[Gig Review] ORIGIN (US) & Supports @ Stay Gold Melbourne (AU), 12.06.26.
Writer:
Sammy O’Flynn
Organised By:
Your Mate Bookings
Artists:
Origin (Topeka, US), Snake Mountain (Gold Coast, AUS), Nembutolik (Frankston, AUS) & Writhing (Melbourne, AUS)
(see end of article for relevant links)
P.S.: Stay tuned for an upcoming Gig Review for the Frankston (Singing Bird Studios), plus a Gallery of Brewicide (Photo/Footage Gallery) which will act as a compendium for additional media across both shows - pictures, footage, and more!
Sometimes an unexpected review is an amazing opportunity. In opening this review I have to thank Your Mate Bookings for bringing the undisputed kings of Technical Death Metal Origin back to Australia, for the first time in 14 years.
At 4:00PM, as I’m halfway down the road to Melbourne for a massive evening of Technical Death Metal, I receive a message from our fearless leader Brady Irwin. The message indicates he’s pulled a muscle in his back, and is asking me to fill in on the review slot, which I gladly did.
Now that this little diatribe is concluded its time to get to the meat and potatoes of one hell of a night of death metal!
Snake Mountain (Gold Coast, Australia):
Whole bunch of Australian and American extreme-metallers in the one shot! (Image via Snake Mountain social media (links below)).
Hailing from the sunny Gold Coast, Snake Mountain opened up proceedings with their blend of melodeath and groove metal at 7:30 PM, with frontman Neville Pearce announcing “We are Snake Mountain from Queensland, and this run of shows with Origin has been an absolute blast!” right before ripping into 2024 single ‘The revenant’. Jackson Price’sleads are immaculate live, with a semi-constant sweep-picking, Jaymes Jackson (Vocals)and Jared Day (Bass) bring forth the backing vocals and groove respectively. Snake Mountain’s current drummer Daniel James, having joined the band in 2026,rounds out the back-line, blasting like a madman .
Playing a short, sharp, concise set consisting of yet-to-be-released material, along with the aforementioned ‘The Revenant’ and 2023 single ‘Veins’ which was an absolute set highlight.
Snake Mountain brought an infectious energy to Stay Gold which permeated the room, even getting a throng of early windmills going, along with a small 3-person mosh. ‘Extinction Through Fire’ fromthe EP Villainous 1: Reverence is where Neville calls for the crowd to “come in a little closer!” to which we obliged; the evenings’ first substantial pit opened up not long afterwards!
Break-neck riffs and an onslaught of headbanging followed up for the final song of Snake Mountain’s amazing but entirely-too-short set. It’s another yet-to-be-released track called ‘A Portalis Inferum’, to which Neville jumps right into the pit. Here’s one gripe with the audience for the early part of the evening: Snake Mountain have come all the way from The Gold Coast and are the main support for the tour - there should have been a lot more energy from the audience.
I can already tell that 2026 will be a massive year for Snake Mountain, so get behind these legends to get your fix of 80s/90s cartoon-and-movie-villain themed Melodic Death-ed up Groove Metal! Might I also add that these guys are Blacken Open Air alumni; the second band for this evening of technical ecstasy also fall into that category.
Snake Mountain - Links:
Writhing (Melbourne, AUS):
Image Source: Writhing social media (links below). Nice sunnies, Adam!
Melbourne based brutal death-metal beasts Writhing take the stage at 8:30, with frontman Pat James announcing that they’ve “just gotten back from the Brisbane Origin show” and that they “are here to melt faces.” Playing a blistering half -hour set of material from their 2022 debut album Of Earth and Flesh. Opening their set with ‘Monolithic Extinction’ - this was met with an onslaught of headbanging, and a new vigor that has been missing in the venue. It looked like the Stay Gold anti-mosh-curse was, in fact, broken asNembutolik guitarist and certified pit-beast Hemi Padlie had entered the fray. Being unable to resist a good pit this reviewer jumped in all guns blazing! [Editor’s Note: TOLD YOU GUYS! This kids’ an absolute mosh-addict, loves the stuff - Brady.]
A satisfying mosh was had throughout the first 3 songs of Writhing’s set, including a new track tentatively titled ‘Flesh Possession’. Guitarist Joel Gregory and bassist Jackson Smith effortlessly stoked the fire in the crowd, with riffs that worship OSDM whilst also adding technical dissonance,and overall just an absolutely crushing atmosphere to their music. At the end of seething rager ‘That Which Becomes Death’, tragedy strikes as Joel Gregory broke a guitar string. This then naturally leads to a drum-solo interlude from Adam Giangiordano and a stand-up routine from Pat J. Nembutolik had a spare guitar handy, so the onslaught wasn’t on hold for too long, ‘Squalid Sanctum’ opens quite atmospherically, before Adam G and the blast-beats erupt out of nowhere, guitars a swirling murk of dark devastation, the crowd responding in kind - now becoming a seething pit of (excuse the pun) writhing limbs and blasted bodies.
Pat J then announces that “this next song is from our 2020 EP Eternalised in Rot, and is the title-track”. The announcement’smet yet again with furious abandon from the circling sharks in the pit. Enthralled and exhausted, the crowd is treated to another yet-to-be released song called ‘Cold Cell Crucifixion’. The track was met with a subdued, almost playful jostle from Yours Truly and Melbourne’s finest. Our time with Writhing was almost up and, to finish their set, a two-for-one deal was made: ‘Uncreation’ was opened up with an instrumental interlude called‘Portal To Unhallowed Realms’. Almost as on cue, the Nembutolik guys made sure that a circle-pit erupted that lasted through to the end of the set.
writhing - artist links:
Thoroughly warmed up by Writhing, it was time to grab a drink and head outside for a little bit of fresh air and chatter about how good the bands thus far have been. The energy had risen in the room throughout the night, obviously Melbourne just needed a good hard thumping to shake off the winter lethargy. Writhing did this in a spectacular fashion. Before the exhausted mosh-lords knew, the switchover was complete, and the first distorted notes at 9:20pm indicate Nembutolik had, in fact, begun.
Nembutolik (Frankston, AUS):
Image Credit: Dan Sedick - @djsedick
Oh boy, Nembutolik! What a bunch of deadset legends. Coming in with assists and epic mosh moments of their own accord in the pit, it was finally time for Frankston based hardcore-influenced death-groovers Nembutolik to take the stage. The Frankston crew opened their set up with brand new material titled ‘Ashen’ - admittedly i was still pretty toasty and beat up from the Writhing set, so i was quite subdued for this opening track.
There’s something to be said about frontman Pat O’Callaghan’s charisma and stage presence during the introduction to the track ‘Comedown Eternal’, from the 2025 EP South East Suffering. Pat O says “we’ve all worked today but the BO isn’t that bad… can everyone take a few steps closer?” before asking guitarist Riley Burgess if he was ready to “bring the noise”, to which the grooves hit. And they hit hard.
One thing I’ll add, as a brief aside, is that every time I’ve seen Nembutolik, the Frankston crowd bring the energy for their boys. However, this time around, the crazy pit at literally every show they play was lacking energy - must be the winter blues hitting or something? The grooves definitely still encouraged a throng of enthusiastic headbangers. Drummer Jake Lowe aggressively beats the skins like a man possessed, and certified weapon Hemi Padlie rips a bunch of groove-laden solos that would make Dimebag proud!
Most importantly, Pat O says “we’re at the point of the evening where we are celebrating our 5th anniversary of our debut album All Along the Frankston Line”… which actually happens to be its 4th anniversary, as AATFL came out in 2022. Pat O then introduces the next song ‘Angel Of Meth’. Not to be confused with Slayer’s ‘Angel Of Death’, the grooves are absolutely infectious - Liam Fry drives that point right home with intense basslines in this track and throughout the setlist.
Nembutolik’s is drenched in seething Australian humour and many venomous “BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”s and “Blegh!”s. As expected from a groove-laden, slamming death metal band, I would suppose concluding the set with ‘All Along The Frankston Line’ is the perfect way to see things out. All of the chugging riffs, and a shouted ‘ya fucking dog!’ in the middle of the breakdown - it’s the epitome of Australian humour.
Nembutolik - Artist Links:
All in all, a most definitive display of world-class Australian death metal - tonight’s supports represent just some of the absolute smorgasbord of talent in our local scene for the undisputed kings of technical death metal, Origin,to enjoy and pass around the proverbial campfire.
After a final breather and merch-stand visit, it was time to take our places on the floor at Stay Gold one last time, as the lights dimmed…
Origin (Topeka, US):
Handsome. Suave. Chic. Brutally Tech-Death. Image Source: Origin social media (links below).
Blackness and a spoken-word intro starts the set - right before a storm of blastbeats explodes out of the darkness, thanks to the absolute beast that is John Longstreath. The rest of the band emerge from the shadows with lightning and absolute face-melting gusto. Eyes were glued to guitarist Paul Ryan and bassist Mike Flores alongside the aforementioned John Longstreath,before Jason Keyser appears with a “good evening Melbourne! Off your cell phones and expulse some fury, cunts”.
Now, a technical death-metal gig experience usually goes one of two ways. Those absolutely spellbound by the brilliance of the technical proficiency in the musicianship - this is usually the front of the stage, and the generally not-moshpit-area. Then… there’s the moshers. By golly-gosh, once Jason calls for a pit do those brutal death metal fans indeed gladly oblige!
‘Panoptical’ off 2022 release Chaosmis had Jason K saying that “in every city thus far, we’ve had stage-divers, crowd surfers and circle-pits - open this shit up!” Bodies were flying everywhere, and a call for a counter-clockwise circle-pit was just plain mad - as if our minds weren’t already melted enough. Only the strong survived this pit. Exhausted from the storm that just occurred, I took a song or two’s break to just kick back, watch and enjoy a couple of songs. Keeping up a pit with the blistering pace of Origin is intense. There was a call from the crowd to play some older material. This was obliged by Jason K,saying “we’re going to play an older, slower song from the album Entities”. This happened to be ‘Expulsion Of Fury’ - whatever you want to believe, mate, but this song is far from slow!
[Editor’s Note: The joke continued in Frankston, apparently! For reference, here’s said ‘slow’ track for you. Great for funeral dirges and between-bands playlists at stoner-doom gigs - Brady]:
At this point, Jason asks Melbourne if “you want some more?”, with a little spiel saying that “it’s the wild fans that keep us coming back. So buy a ticket, buy some merch, and keep supporting live music.” After catching their breath, Origin rip into a number from the Origin LP.After being revved up to an exploding point, the pit explodes with the force of a thermonuclear detonation! I am watching from the side of stage at this point - hydration is important in a marathon effort.
The next moment is one that will stay with me for an eternity, and this song is going to live rent free in my head. Of course, to quote a dear friend, the next song‘feels like your brain and body has been mashed into soup and you’re drowning under the absolute tidal-wave of death’. Jason and Paul call for the room to be split down the middle, egging on the feral beast that is the Origin crowd with the proviso that the Wall of Death starts before the song begins, to send Stay Gold off with a bang! This moment puts Archspire to shame, as Origin rip into ‘Thrall:Fulcrum:Apex’ off the Omnipresence LP. This being their fastest and shortest song, the triple-threat vocals of Keyser, Flores and Ryan are absolutely insane, and the instrumentation squeezes so much out of each and every moment. Of course, a good wall of death needs to be followed up with a circle-pit.
I was definitely enjoying myself so much with the brutal onslaught of blastbeats from Longstreath and the technical ecstasy from the guitars of Paul Ryan that I lost track of time, and our evening with Origin was quickly approaching its’ end. Jason asks the crowd to “get in nice and close for a photo”… to which an entire stage take-over occurs. To this, Keyser says “sucked in!Now that we’re completely intimate, it’s time for the really old shit - this one is called ‘Disease Called Man’ from the Origin CD. Melbourne! This is your last chance to show us what you’re made of!
Circle-pits erupted soon after, with thanks to the Nembutolik guys and Yours Truly. The only way off the stage was to stage-dive, so thankfully there was enough people in the crowd to catch so, so many stage-divers.
At this point, everyone was thoroughly worn out - all the signs of a perfect exhibition of Technical Brutal Death Metal.
Footage Credit: Sammy O’Flynn.
A massive thanks goes out to Anthony Blayney and the crew at Your Mate Bookings for another spectacular tour and Origin, Nembutolik, Writhing and Snake Mountain for their amazing performances.
As well as a farewell to arms to Stay Gold - many a Melbourne metalhead has enjoyed a great evening there, from the floor and/or to the stage!