Live Review: Rise From Ruin EP Launch

Rise From Ruin – EP launch w/I Seek Existence, Glorified, Brooklyn, Athena’s Wake and Gold

The National Hotel, Geelong, VIC

16^th of October, 2011

Since their formation in 2010, Rise from Ruin has been dominating shows across Victoria with their signature brand of melodic-hardcore. July 23^rd, 2010 was when they played their first ever show in the small country town of Drysdale, and here they are a year and 3 months later, launching their long-awaited “My Vision, My World” EP to a nearly full house at The National Hotel. To join the show, were some of Geelong and Melbourne’s rising stars in the scene.

To open up the show were Geelong’s own Gold. Although only being given a 20 minute set, it was enough time to play 5 short, speedy hardcore songs. They also played a cover of The Comeback Kid’s “Wake the Dead”, which members of the crowd as well as the other bands took all 4 microphones on stage to join Gold during their solid cover. They really stepped up the crowd and got them ready for the rest of the day.

Up next was Athena’s Wake, who delivered their ever-so-epic death metal. Despite not feeling 100% and being the only death metal band on the line-up, they still managed to put as much energy as possible into their 4 song set.

Melbourne’s Brooklyn played their first show in Geelong, and I was keen to check them out after seeing their name thrown around Facebook a lot. Unfortunately, I missed their first song or two due to getting food, but I enjoyed what I saw. They play a softer, more melodic form of hardcore that definitely gave them their own signature sound. During the set, their singer left a strong message to anyone who thinks life is meaningless, pointing to the door and telling them to fuck off.

As soon as the guitarist for Glorified hit an open note during sound testing, I was quite shocked to hear a band on the day playing in Drop D tuning (in a good way, of course!). Their progressive Metalcore sound was something I didn’t expect to hear on the day, but was something I enjoyed a lot. Glorified delivered a fair share of melody and heaviness, with some groovy licks throughout the set.

After 3 months off playing shows to create a new sound, with a new guitarist, Geelong’s own I Seek Existence returned to fill in for local buddies Empires Fall and show everyone what they’ve been working on. The crowd joined in with many clap chants and a few sing along’s, as the local boys played a soothing set. Their new sound reminded me a bit of a combination between Dream On, Dreamer and House vs Hurricane, which stood out a lot more with the piano work and undeniably powerful vocals.

Rise from Ruin hit the stage in a blast and instantly encouraged the crowd to get the wall-to-wall mosh happening. You could see the excitement in each member as the songs “My Vision” and “New Beginnings” started. I had never seen the band ready to play such a kickass show before. Unfortunately, during the next song “Realisations”, the rhythm guitarist was having a problem with his guitars key, aswell as some problems with the amp or right PA speaker. This definitely brought the bands mood down, as Taz missed the next song “This Is War” to try and get his guitar fixed, which barely worked. Rise from Ruin had to play the rest of their set half a step up in tuning, but that didn’t bring them down as they played the next EP tracks “Perceptions” and “To Be Blunt”. The crackling problems continued through Taz’s guitar when they went into fan-favourite “Packed to the Rafters is for Faggots”, but after then the band didn’t care, they just wanted the set to be finished. They finished their set on a good note with a cover of Carpathian’s “Cursed”, which made the pit erupt with two-stepping and mic-grabs. The last song was the EP closer “My World”. This song was unheard to most, yet still had a lot of the crowd singing along to the main part.

It was a successful EP launch for Rise from Ruin, even with all the technical difficulties. They sold out of EP’s on the day and have received a lot of positive feedback from fans. Every band on the line-up played an enjoyable set, I hope to see Glorified and Brooklyn back in Geelong soon, and I can’t wait to see how far Rise from Ruin with go with their new EP.

Review written by Patrick Emmett

Photos taken by William James 

But the Rise From Ruins EP ‘My Vision, My World’ HERE 

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