The Basement was already quite full when I arrived and Empyrean hadn't started yet. I'm not one of those reviewers to start off with "...apologies to the opener, I arrived late and missed them...". The crowd was what you would expect from a death metal gig...black as far as the eye could see...except one prog dude who was wearing grey...and why not?

I was anxious to see Empyrean as I had heard small bits of their recordings they have been working on and have heard a lot about the band from their vocalist. First off I should start by saying that I'm not much of a fan of death metal or growly vocal metal of any description...I can listen to some of it, but only certain bands catch my ears. Empyrean are certainly one of those bands.

The 6 peice band all looked like they could have walked straight out of a highschool and they probably have. Though young as they looked, they really knew their instruments and were a pretty tight unit. Vocalist Josh varied his vocals a lot between screechy wails and gutteral growls that lent a good variety to the music. The band has a lot of melodic arrangements going on which is what I love to see in a death metal band. The crowd was a bit slow to warm to the guys, but slowly a stage front presence was made and heads started banging. The band played a solid set and started the night off on a pretty brutal note. These guys will do a lot of good things in the metal scene, keep an eye out.

The Amenta were up next. Including 2 members from Tassie band Psycroptic, they took the stage looking a lot more intense than the openers. Faces covered in metallic looking paint and wearing shiny black pvc looking jackets, they looked the part. With sequenced intro tracks and samples they kicked off into their set. I had heard a lot of hype about The Amenta and knew they were building a really great following. This showed by the amount of band tshirts in the crowd that were present, and the increase of punters at the stage. These guys were much tighter as a band than Empyrean, however I think tonight I enjoyed Empyrean's set more. The Amenta, while great and obviously having a fantastic fan base, I felt lacked a lot of melodic moments that Empyrean had going for them. Still I really enjoyed The Amenta and would recommend that people check them out.

Now Empyrean were pretty tight...The Amenta even tighter...and you can just tell that Alchemist has been playing together for more than 15 years. From opening to closing notes the band was a well oiled machine and pounded out their fantastic melodic, progressive blend of metal. You could tell the crowd was there to Alchemist first and foremost. The front of the stage was packed with rabid metal heads moshing and \m/ing their balls off and really getting into the music. The band played a variety of material from their extensive career on the Aussie metal scene.

The absolute highlight of the night being the bands brilliant cover of The Eve of War from Jeff Wayan's War of the Worlds. Maybe not the most desireable thing for a band, the most enjoyable song being one they didn't write, but they just completely obliterate this track and take it to another level. With the immediately recognisable narration track preceding the song the atmosphere is set perfectly. Other highlights for me included Road to Ubar and Abstraction. Being that I'm not a massive death metal fan as I established early in this peice, I only know a small amount of Alchemist's material. However I can see myself running out as soon as I can to get Embryonics, the band's latest 2CD release featuring their best of tracks.

With screams as intense as any I have ever heard, their vocalist Adam lets rip in one of the tracks (sorry guys I don't know what it's called). I had heard this track before when I heard some of Embryonics and was completely amazed to hear him pull it off live with the same amount of intensity that he does on the CD. I'd even say in the live setting it was more intense. Undoubtedly my favorite part of the night, I still have to give two big thumbs up to Empyrean and The Amenta.

A fantastic night with 3 great Aussie metal acts. The new up and coming and the veterans of the scene all giving a great performance and making a new fan in me of all three bands. All of them are worth checking out if you get the chance.

If you haven't seen Alchemist, tonight's Brisbane show was the last date on their current tour, but keep an eye on alchemist.com.au for more tour announcements and all their latest news.