Review: Jack Price
Photography: JD Garrahy

Fortitude Valley’s Fortitude Music Hall has seen its fair share of sold out shows in the last 12 months, but none has brought the rowdy crowd of Melbourne’s metalcore juggernauts Alpha Wolf. The eclectic mix of dressed-to-the-nines black garbed ladies to jocked out, cap toting fellas and everything in between, all here to throw down and snap some necks.

Alpha Wolf‘s outstanding success in recent years has not only been due to the tremendous body of work the 5 piece have accumulated, but also their wholesome, inclusive natures on and off stage. Their commitment to their craft has obviously been noticed, resulting in their support line up including none other than the legendary The Devil Wears Prada and Invent Animate. But before they can return to grace the Brisbane fans, Sweden‘s Thrown are first to take to the stage.

As the lights dimmed, an uproar erupted from the crowd. A call of cheers and applause fills the air as the thick, heavy bass thunders from the house PA. Never have I witnessed an opening support act on any bill fill a venue straight off the bat like Thrown has tonight as nearly three thousand bodies explode into action as the Swedes enter into view from the side stage.

The Thrown boys are in perfect form, sounding studio perfect. As the set continues, they dive into Backfire as the crowd sings along and moshes like Thrown are the headliners, an energy that miraculously continues and even increases as the night goes on.

A band of few words between tracks, they absolutely destroy the Music Hall. The breakdown in New Flow and the track On The Verge send the crowd mental, moshing and creating a whirlwind circle pit in the centre of the hall. Their set consisted of their entire 2022 EP, Extended Pain, as well as a number of their singles, finishing their set off with their breakout single Greyout, after a few nice thank You’s from frontman Marcus Lundqvist.

I doubt it will be too long before Thrown ventures back down under for some shows of their own, now seeing the fan base they have here in Oz.

With a decade long career under their belts and no strangers to our southern lands, Invent Animate are next to take to the stage amidst the blue lighting that shrouds it. The band members garbed in white stand out amongst the blackened backdrop and waist not a second before unleashing Sleepless Deathbed upon the crowd.

Marcus Viik wows the crowd with his soaring singing, roaring growls and piercing screams, as a wave of ooh’s and ah’s echo around the mezzanine at his vocal prowess, as if the audience were spectating a fireworks display.

“Brisbane, I want to see some fucking movement, right in the middle” called the energetic frontman, as they swung into action once again with Shade Astray. Guitarist Keaton Goldwire‘s work is a spectacle in itself, married with the bass work of Caleb Sherradan, the pair play amazingly at concocting a mixture of hardcore and djent to the percussion of Brody Taylor Smith.

Opening the pit up once more during False Meridian, the Texan quartet conduct the crowd in a frenzy of singalongs and thrashing moshing.

Sherredan addresses the crowd, asking “Hey Brisbane, I’m feelin alright, how about you?” before paying respects to the rest of the bands on the bill before jumping into Heavener. Invent Animate sound polished, perfectly timed and studio perfect, despite tonight being the final leg of a grueling sold-out tour.

He goes on to later state “This whole band is super fucking sick right now so for you to show up and give us your energy means the fucking world to us” before demanding another circle pit from the rowdy crowd. Before the end of the set, Immolation of Night brings upon a massive Wall of death before the band finish their final song. Along with Thrown, I don’t think we will be waiting long for Invent Animate to return to us here in Australia. I mean at his point they may as well move down here! We’ll look after them.

The next band on the bill is one that needs no introduction. With an almost 20-year career, The Devil Wears Prada have been around. That being said, you would not think it after tonight’s performance! Opening with Watchtower, the band are greeted with a monstrous roar of cheers from the crowd, a lot of which are younger than the band itself (not to make them feel old or anything, sorry TDWP guys)! Mike Hranica and rhythm guitarist Jeremy DePoyster sound like they were playing at 2008’s Warped Tour, fresh and youthful, while the rest of the band were flawlessly practiced in their art.

“Let’s get this party started”, toted DePoyster before slamming into Danger: Wildman from 2009’s With Roots Above and Branches Below. The energetic veterans may be seasoned but boy do put on an amazing show.

“Brisbane, you are the best of the whole tour, but you already know that” added Jeremy between Salt and Broken, which slowed the set for a much-needed breather for those brave enough to venture into the unforgiving pit. Despite having not set foot on Australia soil since 2018, there is so much Aussie love to be given to the Ohio band.

