Live Review: Pallbearer, The Body, Oake

Sludge metal, electronica and doom metal exploded across Hobart as faces wet with rain and sweat screamed toward the stage. One of Dark MOFO’s major strengths is that it caters to all audiences and the crowd that showed for the Pallbearer, The Body and Oake show proved that indulging a diverse range of interests doesn’t diminish your audience. Fans made up the largest part of the crowd, the turn out impressive for a rainy Thursday night in Hobart. Going out on a work night was no bar, and the show did not disappoint.

Berlin electronica two-piece Oake kicked off the night early, literally, starting ten minutes before the performance was scheduled to begin. With two EPs and one full-length studio album, all released last year, they had plenty of material with which to please the crowd. The set, while brilliant from a technical point of view, and full of energy, was better suited to a late time slot at Blacklist, rather than as a supporting act for two well-known metal bands. The crowd enjoyed Oake’s set, but it seemed an unfortunate waste of a talented band.

The crowd’s enthusiasm picked up when The Body, a two-piece sludge metal band from Providence, Rhode Island, came on. Featuring Chip King on guitars, vocals and turntables, and Lee Buford on drums, they delivered an enthusiastic show. King’s aggressive, high-pitched vocals were delivered brilliantly, backed by incredible heavy electric guitar riffs. The Body covered a large part of their extensive discography in their hour-long set, much to the crowd’s pleasure. The use of voice samples, along with alternating between slow guitar solos and intense vocals and drums, made for an enjoyable and interesting set. Although they performed under the words “the sadness will last forever”, the energy in The Odeon was anything but, and by the end of the set, the audience was energetic and subversive.

Finally, Pallbearer took to the stage, and by this point the excitement in the audience was palpable. A doom metal band from Little Rock in Arkansas, the Dark MOFO show is one of a number of Australian shows they’re performing throughout June. Pallbearer engaged with the crowd more than The Body and bass player Joseph D. Rowland succinctly described the essence of Dark MOFO by saying to the crowd “we could smell the fires burning earlier, and it was primal as f**k.” This comment reflected the Pallbearer set, which was filled with long, detailed, intricate songs. The slow tempos that feature in doom metal were prominent and well suited to the vocals of Brett Campbell, with backing vocals from Rowland and Devin Holt. The band worked through songs from both of their studio albums, particularly Foundations Of Burden, the 2014 release. Stand-out songs included The Ghost I Used To Be and Foundations. Overall, the set was incredible, and the night of doom and sludge metal was perfectly housed within the themes of death and chaos at the heart of Dark MOFO.