Blistered Palms

For John ‘The Beast’ – rhythm guitarist of Adelaide heavy-metal titans Blistered Palms – the upcoming Enigma show is “A number of years of anticipation all rolled into one. I always wanted to play with Mark [the ‘Palms’ lead guitarist] but I knew he had these wild guitars, like, over 40 of them, while I only had, like, 20 or something, so I thought, ‘nah, this guy’s got way too much talent to play with me!” Actually, as it happens, Mark was thinking the same thing about John, “He was like, ‘oh, geez, I can’t bloody go jam with John The Beast’…so we didn’t hook up for a few years.”

After the demise of John and brother Tony’s band Escape, the two recruited not only Mark, but drummer Jason and lo! the heavy metal machine that is Blistered Palms was born.

Mark describes the personalities within the group, “Jesus…Christ…Wow. Tony [bass] frightens me. Tony…I have suspicions that he is a serial killer. I don’t know, he’s a very mysterious kind of guy – the better you get to know him, the more you realise, ‘I have no idea who he is’. He just kinda shows up, ‘g’day’, plugs in, and it’s like, ‘what have you been doing Tony?’, ‘oh, stuff’, ‘how’s your day?’, ‘yeah, not bad’, ‘what did you do on the weekend, ‘stuff’,” Mark laughs. “Jase, you’ve just gotta slow that guy down – all the time. He’s here, there, everywhere, just bouncing off the walls…Donno what that’s about! We all get along well but there’s been moments when rehearsals have turned quite ugly and there will be deaths sooner or later, I know.” Mark states matter-of-fact-ly.

When it comes to their music, you won’t find many bands as passionate and dedicated to their craft as Blistered Palms, nor as opinionated and honest when it comes to the local scene.

As Mark points out, “I got sick of everything because it’s all so serious – every lyric has to be about doom and destruction and ‘I’m so depressed, I wanna slash my wrists’, so I just thought, ‘hmmm, no-one’s having fun anymore’. All the bands we grew up loving had fun, they gave you some entertainment and no-one’s really entertaining you anymore. They all look like they just rolled out of bed.”

John, it seems, couldn’t agree more on the subject, “We’re all tired of seeing bands that all look the same, with the same eyeliner, the same hairdo, the same emo-screamo-bloody-creamo-what-the-hell-it’s-a-bad-dreamo.”

To prove his point, John recalls the night he went out to see a bunch of local bands, only to find himself astounded at what he was witnessing.

“There were ten bands playing on the bill…and they all plugged into the one guitar amp! This one guitar amp was on the stage and they all came out and shared the one amp! We have a desire to go above and beyond what the normal bands are doing, we’re going that extra length to provide a show, to make it actually entertaining.”

To say the least.

Get this, “We’re going up there with our ‘weapons of mass destruction’,” as Mark calls the band’s instruments.

“We had to get an electrician to go check out the Enigma to make sure it’s got the power to handle what we’re bringing in there,” adds John, “and the report we got back is that what we’re taking in there is as much as the Enigma can handle in the way of lights, sound, amps and everything.”

Well, you can only imagine how the gig will sound.

Or you can just ask John, in which case he’ll tell you, “We sound like two bulldozers fucking.”

‘Porn-metal’ is the other one that’s been thrown at Blistered Palms and, quite frankly, they don’t really mind it either, “That was cool.”

If by chance you happen not be much of a head-banger, fear not because you, like one unlikely girl, may be in for a surprise.

As John begins, “We had a girl that was really into jazz and lounge stuff and she came to see us play and in the end she asked if she could join in for back-up vocals because she dug it so bloody much!”

Mark continues, “That was a compliment, I mean, she wasn’t even a rocker or anything and she just dug it! She said she couldn’t get the songs out of her head. I thought that it was particularly cool that we could still be true to all our different influences but, yet, we could obviously write some metal-pop songs in a catchy kind of way.”

For those who are familiar with the Blistered Palms sound and all they represent – you’re in for a treat very soon, according to Mark and John, who announce that a full-length album is well on its way.

“The album is written, that’s pretty much done,” says Mark, “it’s our priority at the moment and I’m always constantly writing so by the time we get in the studio we’ll have a few more new songs. Right now it’s just a matter of going in for a bit of pre-production and then we’re recording straight off the batt.”

Bring it on, we say.

Nina Bertok

Blistered Palms play at the Enigma Bar on Fri 8 September with Splyne and Sector 7G. ‘Blistered Palms’ is out now independently.