On a cold-as-fuck Friday night in the city, metalheads of all types descended upon the Gaelic Theatre for LORDs final night of their Set In Stone tour, and the farewell gig for longtime drummer Tim Yatras. While the show wasn’t sold out, it was great to see such a large turnout of fans to support Aussie metal.
Co-headliner Daysend were pretty entertaining and had some really great songs, but really guys – the heavy emo/nu metal style vocals just don’t fit the kick arse music. Gotta give the singer an A for effort though, can’t fault him there at all. The crunching guitar work of Aaron Bilbija and Jason Turnbull sometimes suffered, possibly from a lack of rehearsal, but the crisp drumming of Wayne Morris and slick bass of Meredith Webster added much needed balance. It will be interested how the new Daysend album sounds.
LORD were as ever, top of their game with a strong stage presence. Like Morbid Angel, who recently burned through town – LORD play a mix of metal genres, often drifting from frenzied thrash metal to high-end power metal in the same song. ‘LORD’ Tim Grose is one freaky axeman, and his mid-set guitar duel with Mark Furtner was fucking magic. Bassist Andy Dowling rounded out a ripper performance, and caught the eye of a few of the ladies, especially one drunken little Pommie lass.
The set featured some new songs of LORDs new album Set In Stone – which has been delayed and isn’t finished yet. C’mon guys, get your shit together! Fan favourites Footsteps In The Sand and the riff-tastic Through The Fire both received enthusiastic responses, complete with exploding heads. No wait, that was a movie.
Dungeon classic, the epic Tarranno Del Mar was deeply cool, its intricate tempo and galloping guitar had me choking on my scotch. But the pounding I Am Death dominated the night – even with the deviation into a cover of Kylie Minogues On A Night Like This. Where the hell did that come from? Thankfully we were spared any Bryan Adams or John Farnham covers – although a quick peek at the setlist had Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer. A real shame LORD didn’t play it – not!
The highlight of the night (apart from the delicious metal) was LORDs crowd surfing sex doll (complete with LORD t-shirt!) who was heavily molested, but never uttered a word of complaint. And giving away an ESP guitar was a nice touch. Although the winner looked like someone who was better suited to playing the triangle.
LORD will be back touring in a few months, hopefully Set In Stone will be available by then. Make sure you get along, not just to support Aussie music, but to have a damn fine time with some highly danceable, headbanging, arse shaking metal!
If you’re looking to buy some of LORD’s music click here 
If you’re after Daysend click here
