22 February 2026 – Crowbar, Brisbane – words by Alessandro Ambrosi – pictures by Bec Harbour
As I said in some other reviews, there is a special feeling that accompanies Sunday night’s concerts. There is a sadness for the weekend’s closure and there’s a dread for the week of work ahead, that lingers above you. But for those few hours those feelings dissipate and all there’s left is you and the music, and the range of emotions that comes with it.
Sunday the 22 February at Crowbar was no different as YOB finally made it back to Australia after 10 long years of waiting. Accompanying them for the whole tour has been MOUNTAIN WIZARD DEATH CULT and for the Brisbane show, local heavyweights SLOWCUT.
Crowbar once again proved why it remains one of Brisbane’s most vital heavy‑music spaces. SLOWCUT took to the stage with the kind of intensity that doesn’t just fill a room—it compresses it, shaping the air itself into something heavy enough to feel in your chest.
Softcut – Crowbar – photos by Bec Harbour
From the moment the band walked onstage, the mood shifted. No theatrics, no grandstanding—just four figures stepping into dim red light as if emerging from the gloom. The Brisbane’s 5-piece music has always thrived on raw emotional weight, as heard in releases like flesh, a project steeped in themes of grief and protest. That same sensibility powered every second of this set.
Opener ‘Threaded’, from their latest release, takes about 2 minutes to set the tone for the rest of their show. The slow melancholic acoustic build-up detonates with a sound that rattles everything from the ground up with Jeremy’s vocals cutting through with a tortured clarity, less sung, more exorcised. The song waves between melody and heaviness keeping the tightness throughout.
The new ‘Body’ follows a similar but different approach. What stands out here is the middle part where Jeremy’s screams on top of an acoustic guitar melody with gripping and agonising delivery that matches the thematic weight he as spoken in past interviews.
And those heavy thematics are shown with ‘Martyred’ from flesh where Jeremy’s displays a Palestinian flag showing support for the troubled middle eastern peoples and land disputes. The song itself hits particularly hard given the strong stance on the issue and the pained lyrics that accompany the wall of sound.
‘Flood of Christ’ closes the show again, alternating melody with doom, bone rattling, heaviness where their blend of sludge, post‑metal atmosphere, and visceral punk urgency hits hard. Heavy in sound, heavier in feeling, and unmistakably sincere. SLOWCUT continues to carve out a unique place in Australia’s heavy landscape: not just loud, but emotionally volcanic.
Next up after a break and stage setup is MOUNTAIN WIZARD DEATH CULT. The Sydney quartet have been around since 2018 and have surely built a following throughout years of performing their Sludge-Doom mix. ‘Memory/power’ opens the performance which straight away differs from their predecessors in the level of groove and “movement”. Whilst SLOWCUT kept it dark and oppressive, MWDC venture from the get-go into a more open sound, which keeps the doom/sludge element but adds more levels to it picking from different genres solutions.
Mountain Wizard Death Cult – Crowbar – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Initiation’ is a headbanging producing mid-tempo that blends all the trademark elements of the band and showcases drummer Lachlan versatility and precision with some ‘jazz’ drumming towards the end of the song. ‘Wretch’, from the 2021 single, hits like a ton of bricks with its tight and oppressive mid-section. A mid-tempo stomper that felt like a war march with its linear, almost hypnotic carrying riff that smashed through Crowbar’s air like a sledgehammer. Before the next song frontman Elliott announced the release of a new EP later in the year. ‘Ash Into Glass’ is going to be on said EP and marks the first release with Elliott on vocals. The song feels like the natural evolution in their career, taking everything they have done, one step forward in the levels of songwriting and cohesion.
‘Luminar’ and ‘Orbital’ with its atmospheric mid-section and quintessential doom vibe take the show to the end. The crowd would have liked more and I would be keen to see these guys on an headlining show with perhaps a longer set.
Being the main support act for YOB is an opportunity that doesn’t happen overnight and doesn’t happen by chance. MWDC have proved to be a great pick and showed the Brisbane crowd that they were not put there by chance but by being a reality in the aussie doom scene.
And then there was YOB.
The Crowbar became the epicentre of a seismic cosmic‑doom event as YOB made their long‑awaited return to Australia. After a decade away from the country’s stages, the Oregon trio brought their 2026 Australian Tour to its climactic final stop in Fortitude Valley, performing to a packed room of devotees who had been waiting years for this night.
YOB walked onstage without theatrics, yet the shift in the room was immediate—palpable, electric, almost gravitational. Frontman Mike Scheidt looked out into the crowd with the calm of someone about to open a portal. Event descriptions leading into the tour had emphasized YOB’s reputation: not just musicians, but architects of vast emotional soundscapes.
‘Prepare the Ground’ transformed the silence of the stage set-up into a wall of sound that felt like a nuclear explosion went off inside the venue. Its endless riffs, earth-shaking low-end and Mike’s distinctive vocals bring a sense of ceremony to the song. One of the most effective openers I’ve witnessed as it transformed the room vibe within seconds.
YOB – Crowbar – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Nothing to Win’ from 2014 Clearing the Path to Ascend continues the intensity of the opener from the start. The song doesn’t meander—it climbs, collapses, and rises again with precision. YOB are known for long‑form songwriting, but here their sense of structure is especially sharp. The track maintains momentum even during its more atmospheric passages, making the eventual peak feel colossal. The crowd is entranced with the music and follows the song structure moving in unison.
‘Before We Dreamed of Two’ from Atma serves ad the first of the two epically long tracks of the night with its 16 minutes. Musically the piece moves through a wide range of gripping sections rather than relying on a single riff or mood. Hard to describe in words the range of feelings that a multi structured song like this can transmit. The long ending with the repeated “bring my body” feels more like a ritual prayer than a song with its monolithic riff and Mike’s singing.
‘Ball of Molten lead’ felt exactly like the title. It served as a back to reality after the hypnotic end of the previous song with its trademark blend of doom heaviness and psychedelic atmosphere. The introduction had the audience in a trance-like state before the full weight of the track hit.
YOB – Crowbar – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Marrow’ is the second of the extra long tracks, towering at nearly 19 minutes, and by far the most emotional song of tonight’s setlist. The main sweeping riff has the crowd swaying like trees in the wind whilst taken on an emotional journey that raises in the middle to the go back into acoustic melody and then up again. Honestly it could have been an hour long and nobody would have complained as people were taken to their individual introspective journeys.
Before the last song for the night YOB made sure to show their support to the bands that have accompanied them at Crowbar and expressed their gratitude to their tour organiser (also getting the crowd to sing happy birthday as the following Monday would have been the man’s birthday)
‘Quantum Mystic’ from The Unreal Never Lived closed the set on a heavy note serving as the perfect closure to a night that will be long living into the audience memories.
Nothing more needs to be said about the performance. YOB took everyone in attendance to a different place, and we’ll leave it at that.
YOB IS LOVE.
