In only a few short years the Sydney quintet has gone from playing the tiny bandroom at Wrangler Studios to donning the stage for a festival styled headliner set, in front of 2,000 fans at Reunion Park. A pretty incredible feat for a band that is only two albums deep in their career.
With gates opening at 5:30pm and Mirrors kicking things off by 6:30pm, the punters came in droves early on, bearing the rain and peak hour traffic to catch the full lineup. With everyone bundled up under the marquee, you couldn’t help but notice an incredible level of excitement; with many fans commenting they hadn’t witnessed a metal-oriented event like this since Soundwave.
Taking things up a notch was Justice For The Damned, an act that’ll be sure to leave you speechless anytime you witness them. As the heaviest act on the bill, Justice tore into their set, delivering newer songs like Pain Is Power in a way that was somehow even more brutal than their studio recordings. An aspect that was especially evident when the group busted out older numbers like Dragged Through The Dirt and Please Don’t Leave Me; with both songs being played with an unparalleled ferocity to anytime I’d seen them previously. In particular in the vocals of Bobak Rafiee, who delivered earth shattering gutturals that flourished in a festival style setting, clearly winning over the crowd who may not have been as familiar with their work beforehand.
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As did Alpha Wolf, who in all honesty could have been headlining the event in their own right. Hell, if I walked past Reunion Park on the night to glance through the fence and saw the sheer amount of ‘Akudama’ t-shirts, I would have assumed it was an Alpha Wolf show. And they backed it, with guitarist Sabian Lynch getting the crowd into an absolute frenzy climbing the stage scaffolding a mere few seconds after stepping on stage. Not that fans had the time to let it sink in, by the time Sub-Zero kicked in phones were away and the mosh had taken over, with the few fans not jumping around saving their energy to scream along to every word. Rot In Pieces got my vote for the most unique breakdown of 2020, so finally having the chance to see it live was absolutely mesmerising, in particular through the use of ever-changing time signatures and dissonance, which were perfect for a live setting. As was the blistering opening of Acid Romance and the crowd-favourite Akudama, which featured some of the loudest singalongs of the night.
I don’t know how the crowd still managed to have energy by the time Polaris stepped on stage, but boy oh boy, did they find their second wind. From the opening chords of Pray For Rain, the crowd was hooked, with people chanting the lyrics to a deafening level. With Vagabond perfectly highlighting the use of technical djent riffs that Polaris have made such a definable trait of their sound and Crooked Path showcasing the groups melodic soundscapes, it felt pretty evident why they are currently sitting as at the top of the Australian metalcore community; they are the best at what they do.
Consume made an impressive addition, with Ryan Siew’s meticulous guitar solo being performed with ease in a live setting. Masochist had the loudest singalongs of the night and garnered an incredibly positive crowd response, as did the set’s closer Lucid, which fostered the craziest pit of the night.
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Stepping out for an encore, the group dropped Martyr (Waves), which marked the live debut of the track for Victorian audiences. Upon first hearing Martyr, there was an assumption that bassist Jake Steinhauser (who normally takes the duty of clean vocals) was the one singing the opening verse, much to my surprise it was Jamie Hails, who delivered an incredible performance dabbling into cleaner vocals. Finishing the night (for real this time) was The Remedy, a perfect closer to an incredible headliner set.
With Friday’s set marking Polaris’ last Melbourne show before jetting off overseas for the rest of 2022, people were clearly making the most of it. And as they should. After all, shows like this haven’t been around for the last two years, and they might not be for long. Especially when it comes to Polaris, who is seemingly on the trajectory for their next headliner show in Melbourne to be at Rod Laver Arena.
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