Monolith Festival, Bella Vista Farm, Sydney. 20 August 2022
It has been a long time since I’ve been to a music festival. The last one was well before the virus, the (unbeknownst at the time) final Soundwave line up in 2016 – which to be fair, was one of the best lineups in the festival’s history.
So I could hardly contain my excitement when the Monolith Festival was announced last year, originally for a date in March. Straight off the bat, I’d like to say that I want to see this model used for festivals in the future. I went with a group, and we all basically came to the same conclusion.
Festivals should be more specifically catered, with smaller line-ups of similar bands on a single stage – Instead of having 60 bands play on five or so different stages that are so far away from each other that even if the bands don’t clash, you miss half the set trying to get there. This way, you actually get to see everyone you want to, and perhaps have time to discover something new.
Bella Vista was a good venue, once you managed to figure out how to get there. As out of towners, it involved a fair bit of navigating. I’m not sure if the farm animals were particularly thrilled however, and I’m sure there are many activists who were – perhaps rightly – red in the face at this decision.
Unfortunately, by the time we managed to figure out where we were supposed to go and caught the shuttle bus, we missed the first band, instrumental post rockers Yomi Ship. However, we could hear the last few songs of their set from the line outside and it still managed to impress me.
I was disappointed by this development as I enjoy their studio work and instrumental bands in general. The festival could really have done a better job in communicating with punters on how transport would work on the day. Everything was also a bit too spread out, the toilets were near the gates, annoyingly far from the stage.
The farm was also poorly lit at night, perhaps dangerously so. Once you ventured past the soundstage, you were essentially shrouded in complete darkness. I crashed into more than a few people who seemingly appeared out of thin air. Thankfully, no body was injured (that I was aware of) but I’m not sure if it would be wise to run the event next year with the same lack of lighting. That’s not a dice that’s worth a roll. However, more positively, the mix for all the bands was absolutely on point. It was easily the best sounding open air concert I’ve attended.
The second band of the day, and the first I was able to see, were relative newcomers Reliqa, who’s sound is a little hard to pin down – However, I mean that in the best way possible. It would be a disservice to simply call them a progressive metal band, because they are more than that.
They rap too.
Their Bandcamp has them tagged as numerous things but their sound is so unique that perhaps the closest label that could be used is “Fusion Metal” – innovated by Faith No More, Primus and more recently by fellow Australians Twelve Foot Ninja, although those three bands couldn’t be more different from Reliqa, an obvious influence exists.
Frontwoman Monique Pym is a talented vocalist who prefers to sing with a clean vocal style that reminded me a lot of Courtney LaPlante (Spiritbox). Her flow whenever breaking out into a rap is absolutely always on point and her songwriting absolutely shreds another rap metal band on the line up whom I’ll get to in due time.
Speaking of shredding, guitarist Brandon Lloyd is a goddamn national treasure. Not just a brilliant musician but also an incredible showman with a stage presence that could match some of the greats. Miles Knox (bass) and Shannon Griesberg (drums) were probably one of the more interesting rhythm sections of the day. These guys really rocked out to the point of being drenched in sweat and are the strong foundation of an already amazing band.
I wouldn’t do the set justice without mentioning that Sean Harmanis of Make Them Suffer appeared onstage as a guest for Safety – one of many new songs the band played for their hometown. I don’t listen to Make Them Suffer but Sean gave an energetic performance for the short period of time that he was on stage.
Reliqa were the stand out band for me simply because they delivered something new and original, performed in a way that made for an incredibly enjoyable set. This band is the one to watch in the years to come.
Post metal titans sleepmakeswaves were next, and I think they were the act I was most excited for. I am so deeply moved by their music, which I find makes a great backdrop to the creation of any creative process. I’ve seen them before and they never disappoint.
One of the things about them that always stands out for me is that the atmospheric, melodic and somewhat restrained music they play, the band always dials their performances up to eleven. Monolith was no exception – although it was unusual to see them playing during the day, an observation made by the band themselves on stage.
I really felt like both they and Reliqa deserved much bigger crowds up the front, although I can’t really blame people for taking it easy until the headliners. By the end of the night, I was spent. I had completely forgotten how much festivals wear you out.
There was good interaction between both the band members and the audience, and they looked like were having the time of their lives – and who wouldn’t be after such a long hiatus. It impressed me immensely when the band acknowledged the traditional Bidjigal owners of the land and gave a few words of respect for them. Notably, they were the only band to do so, but I think this says more about them than it does for the other acts.
sleepmakeswaves are a passionate lot, not just in their music but also clearly in their principles. This is a factor that clearly shows in their performance. Every member of the band was perfectly in tune with the other. It was almost as if the pandemic had never happened.
Australia’s answer to Buckethead, Plini, was next on the bill, accompanied by his live band. Plini was the first act that started to draw a considerable crowd towards the stage. I mostly took it easy for his set, but was right up on barricade for the first half of it, so I could watch the musicians closely and observe their technique.
Steve Vai described Plini as “the future of exceptional guitar playing” and it’s not hard to see why. Plini commands his instrument with such a calm and casual presence. Unlike most “guitar god” types, Plini does not treat the instrument as if it is some kind of phallic extension. Instead, he crafts the music as if it were clay, and his band seemed to compliment him perfectly, providing the background and foundation for his musical landscape.
