I Killed the Prom Queen – Gig Review 28th April @ Brightside, Brisbane
I Killed the Prom Queen
Max Watts, Brisbane
April 15th, 2016
Supported by Exiled, Exiled in Eden and Misguided
If I have learned anything about heavy music – it’s that it comes in many different shades of colour. Hardcore has a different aesthetic and belief system to those who sit at the altar of heavy metal and it’s these differences that rear to the forefront tonight (more on that later).
Opening band Exiled in Eden play a brand of deathcore that is extremely reminiscent of early Suicide Silence. But their particular brand of heavy music is met by crickets in the face of a crowd who just stare at these young men as if they were the music equivalent of paint drying. Their amateurish performance is only further exacerbated by an overly enthusiastic fan who joins them onstage for a song and a photographer who stands on the stage taking pictures like she doesn’t have a fuck to give; and there’s still the question of that duffle bag on the floor. Which I feel like sums up this band perfectly – somehow. Just embarrassing.
Second band Misguided don’t fare much better. Playing music in more of a metalcore vein, their songs are almost indistinguishable from one another. Weak stage banter from their vocalist and general technical difficulties abound throughout the thirty minute set. Luckily they do manage to elicit a response from the crowd, who turn the floor into a training sequence from your favourite karate film.
Thankfully Exiled are here to save the day and with their tight and masterful deathcore. The vocalist oozes stage presence and soon the entire place turns into a mosh party. The set ends with a rather comically small wall of death. Hopefully in time that won’t be a problem because it’s clear from tonight’s performance that these guys are going to go places.
Finally it’s time for I Killed the Prom Queen, who are here tonight to celebrate the 10-year-annivesary of their classic album Music for the Recently Deceased. An album that saw them inspire everybody in the Australian scene at the time and even today remains a cornerstone of the history of Australian heavy music and as the crowd moshes to Parkway Drive blasting over the house speakers, it’s clear to me that it’s about to get fucking crazy.
Opening with ‘666’ the band lay waste to the crowd - the pit opening up in mere seconds with chaos emanating from its bowels as every single person in the crowd screams the chorus of the now classic song back at the band as if their lives depended on it. There’s very little to criticise with only Jona’s vocals being a point of contention as they are not as strong as they could be. Not that it matters as it’s hard to hear him over the collective voice-boxes of everybody else in the room.
Saving the best two songs for last, the classic opener to the album ‘Sharks in Your Mouth’ threatens to cleave the venue in half as the ground shakes from the mass of bodies that descend into the moshpit with a circlepit as large as the room forming and pushing everybody to the edge. Finishing with fan-favourite ‘Say Goodbye’ the band brave through the hotter than hell temperature to give this night the send-off it needs.
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