ERRA + Silent Planet + Resolve + Mirrors @ Forum, Melbourne 9th March 2025 (Live Review) (2025)

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Review by Sam Coronado

Photos by Rena Tan (@bear.n.tripod)

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To locals, Labour Day weekend in Melbourne has meant a warm public holiday and the Moomba festival since forever. To punters and revellers, it has become synonymous with live music, lots of it in fact, and big names from all over. And all the way from Birmingham, Alabama, stood ERRA, one of the forefront bands of the metalcore genre, on the stage of Melbourne’s vaunted Forum theatre.

Embarking on their first ever Australian headline tour, I can’t imagine the band were disappointed with their reception in Melbourne. They played both their newer material and cherished hits alike to a packed house, whilst recognising the city and the nation’s appetite for metal in all of its iterations. Late in their set scream vocalist JT Cavey let us know “how influential your country is to our musical preference and this scene”. It was a gesture well received.

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Erra’s contribution to the scene on Sunday night deserves then to be acknowledged. Following on from three talented metalcore/progressive metal acts, Melbourne locals MIRRORS, French band Resolve, and California’s Silent Planet, is some tall order, yet they proved in their energy, class, and execution that they deserved to be top billing. Whilst the genre is not my own preference as for flavour of metal, I can certainly appreciate how the band have pursued it, and at times seemed to have mastered it.

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As such, the highlights of their set encapsulated the heights of metalcore. ‘Vanish Canvas’ off of their 2021 self-titled release, for example, did well to showcase lead guitar and vocalist Jesse Cash’s clean vocals, arguably the best in the entire genre, as well as the band’s proficiency in balancing the heavier metal sounds with the sweet, gentle breakdowns.

In fact, Cash’s vocals I found lent much better to the live setting compared to studio recordings, with the absence of squeaky-clean post-production highlighting the true pleasantries of his voice. It lacks any of the whininess or emo-colouring of some of his contemporaries, while retaining all of the tone and crispness. On its own, even without Cash’s great guitar work, it exemplifies his talent as one of the band’s frontmen.

But then on the harder, heavier cuts it is Cavey, ERRA’s scream vocalist since 2016, who steals the stage. I have never been big on screamed vocals, but obviously recognise their role in not just this genre but metal more broadly. And despite my lack of care for screams, I found myself quite enjoying Cavey’s contributions to tunes such as the title track off of their most recent album, last year’s LP Cure. Some of the more prog-metal structures on cuts like ‘Blue Reverie’ capture how well Cavey and Cash play off of each other, gliding effortlessly from Cash’s sweet hooks to Cash’s hard, punchy screams.

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The other musicians, drummer Alex Ballew, bassist Conor Hesse, and guitarist Clint Tustin, played their parts adeptly and without hiccups. If anything, they may have been let down by a mix that favoured the two vocalists and the clean lead guitar. But in saying that, the vocals as I have alluded to are certainly the act’s strength, so I can understand the decision to lean into that.

Outside of that, the sound was mostly fine. The Forum is not exactly renowned for putting on metal gigs but that might be a symptom of the vast variety of genres that they do play. Still, I can imagine that at say Max Watts, The Tote, or Old Bar that the heavier aspects of ERRA’s sound may have carried through just a little bit punchier, but I’m nitpicking. Most punters a drink or two deep wouldn’t have had much to complain about, and the Forum’s acoustics definitely suited those melodic breakdowns well.

On the other hand, I felt that the lighting was at the best of times basic, and worst a bit much. It was a sentiment shared by some of those in the crowd, who once or twice in between songs shouted out that the “lights were a bit loud”. I agree, they definitely were, and white light was used probably a bit too often. I know it was no psych-rock gig, and stripped back lights are fairly standard at metal shows, but still. No we don’t need lasers at every show, but it is 2025 and inoffensive, coloured stage lighting should be a given. As should lights being pointed at the musicians on stage, not the crowd! I’m sure punters who brought their sunnies in were thankful for just one thing about the burning Melbourne sun.

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Anyways, like I’ve said, the music was good, which is what matters after all. The highlights hit high, for sure, and most of the songs on their setlist don’t really deviate from the formula of these highlights. But while some of these aforementioned standouts do just that and stand out, others sort of fizz away, lacking that something that makes the highlights special. It doesn’t help that their songs run rather long, meaning that some occasionally trundle just a bit. Nothing is truly bad though, if I haven’t made it clear, and their worst moment is still more inoffensive than off-putting. And with a main set closer like ‘Snowblood’, the best moments were certainly memorable.

As I mentioned, it’s a pretty packed long weekend for live music in Melbourne. Just on Sunday night, with a free show headlined by Peach PRC just across the road at Federation Square, and the legendary Ice Cube across the river at Sidney Myer, you’d do well to ensure that punters leave feeling your gig was money well spent. Judging by overheard whispers and chats outside the front of the venue, when all was said and done, I don’t think ERRA have much to worry about. It seems that metalcore has quite the decent following here, and on Sunday fans of the genre were either thrashed around in a mosh pit circle, or were unlucky to miss out on ERRA.

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Destroy All Lines&UNFDPresent

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
SILENT PLANET(USA) &RESOLVE(FRA)

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AMNPLIFY – DB