Artists: Ulthar, Jarhead Fertilizer, Contaminated, Diploid
Venue: The Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne, Australia (Naarm, Woiwurrung country)
Date: 2nd August 2025
Review by: Jess JRoc
Photos by: Ben Eldström
It was the night of nights down LoJo, that’s Lower Johnston Street if you’re unfamiliar. No matter which gig you chose, they we’re both unreal, and it’s a joy to see the LoJo strip pumping.
The Bendi feels good, it’s full of bodies in warm hoodies and patched jackets, and everywhere you look there are more familiar faces. We’re spoilt, with two internationals on one bill in Jarhead Fertilizer from Ocean City, Maryland and Oakland, CA blackened death trio Ulthar. But the fun doesn’t stop there, one of my favourite Naarm locals Diploid and Contaminated showing the Americans how we do death and noisegrind in this town.
Diploid
Diploid open the show, which is a rare sighting these days, their abrasive fast display kicks you in the guts from the get go. They rip into Less, a track from their 2019 release Glorify, you’re sliced into as it starts. From mid way, the speed steps back as you feel like the air has been sucked out of your lungs for the minute or so this song goes for.
Their track Mantra, it’s heavy, in more ways than the obvious. Gritty, layered with feedback, and painful vocals that are shared between the trio, with the final words Until the day I die, Just as long as I die. Their 2024 LP, Mantra, is painful, fast, and 10 minutes of exceptional music. It was released via Rope or Guillotine, who if you aren’t around yet, have a phenomenal catalogue specialising in the DIY spectrum, and they are all around legendary humans.
If you’ve seen Diploid before, you know you have to be one with the show no matter what happens. As the set closes, guitarist Mariam throws their instrument to the floor and flies into the crowd with their mic. Eventually meeting the Bendi floor, it signifies the end, move or be moved.
Contaminated
You know you’re in for a good time when you see Contaminated on a bill. The 5 piece death metal ensemble that’s a mix of members from all the best local bands in this field, swelling guitars that treat you like a marionette on a string the way your neck slams with every note, the pure force of drums and bass keeping time like it owes them money.
Vocals that hurt to think about, littered with banter to even get the toughest heads giggling, their vocalist Mark hits us with some devastating news of a recent accident involving his 2008 Toyota Corolla. What’s more soul-destroying than writing off the most indestructible car? Contaminated’s 45 minute set is a strangulation of riffs, a haunting groove, and a slaughter of the senses.
It’s the age old Death Metal gag, that’s the opposite to the Grind Core gag, “we’ve got three songs left, so that’s about an hour”. Honestly they could’ve played for over an hour and I would’ve been happy.
Celebratory Beheading, their latest full length, is track after track of some of the finest death metal Melbourne has to offer. Which is my favourite? it has to be Cosmic Shit Show, because we’ve all been there, oh boy we’ve all been there.
Ulthar
The Californian 3 piece take the bandroom stage, immediately the front of the stage is packed tightly, and within moments of their opening track the pit erupts. This is The Bendi bandroom we all know and love, punters throwing themselves around as the hypnotic blackened death sound lays like a veil cross the crowd.
With members of Nails, Spirit Possession, Black Curse, ex-Mutilation Rites and more, it’s safe to say you may have seen at least one these guys before. Ulthar have an enormous sound, defined as blackened death, stabbed with the influences of trash, technical death, featuring mystic artwork and nightmarish themes, a haunting ritual and absolute wall of sound that feels more of a ritual than a gig.
Cosmovore from their 2018 release of the same name is fast, soul crushing and brutal, with your eyes struggling and ears to absorb how their drummer and guitarist can possibly even play at speeds faster than time and space itself. The pit keeps moving, first slamming in the air as they work through their endlessly impressive discography as they annihilate Collingwood for this mammoth co-headline tour.
Jarhead Fertilizer
If you thought to yourself, I recognise these chaps, you’d be correct. With half the crew recently playing a few shows in town last year with Full of Hell, for the first time in Australia, Jarhead Fertilizer is the death/grindcore chaos we deserve, but are we ready for it?
Firstly, their drummer Dave, who wraps up an evening of elite drummers from each and every band, is braced with heavy chains. There’s a mic near his kit, which is one of my favourite combos around. A drummer with a mic, that’s power. The last time I saw him, he was absolutely flattening a microphone into a rusty old brakepad resting on his drum kit during soundcheck, on a Tuesday for a Make It Up Club show, I know he’s capable of mayhem, and I am so fucking excited.
With samples that give you a chance to catch your breath, their set boasting a healthy heaping of tracks from their latest record Carcereal Warfare, of which the artwork is unreal. Baptized by Fire begins with a siren, a familiar yet unsettling sound, before the twang of bass and guitars and absolute pummelling of drums and vocals throughout, we’re all left empty yet so full as the tempo shifts around as sharply as the bodies are thrashed around in the pit. Normally, by almost 1am, you’d think that’d be enough, but these legends generously give us one more. Little did we know, they’re surprising us with one more show before they head north.
Their guitarist dons some sweet shades for the whole set, and a yell behind me says “MORE SUNGLASSES, MORE SUNGLASSES”. I’m all about it.
Jarhead Fertilizer, Ulthar and Gutless plan to demolish The Old Bar stage for a gargantuan Morbid Mondays this Monday (tomorrow), so get $30 ready, and call in sick on Tuesday, because I don’t think any of us are going to survive it, what a way to go.
Gig Gallery:
