Artists: Burden Man, Irreparable, The Nihilistic Front, Nighteyes
Venue: The Leadbeater Hotel, Melbourne, Australia (Woiwurrung country)
Date: 29th November 2025
Review by: Ziggy Thunders
Photos by: Dave Collopy
Onwards into a slow, plundering journey into the void at The Leadbeater.
Nighteyes provided the ideal soundtrack to send us off into the void on a dreary Friday evening with the trio’s doom folk stylings. Slow rolling waves of doom came in the form of swaying riffs laced with grit and reverb, ethereal vocals that captured the crowd like a siren song full of emotion and power, gorgeous haunting vocal harmonies between the two guitarists, teamed with drums that were so perfectly balanced between gentle rhythms to hard hitting build ups of heaviness.
The trio were mesmerizing to watch as they weaved these haunting, dreamlike compositions, most (if not all if I got my notes right) from their 2023 release The Way Back Down. The atmosphere Nighteyes conjured felt warmly nostalgic, with moments of lightness and darkness shimmering in their sound, they ended their set with Low Light as the guitarist warned the crowd – ‘get ready to shit your pants’ – before they descended into the heavy abyss of riffs.
With a name like The Nihilistic Front you know you’re gonna be in for some form of aural annihilation, but I was absolutely not prepared for the kick in the teeth that was their set. The three members (vocals, bass and guitar – drums took the form of a backing track) created a menacing atmosphere. A sinister drone like sound roared as they assumed their positions onstage, then we were pummelled with gnarly walls of disastrous, foreboding heaviness, deep monstrous growls and harsh vocals that fuelled the sense of dread while a pulverising bass could be felt through the foundations of the venue.
Their unique blend of death and doom left a lasting mark on the crowd (I’m sure we were all going through some sort of crisis experiencing this heaviness together), and their endurance was worth noting as they only stopped to announce the last song – before punishing us with a devastatingly brutal end to their set.
Irreparable continued the night slowing things down a bit from The Nihilistic Front, continuing with the use of drum machines, but this time using a more 80s style drum sound.
This show is their launch for their latest album The Fate of All Life, and most of the material they played came from that album. With a much more old school Darkwave and Gothic influence for this release, they created an atmosphere that had the crowd swaying to pounding rhythms, gorgeous synths, and heavy black metal influenced guitar parts.
They brought some guests with them to the stage, Hayley Anderson from Suldusk and Aquilus playing violin as the vocalist moved along to the gorgeous composition like interpretive dance, and Plum Green performing extra vocals for the final song of their set adding a truly beautiful presence that complimented the heaviness.
This band has evolved a lot over the time we’ve known them, they’ve gotten to be better performers and musicians, they’ve become amazing composers, and an incredibly beautiful bunch of people. (Not that they weren’t already!)
I’m going to say this now – Burden Man’s set tonight at The Leadbeater was one of my favourite sets I’ve witnessed this year (up there with Convulsing and Nothing which we also covered – all thanks to Black Oceans Media), and I’m going to try and tell you why, but I don’t know if I can find the words to capture the devastating intensity and beauty of their set.
Starting with atmospheric ambience the four members (guitar, bass, synths and drums) appeared bathed in a low, blue light that painted a gloomy mood from the start, a gentle smoke slowly billowed across the stage – and then we were plunged into the grimmest, most despair-filled black metal set I’ve ever experienced. After an unfortunate bass mishap occurred during the first song (resolved quickly by a replacement bass after an improvised ambient jam from the members) we got the full live Burden Man experience – and holy hell it was an emotional journey into the abyss.
Burden Man really nailed suspense building, constantly dropping us into spirals of depressive agonising black metal only then to lift us into gentle moments of assurance and somehow, comfort. Slow, churning, riffs of anguish from the guitarist while his vocals haunt the room, eerie emotive synths and distorted vocals from the keyboardist linger beneath the surface accompanied by a plundering bass, the drummer beats the absolute shit out of his kit like a demon whilst also unleashing screeching vocals.
The final song of their set will probably live on in my brain forever, a slow lamenting, sorrowful tune played with the vocalist hitting us with what sounded like an honest, pained, pleading confession until we were led to silence. The band stopped, the vocalist stared out at the crowd, the range of emotions I felt at this point was overwhelming as I contemplated this performance – only for that moment of reflection I was caught in to be broken by the vocalist dropping the line ‘I am ready to die’ before unleashing a wall of crushing misery on us.
The emotion this band captures whilst painfully bleak, is uncomfortably honest and I’m sure it resonates with all of us – and maybe through this we can find some form of cathartic release together. I know I absolutely did during their set tonight, and sometimes these connections are what saves us.
This is a set I will never forget. Go see Burden Man. Let them haunt you forever.
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