“An elevated setting fit for the [massive] line-up!”

Saturday 9th November 2024

Written by: Belinda Quick
Photographer: Missy Smiley
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It's the most wonderful time of the year. Cheer is in the air, celebratory beers are flowing, crowds carol along to magnificent music, and love is all around; festival season is upon us once again. For Adelaidians, FROTH & FURY is the advent of summer festival season. A unique opportunity to rejoice at home, hosting family and friends from interstate, it is far from the vast productions of GOOD THINGS and KNOTFEST, yet imitable of our character - smaller in stature perhaps, our enthusiasm for a party and predilection for heavy music cannot be muted. 

Traditionally held at Port Adelaide's Pirate Life Brewery, this year's fest called for an elevated setting fit for the lineup. A veritable wishlist beyond our wildest imaginations, South Australia's Santa - Jason North - selected the expansive Hart's Mill for 2024’s celebrations. Once virtually derelict, architecture synonymous with the Port separates the site and its arenas, finding new life as a venue for artistic expression - an icon and perfect choice for the occasion.

Twin main stages standing parallel to the entrance, a series of local talents open today's proceedings. LOLA’s skater-punk matching WITCH SPIT’s ‘Feral Girl’ verve, both bands’ Small Dog Energy give way to SUNDOWNER’s sludge and SIGNALS’ fury. Showcasing the diversity of the home state's heavy music scene, SUNDOWNER & SIGNALS have enjoyed a particularly stellar 2024. Both performing new music, these hometown heavies are far from Frauds; their Poetry of Spite has set them on the path to Permanence.

Technically speaking, FANGZ are Sydneysiders, yet with four visits here this year they are considered one of our own. Comfortable in this home away from home also, the punks don black dungarees as their new trademark uniform. Now a five-piece operation, courtesy of “New Guy” Ethan, bassist Jameel Majam calls time: “Let's fucking party; let's drink some fucking beer!” Not Wasting Time, the Drifter Josh Cottreau cracks a South Coast Pale to Self-Medicate, before taking a belt of something harder. High-voltage, the Same Old Story takes a final twist as Cottreau climbs the stage scaffolding, offering One For You One For Me and one last song for us all.

Electricity coursing, before the froths could start flowing, strategic stops must be made. FROTH & FURY is not only about the music but all cultural experiences. Coffee with friends in the merch-lined dining hall leads to a stroll down food truck lane. Lined by plane trees and picnic tables it’s a cool and calm respite where, past the old flour mill, stands the sporting stadium - WRESTLE RAMPAGE’s ring rising over the IRONCLAD champs clos, to the left the EXPLOSIVE stage roars.

Overcast clouds clearing, SIENNA SKIES become the officiators of the mid-afternoon run; The Hardest Part comes all too easy and Let It Burn sets the crowd alight.  The only track delving into the back catalogue, Divided is split between the mayhem of Damon Brohier’s drums and Thomas Pirozzi's melodies. Cut Me Off the first of four songs from 2024’s EP, Don't Let Me Go results in A Predetermined Outcome, dedicated to the event's “fucking incredible” organisers. Mess closes in ‘the goddamn best’ way, with an invitation to “come and drink too many beers with us later”.

In blistering style the first international act, GREAT AMERICAN GHOST, begins with their Hymn of Decay. Teeth bared, Ethan Harrison reaches out over the crowd before returning stageward, screaming his sermon upon an Altar of Snakes. ‘Boston’s harshest and most furious export’, their latest single, Lost in the Outline, is a song “for the lovers, this is for the fucking fighters”; Scorched Earth is a tornadonic circle pit where, in the eye, stands Harrison. Fuel to the fire, Kerosene is the opening track to the band’s upcoming LP The Tragedy of Commons, and final today. Never before performed live, GREAT AMERICAN GHOST gives Adelaide audiences yet another magical moment to cherish today.

The first of two legendary South Australian bands performing reunion shows, DAY OF CONTEMPT takes their lodging’s name to heart in an Explosive performance. See Through the Lies 20 years young, it is as fresh as it was during first appearance at the BIG DAY OUT, the veterans themselves far from Comatose. “A bad influence” 25 years later, the hardcore spirit threatens to Tear You Down but no-one dares Walk Away. From the turn of last century to 2024’s Where Shadows Lie, this crowd won't make a move until every last drop of dopamine has been rinsed down the Drain.

Canadians are colloquially considered to be Australia's North American counterparts, we’re seen as relaxed and friendly, always down for a good time. With the exception of the latter, BRAND OF SACRIFICE obliterates this image. Today’s first clash delaying my arrival, Toronto's five-piece, double-drummed death metal is relentless and can be heard well before it’s seen. Demon King Kyle Anderson demands a circle pit from the “craziest metal fans in the world”, before a wall of death in Lifeblood leaves a few seeing through Altered Eyes. The afternoon heat intensifying, there will be no Exodus; our “cardio is not done for the day”, the Purge must be endured until the final Eclipse.

