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Nocturnal Graves.
Hailing from rural Victoria and comprising ex-members of metal bands Destruktor and Destroyer 666, Nocturnal Graves, one of the groups who will be performing at this year's Armageddon Adelaide, is a fairly new entity in the Australian metal scene, as band vocalist and guitarist Jarro reveals when giving me a run-down of the group's history. "We started the band in January this year," he says. "That was after I had left Destruktor (where I used to play drums). I wrote some songs with Jai, the drummer, and then in March, our bass player, Regan, joined [also from Destruktor]. We recorded a demo in May, and since then, have just been spreading that around."
Telling me a little about the band's music, Jarro sums it up as old-style death metal. "We're not influenced by bands like Nile and Malevolent Creation," he insists. "We're not influenced at all by things like the modern Florida kind of death metal sound; our roots are more into the old South American death metal like Sarcofago, Mutilator and Holocausto. We're also into early '80s European thrash like Kreator, Sodom, Darkness and Protector."
The three band members live in Shepparton and Bendigo, and travel between those cities to rehearse: something that isn't much of a hassle, according to Jarro, given how close the two centres are. There isn't much of a scene in either, however, compelling local metalheads to travel to Melbourne for gigs.
Concerning his band's upcoming performance at Armageddon Adelaide, Jarro tells me what people can expect from it. "The Australian war metal thing will be there," he says, "as well as the old thrash elements, and all the rawness of the South American death metal bands from the '80s. If you're into the old-sounding stuff then I don't see any reason why you wouldn't get something out of Nocturnal Graves. I guess there's nothing for people who are really interested in bands like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth, though; I don't think they would really find our music very interesting. There're no keyboards, no people dressing up in latex and fishnet stockings jumping around on stage: none of that behaviour." So no fancy stage gear then? I ask.
"Well, fancy stage gear in the sense of spikes and bullet belts and chains and all that sort of banter, but definitely no latex or fishnet stockings!" he laughs.
As for how the band got on the bill for this year's Armageddon Adelaide, Jarro explains it thus: "We played there with Destruktor a couple of years ago, and last year I was there as well. We've also been friends with Suzanne [one of the show's organisers] for a few years now. I asked her if she was doing Armageddon Adelaide again this year, and she told me she was. She asked me if Destruktor would be interested, and given the fact that I wasn't playing with them any more, and they didn't have a steady line-up, I let her know that I'd started a new band and that we'd be ready to play gigs by that time if she was interested in putting us on the bill. She pretty much just went with a bit of a blind eye and gave us a shot, but as far as I know, she likes our demo. Basically, though, it's just the fact that we're familiar with the festival. Personally, it's one of my favourite ones in Australia because it's more focused on the bands from Australia that I would be more inclined to like, or want to play gigs with. It's just a good weekend, I reckon, so it was good to be able to play there."
James Brazel
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Nocturnal Graves play Armageddon Adelaide III on Sat 28 Aug.
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