Melbourne is getting a new one-day music festival for metal and hardcore fans, called Into The Fall.
Announced last week, the event is set to take place at the Croxton Bandroom on Saturday March 18. The lineup consists of 12 heavy metal bands from Australia and beyond, headlined by German tech-death metal outfit Obscura (performing here for the first time in five years). The outfit have released seven studio albums across their career, with the latest being 2021’s ‘A Valediction’.
Speaking to triple j about the band, festival organiser Lochlan Watt – known for hosting the broadcaster’s metal show The Racket and singing for R U N – said: “2021’s ‘A Valediction’ is arguably their finest work yet, redefining the band once more with a piercingly focused approach to technically dazzling songwriting that simply beggars belief.”
Other internationals include Arizona metal newcomers Gatecreeper – with the show marking their Australian debut – as well as Texan outfit Stabbing, British sci-fi death metal band Cryptic Shift, and Undeath from New York.
They’ll be joined by Melbourne locals Inverloch, Carcinoid and Growth, as well as Adelaide’s Freedom Of Fear and Altars, Brisbane’s Resin Tomb, and Perth’s Petsis Cultus.
Into The Fall is the brainchild of Watt and Matthew Chalk – Dark Mofo booker and former Psycroptic vocalist. Tickets for the inaugural festival are available to purchase here.
Last April, Watt announced that the brain cancer he was diagnosed with in 2019 had returned. In an Instagram post, he detailed the ordeal that he’d gone through previously and the journey to recovery ahead of him, adding: “I find some solace in the fact that I am in a much better position to deal with this now than I was in 2019, but this shit really sucks.”
He was met with an outpouring of support from the Australian music industry, with The Amity Affliction‘s Ahren Stringer, Trophy Eyes‘ John Floreani, Void of Vision‘s Jack Bergin and Make Them Suffer‘s Sean Harmanis among those who left comments on the post.
In August, Watt shared an update to say that the surgery was successful and they’d removed all the cancerous cells, with the radio host and musician going out to play a spate of gigs following his recovery.