Nine bands and thousands of punters, all more than willing to throw (nay, hurl) themselves headfirst into a day of hardcore goodness. From the jump, the crowd was locked in, staking claim at the barricade and backing our local openers without hesitation.
Newcastle’s Feel the Pain set the tone with metallic hardcore that didn’t so much ease the festival in as hurl it off a cliff. A pit cracked open almost instantly – that early-show kind – hesitant for a second before the blissfully high-spirited threw themselves in. Then came Gloam, drenching the room in a wall of sound that was so thick it felt like we were wading through tar. An easy standout, the kind of shoegaze you want to lose a week to.
West Sydney’s Secret World flipped the energy back. Pure movement and force. It was my second time seeing them and they’re only getting more brilliant. Frontman Ryan Pond spent more time in the crowd than on stage, pushing at the barrier, shoving the mic into screaming faces, feeding off every ounce of chaos like the crowd was his life force.
Glitterer, the solo project of Title Fight’s Ned Russin, is built on wiry bass lines, lo-fi edges, and a restlessness that feels like it could snap in half at any second. Oddly hypnotic. Then Sweet Pill came out swinging, easily one of the most commanding performances of the day. Frontwoman Zayna Youssef left no room for passivity, spitting every word, her face contorting as she bellowed through each track.
One Step Closer followed with melodic hardcore that is entirely sharp edges. A pit began swelling outward, elbows flying. Mid-set, the momentum cut when someone needed help, a sobering moment met with a pause and a reminder from frontman Ryan Savitski to look out for each other. Then, with barely a breath, they threw themselves back in twice as hard.
Balance and Composure pulled things into something deeper, a slow-burn intensity that still hit like a gut punch. Then came Drain. All day, there had been murmurs about how brutal their pit would get, and the second Sammy Ciaramitaro grabbed the mic, it was obvious why. He had the whole room in a chokehold. “I want 50 people over this barrier!” Without hesitation, the crowd delivered. A relentless churn of bodies, stage divers hurtling from literally every direction like damn Beyblades. From the top of Roundhouse, you could catch a once-in-a-millennium bird’s-eye view of the inferno below.
Basement closed the night beginning with ‘Whole’ and ‘Earl Grey’, their set was weighted and deliberate, the perfect ending to a festival that left no room for hesitation. From the circle pits to the endless waves of crowd surfers to the sea of voices screaming along to ‘Covet’, no one left untouched. Super wholesome, super heavy, super hardcore.
Image credit: Jess Hutton
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