“Since we’ve been back, we’ve released a bunch of new tunes. This one’s called Ritual”, Mike announced to the crowd. Performing the track, they featured on for Excision, Reasons, and following with the heavy as fuck Outnumbered, the set for TDWP is tight and perfectly cultivated to showcase the bands double decade spanning career.

Slowing it back down for a more soulful track, Chemical from 2019’s The Act, the song resonated with some of the less recent followers. Stating their intentions to return to Australian shores next year, the set closes with Sacrifice.

Adorning the stage are giant speakers, one side topped with an oversized boombox, the backdrop a green graffiti tag of Alpha Wolf. It is time, Brisbane! Pulling no punches, they take to the stage one by one as the audience gets louder and louder before erupting into ear splitting screams as frontman Lochie Keogh joins his bandmates.

The boys don’t fuck around, kicking off their set with Haunter, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy. “Where are the crowd surfers?” questioned Keogh, “I wanna see from the back of the room to front, like a human fucking waterfall!” he encouraged, much to the dismay of the house security.

The Alpha Wolf set continues with Creep, followed by the massive Acid Romance, prior to which Lochie spouts “You guys sold out the fortitude music hall. I wanna thank every single person here tonight. You’ve always been good to us Brisbane, we’re tryna treat you motherfuckers with something you deserve”. Encouraging the Brissy punters to keep their energy up, guitarist and backing vocalist John Arnold instructs them to bounce, and bounce they certainly did!

The mosh a heaving mess of bodies thrashing and jumping, crowd surfers steadily making their way to the front barrier. The stage lights flood the stage with a gloom of red as guitarist Sabian Lynch, Lochie, John and bass player Scottie Simpson stand as four dark silhouettes before a flurry of pyrotechnics erupt from the stage, wowing the crowd.

You would not have thought that this was the last leg of the tour for anyone, as the Alpha Wolf boys show they are absolutely on their game. The visually spectacular lighting that emits from the stage drum riser and set only adds to the performance they boys put on. Lockie captivates as he walks the front of the stage, swinging the mic around and eggs the crowd to sing along during Sub-Zero, while a confetti cannon is unleashed on the venue periodically throughout the set.

Joining the stage, they introduce Rowan, the photographer that has been with them since the early days, bringing him on stage for a quick shred on guitar, feeding him a beer which he proceeded to spit out across the front of the pit, and kicking off a wall-to-wall circle pit.

Although Brisbane wasn’t as lucky as Sydney to have Lizi Blanco (The Beautiful Monument, Vilify) to appear for Bleed For You, they made it special for the Brissy fans, joining them in creating heart shapes with their fingers and raising them high above their heads.between tracks, the crowd started an “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, OI!” cheer, which quickly turned to a chant of “Fuck Melbourne”, which got a rise out of the frontman, stating “You may live on the coast but people in Melbourne surf harder”, proceeding to keep the set going with Bring Back the Noise.

The energy of the Fortitude Music Hall was huge! And Alpha Wolf loved it, the crowd well and truly captivated by their spell. If they said bounce, they bounced. They wanted a circle pit, the crowd opened up like a gaping maw of some monstrous beast. Lochie announced, “We’ve got imposter syndrome, we’ve got no idea what we’re doing up here”.

Sounding better than the studio recordings, Sucks 2 Sucks gave the crowd even more energy, erupting once again into the heaving mass of bodies thrashing and jumping. Dedicating Feign from the recent Half Living Things, to their besties in Invent Animate, the stage lighting took it up yet another notch with its amazing spectacle of spotlights and colour changes.

Nearing the end of their set, Lochie, now shirtless and glistening with sweat, gave a heartfelt and energetic speech of inclusivity, stating regardless of identity, race, sexuality “This is your space!” before a massive breakdown during Mangekyö. After 60cm of Steel, Sabian addressed the crowd as the frontman retreated to the back of the stage, re-emerging to announce he had pushed himself a bit hard and had to chuck, apologising to the crowd stating, “You don’t deserve that shit!” and raring up for one final hurrah – Akudama.

The unmistakable thundering of drums from Queensland‘s very own Mitch Fogarty ripped through the air. Crowd and band in unison screamed the song, with pyrotechnics and confetti filling the air. “This is the perfect way to end a tour. We love you” toted Keogh for one last thank you.

As far as milestones are concerned, tonight’s show will be heavily ingrained in both the three thousand fans and the five bandmate’s memories as their biggest show to date. The saying goes you can’t improve on perfection – clearly whoever said that didn’t inform the Alpha Wolf boys, who will no doubt be already planning their next steps in their plan for world domination. Where to go from here? Only Alpha Wolf knows, but what we do know is they never disappoint.