[GIG REVIEW] THE GHOST INSIDE, BLEED FROM WITHIN + DAY OF CONTEMPT@ THE FORUM MELBOURNE (AU), 23.10.25.
Words: Mal Keecher.
Venue: The Forum, Melbourne, Australia.
Date: 23 October 2025 .
Bands/artists: The Ghost Inside, Bleed from Within, Day of Contempt.
Presented by: Destroyalllines.
Day of Contempt: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images)
This Forum standing room is currently at medium capacity on this cool Thursday night, and the crowd reciprocate the impassioned energy that seasoned Adelaide hardcore metal OG's Day of Contempt dish out tonight. They also made a triumphant comeback at 2024's Froth & Fury Festival in their home city of Adelaide, featuring an epic line-up. ISC's coverage of 2024's Froth & Fury Festival (Adelaide) can be found here, and all info pertaining to January 2026's Froth (Perth and Adelaide) can be found here.
Day Of Contempt is the first band to grind the metal tonight, in a good way. They ignite a fire inside the grand opulent space of The Forum, giving off occasional Killswitch Engage vibes with hammering breakdowns and the occasional "Fuck yeah" from vocalist Ben Coyte. Coyte announces that they were also headlining Stay Gold the following night (Friday 24th October), which no doubt was brimming with ferocity and controlled calamity, much like tonight's hardcore onslaught.
Day of Contempt: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images)
By 8pm, after DOC's set had come to a close, the standby music over the PA was peppered with songs including Epic by Faith No More, Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard, and Billy Idol's Rebel Yell as kick drums sounded out and main tour supports Bleed from Within gear up.
Bleed from Within kicked off their set by harking back to the beginning, with songs like Damnation from their 2009 debut album ‘Humanity’. Before long, I found myself headbanging to The End of All We Know, despite only recently becoming familiar with these metalcore legends. After congratulations to all bands on tonight's line-up, lead vocalist Scott Kennedy announces "this...is Levitate", a highly charged and monumental song that begins with ethereal yet foreboding sounds, and gets the crowd lifted.
Glaswegian metal powerhouse Bleed from Within continues to melt faces with their glorious riffs on personal favourite songs including In Place of Your Halo. "Shout out to Alpha Wolf" says Kennedy, referring to their headline show at Melbourne's Stay Gold the previous night, where they admittedly over-indulged.
Bleed from Within: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
"Sometimes you gotta get angry" asserts Kennedy. There's nothing wrong with justified and controlled anger, or anger that is projected into something creative, like metal. Personally, metal gigs and listening to metal bands are a healthy outlet, no matter what the original emotions were ignited by.
Scott Kennedy of Bleed from Within: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
Bleed from Within: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
By 9:10pm, several crowd surfers became inspired and seized their opportunity to literally kick up their heels and let their hair down. Bleed From Within stuck to their allotted 45 minutes, and by 9:15pm it was an Aerosmith intermission with Dude (Looks Like a Lady) playing out.
The Ghost inside: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
US metalcore titan headliners The Ghost Inside arrive right on time, appearing as a solid apparition onstage to an energetic applause, and the first track is Going under.
This is followed by The Outcast, The Great Unknown, Earn It, Death Grip, Pressure Point, Out of Control, Dark Horse, Light Years, Wash it away, and Mercy. By 10:30pm, my personally most nostalgic track Dear Youth (Day 52) was inevitably played, as I reveled in the memories of my youth and of recent year's hardships conquered and days gone, in between regularly having this one on heavy rotation.
Jonathan Vigil's scream vocals resonated with the lyrics "shadow boxing with my own fists. You're placing bets on every miss!"
The Ghost Inside’s Jonathan Vigil: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
45 minutes into their set, The Ghost Inside turn the heavy meter up with Secret, as valiant vocalist Vigil viscerally screams lyrics including "don't look at me like I am the problem!" Shortly after, another crowd surfer goes up as thumping bass pulsates and resonates throughout this expansive venue.
The Ghost Inside: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
The audience is invited to decide the next few songs around the one-hour mark. "Spin that shit, let's go!" shouts Vigil" with Faith or Forgiveness hammered out, along with another personal favourite, Aftermath. "Melbourne, you passed the vibe check" observes Vigil. "Our drummer's out here playing with one leg"– a heavy topic laden with tragedy concerning their 2015 tour bus crash tragedy in which two people died. It's therefore even more amazing that Andrew Tkaczyk still commands such attention behind the kit. A Crowd surfer goes up just as the convicting "what do you stand for?" lyrics from Between the Lines resound and two more eager crowd surfers get tossed up and over.
The Ghost Inside: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
"Show me what you got" encourages Vigil as Avalanche and Engine 45, two of the most cathartic songs IMO from The Ghost Inside's discography, round out their 75-minute set. The Ghost Inside's lyrics and creative concoctions have featured as a coping catharsis for me, in multiple ways and on multiple days, over the last few years. And for this I thank them, along with Bleed from Within and Day of Contempt, for tonight's live performances, and a knowing that hardcore and metalcore are alive and well, helping fans in more ways than they know.
The Ghost Inside: Jason Vidic Images (@vidic_images).
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