Plini is a charasmatic performer, and engaged in some pretty humorous banter with the sound techs, who kept trolling him with various microphone effects. All in all, I enjoyed Plini’s set. There’s something to be said about an artist like that who’s music is pure, raw expression, and it was a nice change of pace to the rest of the night.
The next band was Ocean Grove. A bizarre choice for the line up and the only band that seemed out of place. This would be the equivalent to having Five Finger Death Punch open for Mastodon and Tool. To say I was not a fan, would be putting it lightly – I really didn’t think much of them at all.
I can’t fault the musicians. They can play. They can sing. It’s just that the music that they play and sing is complete garbage. And it’s not because they are a self proclaimed “Nu Metal” band. Although that might be an immediate turn off for some, there’s actually a lot of Nu Metal bands I like. Korn and System of a Down are great bands. The Deftones are brilliant and I suppose early Incubus is a guilty pleasure.
But Ocean Grove is not the Deftones. They are not Korn or System of a Down. They aren’t even Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park, the two bands they so obviously aspire to be.
Instead, they are Drowning Pool. They are Ill Nino and Spineshank. They are the absolute worst of Nu Metal, regurgitated in one horrible mallcore package that came perhaps twenty years too late. Say what you will about Bizkit or LP, but at least they were pioneers in something. The worst thing about Ocean Grove is that it’s all been done better before – Even when it was done averagely.
If you listened hard to the band enough, you might find something original in Ocean Grove’s music, buried somewhere deep under their Drowning Pool-esque riffs and Durstian lyrical themes. But the real question is, why would you want to? Even if, for some reason, you’re a big fan of Nu Metal and post grunge, you’d really be better off just listening to Incubus and Breaking Benjamin instead of a pale imitation, be they Australian or not.
Ocean Grove are merely participating in a grandiose historic reenactment of early 2000s alt rock radio. Sex Dope Gold conjures angsty memories of the beautific poetry of Edsel Dope in his 2001 masterpiece Die Mother Fucker Die among other such hits. And it isn’t just because they’re both associated with the word “dope”.
The song Superstar is particularly questionable, in both context and composition – “She’s a record over the back fence type/I can’t get enough of this/Just a single play, aphrodisiac/I take you in”. At any moment, I expected them to bust out a “I did it all for the nookie/so you can take that cookie” or whatever the hell it was that Limp Bizkit blathered on about in the late 90s.
The band radiates the kind of brain dead, angsty, macho lyricism that hasn’t been seen since the likes of Five Finger Death Punch – another band composed entirely of nu metal cosplayers. But nobody in Ocean Grove has punched a female flight attendant or worn their own merch onstage (to my knowledge), so at least they’re a few levels above Ivan Moody and his rent-a-band of the week.
I wanted to try and be less scathing, but the truth is the entire time Ocean Grove were playing, I couldn’t help but think how much better it would be if The Butterfly Effect were on the bill instead. Perhaps a thought for next year.
Credit where it’s due, frontman Dale Tanner can work a crowd. He seems like a very charismatic guy and has the ability to get an audience hyped. The band as a whole had an engaging stage presence that seemed to please the fans who had come to see them. His vocals conjure immediate thoughts of the late Chester Bennington, or perhaps Richard Patrick of Filter, who are both fine vocalists. It’s not my thing, but they have their clique I suppose.
Now it was time for Cog, the first of the two headliners. Although very much beginning as Australia’s answer to Tool (as if the name and logo weren’t obvious enough), Cog have since come into something of their own. The trio played a long set encompassing songs from their entire career, including more recent tracks such as The Middle and Altered States, which are slated to appear on the band’s as-of-yet unproduced third album.
This is the first time I’ve seen Cog live, and I made sure I was in the thick of it for them. Flynn Gower is such an amazing vocalist. It’s clear when you see the band live that there is no trickey going on in the studio. It’s all him. I was most impressed with Lucius Borich, an incredible drummer who’s more than a match for the likes of Danny Carey and others.
I just found him very entertaining to watch, not just listen to. It’s honestly quite hard to believe anybody can play that well – I don’t even think I could count the amount of drums and symbols he had on his kit. Flynn talked to the crowd about his influences and how Monolith was a way to shine a light on the Australian prog scene. The band all still seemed very youthful despite having masteries in their field.
By the time Karnivool were ready to perform, I was about burnt out from all the traveling and the fatigue of the event was starting to wane on me. So, I sat with my little group, who were all either too tired or too wasted to brave the floor. I was surprised to see that there was a mosh for a few of their songs, Goliath and Set Fire to the Hive among others.
Ian Kenny is another vocalist like Flynn Gower who doesn’t get by with studio trickey. His voice, if anything, sounded much better than it did on the record. He has the stage presence of a true rockstar, and immediately stood out – even as a blimp from where I was seated – from his snow white shirt. Kenny commands an energy from the crowd that no other act present was able to match.
The rest of the band lived up to their reputation. I’m not sure if the curtain falling in the opening bars of their first song was deliberate or not, but either way it left an impression. They played a long set that had to be close to 90 minutes, and it seemed there wasn’t much of their material that they didn’t manage to squeeze into their set somewhere.
All in all, it was a great act to end the night with and they’ve clearly proven that their place on the line up was well earned. When everything was said and done, it was much easier to get out than it was to get in – except that the lack of lighting meant everyone was still tripping over each other. I hope to see this festival happen again next year, with a similar caliber of performers – and one can hope if it was successful enough, other promoters will follow its model.
