11 October 2026 – Riverstage, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Dan Maynard
I have to give it to Destroy All Lines. 2026 has been their year. Especially at the Riverstage in Brisbane. There have been some of the craziest triple bills in this venue this year. From I Prevail, Immience, and Invent Animate, to Electric Callboy, Ice Nine Kills and coldrain, to Karnivool, Tesseract, and Car Bomb, and with Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, and The Acacia Strain still left to go this year, the biggest bill in metal was tonight, with two bands on the Mt Rushmore of American metal in Lamb of God and Trivium, and one of the most underrated bands coming out of Europe, Scotland’s very own Bleed from Within. Tonight was going to be insane, and I am so looking forward to it.
Out of the three bands on tonight, the openers, Bleed from Within, were definitely the most chatty with the crowd. After a massive bagpipes intro, they immediately launched into ‘Zenith’. Vocalist Scott Kennedy immediately got the crowd amped, telling them to wake the fuck up and mosh. We got “fast and heavy” for ‘The End of All We Know’, as Kennedy asked for more circle pits, before he talked for a bit about how insane it was for them to be here on this tour. Kennedy mentioned how much he loved Australia, and the word cunt as a term of endearment, before calling Brisbane a “bunch of good cunts”. He then spoke about Craig “Goonzi” Gowans not being able to be on the show, and that Harrison Mills from PAIN BODY jumped in at the last minute and learned the set, which is honestly pretty crazy.
Bleed From Within – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
After ‘Levitate’, which Mills ripped the huge solo on, we got the ballad in ‘A Hope in Hell’, which was dedicated to the Bleed From Within community, as Kennedy told everyone to put arms around each other while they sung along. And now that the slow one was out of the way, it was time for the heavy shit again, with more circle pits for ‘Pathfinder’, and a Slipknot style crowd jump for ‘God Complex’. Kennedy talked about how the band used to cover ‘As the Palace Burns’ by Lamb of God before they ever started writing original music, so it was so cool to be in Australia opening for Lamb of God, and dedicated ‘I Am Damnation’ to both Lamb of God and Trivium, with a cheeky lyric change at the start to “We fought tooth and nail to get to Brisbane” as the crowd erupted. They closed out on ‘In Place of Your Halo’, with a promise to return soon, and I think next time these lads are back, we will see them on a headliner. The crowd was going nuts for them.
Bleed From Within – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
Next out was Trivium, and my god I was so excited for these guys. Probably a time five live band for me, ever. And tonight did not disappoint. Red light bathed the stage as ‘The End of Everything’ played over the speakers, which only meant one thing. It was time for ‘Rain’. Vocalist Matt Heafy got the crowd jumping high, as most of their set instrumentally bled into each other with not much room for chatting between songs. ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’ had Brisbane running crazy circle pits, and ‘Strife’ had crowd surfers galore, as even Spider-Man went over the barrier during.
Trivium – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
A quick “how the fuck are y’all doing” from Heafy was said, with Sydney getting a shout out from Heafy as the best crowd of the tour. Naturally, Brisbane boo’d the shit out of the mention of Sydney, and it set the mission statement for this set. Be better than them. After ‘The Sin and the Sentence’, Heafy yelled during the intro to ‘Down from the Sky’ to let everyone in Brisbane to hear the voices coming from the Riverstage, as he led a massive hey chant to the riff with fists to the sky. And it worked, because someone I was with, got a text going “I can hear the show from here”, and they were across the river.
After a quick check in with the crowd, we got ‘Until the World Goes Cold’ and ‘Entrance of the Conflagration’, which honestly was insane to hear live. One of my favourite songs from The Crusade, before we got a mad throwback with ‘Fugue (A Revelation)’. Heafy introduced ‘Vengeance Falls’ with more jumping, with the outro bleeding immediately into ‘Like Light to the Flies’, which was legitimately a chefs kiss of a creative choice. After telling Brisbane about the band’s new record, which drops next month, we got one of the newer songs, ‘Dead Inside of Me”, which had some of the sicked purple and green lighting behind the band.
Trivium – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
With just a couple more songs left, the energy was still crazy high, and was about to hit overdrive, with ‘The Heart From Your Hate’ leading into ‘Throes of Perdition’, which Heafy split the crowd for, for a wall of death. It feels insane to say this at a Lamb of God show, but this was the biggest wall of the night, as the crowd exploded into chaos for it. For the final time, Heafy spoke to the crowd, talking about it being the last night of the tour, and that they had one song left, ‘In Waves’. When I say the floor of the Riverstage packed out for this song, I am not kidding. I couldn’t see a piece of concrete showing. The crowd went absolutely mental for the final track. Hopefully Trivium are back soon for a headliner to celebrate Crown In The Grave, dropping November 20th.
As soon as it hit 8:30pm, more red light bathed the stage, as the crowd chanted furiously for Lamb of God. As the members made their way out, vocalist Randy Blythe told Brisbane to get their horns in the air for ‘Ruin’, as the set opened with one of their oldest songs in their catalogue, and the oldest song in the entire set. Blythe asked for raised voices as the party really began with ‘Laid to Rest’. as Blythe got Brisbane to hold their middle fingers up for the “who gives a fuck” line. Blythe encouraged more singing for ‘Now You’ve Got Something to Die For’, and before the next song, ‘Into Oblivion’, he spoke at length about how good it was to be back in Brisbane, and Australia once more. Blythe introduced the band, and told Brisbane there was one job tonight, to utterly fuck this place up. ‘Into Oblivion’ was dedicated to some fans Randy had met the night before, who he even called by name which was a very sweet gesture.
Lamb of God – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
‘Resurrection Man’ had a hectic wall of death, and they blitzed through tracks like ‘Descending’, ‘Parasocial Christ’, and ‘Hourglass, which got a massive ovation. Blythe checked in to make sure people were having fun, and loved how rowdy Brisbane was getting for them, before telling Brisbane how much he loved this place. Blythe dedicated ‘Walk With Me in Hell’ to both Bleed from Within, and Trivium, and giving massive shout out to the lads from Bleed, who Blythe said “absolutely tore this motherfucker down” to open the show. ‘Omerta’ was the song to speed shit up, and ‘Memento Mori’ got one of the biggest reaction of the night.
Lamb of God – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
Two songs left to go, and Blythe led a massive chant of “oi’s” during the intro to ‘Sepsis’, before talking at length for the final time, asking if Brisbane wanted one more song before Lamb of God fuck back off to America for a few more years. Blythe mentioned how much he loves Brisbane specifically, and how beautiful the people, the vibes, the energy, and the city is. One final cheer for Bleed from Within and Trivium, and one more wish from Brisbane to get rowdy as fuck. Something I actually never knew that Randy mentioned, was that he knows how crazy Brisbane gets, because after a night in Brisbane 15 years ago, that is when he went sober. “This town fucked me up good” he said with a big laugh, as he got Brisbane to give themselves a big cheer, and the biggest circle pit of the night for ‘Redneck’ to close out the show.
Lamb of God – Riverstage – photos by Dan Maynard