Starting in Heaven and ending in Paradise, HANDS LIKE HOUSES conducted the afternoon session's most connective set. Hailing from our nation's capital, 2024 has seen the band tour at home and recently in South East Asia. Coming just this morning from Perth, new vocalist, Josh Raven apologises for sounding a bit like a Monster: “Fuck I'm sick, but we play shows, not cancel them, no matter what.” The crowd offering energetic support for Division Symbols, Panic from June's STRATO EP is an instant classic, while Colourblind is eternal. Halo lends to their aesthetic, as Wildfire and Hollow maintain the heat, Matt Cooper playfully flips his guitar in closing.

Heralding the band’s Obsession era, THORNHILL has a Raw new image. Jacob Charlton’s sleek black effigy transformed, his always sublime voice is contrasted also. Falsetto refrains now coupled with near-guttural growls, Arkangel clears into Views from the Sun; Coven and Lily & the Moon completing a goosebump-inducing triplet from The Dark Pool. Ever the Casanova, Charlton asks “Whatcha waiting for? Adelaide this is your time”, before returning to 2019 for the penultimate track - Where We Go When We Die. A philosophical musing for another time, there's no questioning THORNHILL; in whatever image or whichever era, their star is today and forever one of our brightest.

TE3 in Style once more, all hail the return of TESTEAGLES! A figurative feeling amongst Gen X and Millennial crowdgoers swarming to the mainstage at dusk, one had to feel just a bit of compassion for ORGANECTOMY. Concurrently scheduled, it appeared everyone at FROTH & FURY was here, turning out in “only the way Adelaide can.” Agent 99, the first of a many from 2000’s Non-Comprehendus, Clone sparked something that “smells like home”. Propaganda one of two from our Friends’ 90s catalogue, Rebel’s Power medley kickstarts Hammerdrill Like No Other. Underdog ensures no movement to the Fury side of stage, the only appropriate finisher, Turn that Shit Up is ‘the sound of the new generation’ reborn.

In an absolute coup, FROTH & FURY secured the almighty FEAR FACTORY for an Australian exclusive appearance. A fan poll determining the setlist some weeks ago, a deep cut of the band's first four albums, Dino Cazares took the stage while all stood suspended in Shock. A one-two punch from Obsolete, Edgecrusher left many in the pit Damaged; ‘I can't believe I'm alive’ to witness this. Acres of Skin across the foreground watching, as this from Digimortal, and Leechmaster and Scumgrief from Soul of a New Machine, are played live for the first time since the 2010s. A Fuel Injected Suicide Machine, each of the 14-songs are Linchpins in musical history; many questioned, What Will Become for the headliners, will there be Zero Signal after this? No Replica for them, all members join Milo Silvestri in chanting the final repetition before their audience, the old and the New Breed.

THY ART IS MURDER project an air of provocation. Their name intimates it, a history of controversy chronicles it, and their live show fortifies it. Pure deathcore, there is no contender with whom to compare their ferocious sound or unique character. Testament to this, what should be an Anathema, VENGABOYS’ We Like to Party plays to an eerily empty stage. Vocalist Tyler Miller appears, the mountainous figures of guitarists Sean Delander and Andy Marsh silently stand, inviting us to Join Me In Armageddon. An hour-long cacophony of lights and smoke, Adelaide’s live introduction to 2023’s Godlike is a Lesson in Pain, punctuated with homages to the past. Death Squad Anthem and Holy War inciting violence, The Purest Strain of Hate leads us through Gates of Misery in unrelenting fashion. Paralysed by sheer power, THY ART’s Reign of Darkness is reincarnated and, since last opening for tonight’s headliners, have only intensified.

A band themselves renowned for reinvention, evolution and ascension, NORTHLANE are no more a band than an entity. A phenomenal force, always shifting or creating, 2024 has been spent exploring the globe on the Mirror’s Edge tour. Their Australian festival season beginning with FROTH & FURY also, within the month NORTHLANE are scheduled to appear at GOOD THINGS, leading to question: are these men or machines? Carbonized reverberates as guitarist Jon Deiley appears covered in black, excepting electrical eyewear. ‘Shadows dance’, as does vocalist Marcus Bridge, driven by pure Intuition as to which way is out of the smoky Miasma on stage.

Crafting and performing their music unlike anyone else in this country, rare even in the world, it is as if they see it all in 4D; masters of their Kraft. Bloodline marks our halfway point and, appropriately crimson lit, is the encapsulation of NORTHLANE’s breadth for beauty and brutality. Incorporating electronic elements, Dante transcends this divide too, ending with a beautiful Bridge solo. Echo Chamber perfectly amalgamates every element, before obliteration illuminates Afterimage. Clockwork warning we’re ‘running out of time’ at this moment and for today, NORTHLANE erupts into Nova, sending every Citizen into a state of euphoria.

Stars in the sky above and childlike wonder in the air, we go to sleep tonight dreaming:

What will Santa bring us for FROTH & FURY next year?

All photos by: Missy Smiley
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