belted through a seven song set that had Brisbane eating up every song. The set started off with some newer tracks like ‘Natural Born Killer’ and ‘Pigs Ear’, before slowly working back through the discography into songs off Speaker of the Dead and Felony. Emmure have been one of those bands that I never really gravitated towards, however I remember blasting ‘The Respect Issue’ in my early 20s, purely because WWE wrestler Kurt Angle was on the front cover. While we didn’t get any songs from that record, to my dismay, the set did close off with a real deep cut, ‘When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong’ sending off Emmure’s time at Eatons Hill to massive applause. I spoke to a few people after the show, and they said they all want Emmure back. Fingers crossed they can make the journey soon.
L-R – Emmure – Crossfaith – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
Something that was pointed out to me earlier in the day, was that it had been 11 years and one day since Crossfaiths debut Australian show at Soundwave 2013. I was at that show. So seeing them once again at Cvltfest felt like a really cool moment. And for someone that’s put themselves into mosh retirement for the better part of about six years, this was definitely THE band outside of the headliner to do it for. Crossfaith marched onto stage and immediately ran through a monster set of songs including having ‘Deus Ex Machina’, ‘Catastrophe’, and my favorite song ‘Monolith’ open the show. ‘Monolith’ in particular, when the opening synths kicked in, the pit was MOVING. I managed to stick around until about halfway through my favorite drinking song, ‘Jagerbomb’, before needing to get out to the side.
The rest of the set was awesome. I can’t remember which song it was, but lead singer Kenta even led the crowd to do a massive circle pit around the sound desk, which I even jumped in for. One of the coolest parts of the day though, was the ending of the set. Kenta pumped the crowd up, for a Drum and Bass solo from keyboardist Terufumi Tamano and drummer Tatsuya Amano that truly is something that needs to be experienced live. The remaining members of the band returned on stage to do a cover of ‘Omen’ by The Prodigy, which is a deep cut for them, being covered on their debut record in 2011, before closing the day out with ‘Leviathan’. I swear, they could have just kept playing and I don’t think anyone would have minded, except Alpha Wolf. Crossfaith needs to come back more often, because I need to see these guys play at minimum, once a year.
After seven and a half hours of doors being open, it was finally time for the reason everyone was here. Alpha Wolf chants broke out before Lochie and the boys ran out on stage to give us Brisbane’s first taste of new music, ‘Bring Back the Noise’. This show was absolute chaos. The pit was going crazy, and even where I was upstairs, was moving around a lot, purely amped by what Alpha Wolf were able to pull off today. Everyone in the venue seemed rejuvenated after a monster day of music, singing alongside the band to songs like ‘Ultra-Violet Violence’, ‘Hotel Underground’, and ‘Sub-Zero’. ‘Restricted’ was definitely one of the loudest songs of the day, and ‘Creep’ had to have set the record for crowd surfers, as Lochie encouraged the audience to make the most of the chance to get up and surf. Unfortunately, what came next though put a small black eye on the proceedings.
Alpha Wolf – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
About halfway through ‘Rot in Pieces’, everything just stopped. Before anyone had realized what had happened, lead vocalist Lochie Keogh and guitarist Sabian Lynch jumped down in the security pit, and got involved in what seemed like a confrontation with a security guard and a fan. The issue was quickly de-escalated, and the band moved on from the incident and back into the show. Lochie did speak about how they want the shows to be fun for everyone, and that everyone’s safety was the biggest concern. Lochie brought out Vilify bassist Lizi Blanco, who sang on the studio record of ‘Bleed 4 You’, to come out and play the song live with them, which was a really cool surprise.
Alpha Wolf – CVLTFEST – photos by Luci Scott
The last five songs of the day were huge though, as we got back to back debut performances of both the latest single, ‘Sucks 2 Suck’, and ‘Haunter’, which will be featured on Alpha Wolf’s new record Half Living Things, due out in April. ‘Sucks 2 Suck’ was so fun live, and even had Ice-T’s feature accompanying the live show as the stage crew wheeled out an old school CRT television with Ice on it. ‘Haunter’ was definitely a fun track, and the crowd threw everything they could into the song. We then got a rapid fire of fan favorites to close the show, including ’60cm of Steel’, ‘Black Mamba’, and I’m gonna quote Lochie here, “It’s Aku-fucken-dama”.
Alpha Wolf put on something truly special here. Lochie mentioned during the show that every band on this bill has at some point played with Alpha Wolf. These were all people they’ve run the roads with. So bringing bands like Emmure and Crossfaith back to Australia, as well as giving bands like Vilify and Diamond Construct a spot amongst these massive international acts, only helps to elevate the stock of everyone on the line up. Cvltfest has the potential to continue to do this for years to come, and I hope Alpha Wolf keeps this Cvltfest idea alive, as it has the potential to be a driver to elevate new music inside the local scene for years to come.
