Live Photos + Review: Church Of Misery, Bloodnut, Slumbug - Whammy Bar, Auckland

Long serving Tokyo doom metal maestros Church of Misery hit Auckland last night for a headline event at Whammy Bar, a pillar of the super city’s underground music community. The fearsome four-piece stormed the stage with a caravan of Black Sabbath-worshipping riffs acid-washed in dark psychedelia. All the throwback fashion-tropes were present, including overstated bell-bottom pants and cherry red SG guitars.

The resonant bunker of Whammy and its weapons-grade subs provided the perfect vehicle for bassist and sole original band member Tatsu Mikami’s rib cage-rattling, harmonically viscous tone, which emanated from possibly the lowest-slung Rickenbacker four-string in the entire world. Drummer Junichi Yamamura’s stampeding kick drums and vocalist’s Hiroyuki Takano's wah-heavy theremin solos and evil priest impressions put the cherry on the tightly-transitioned cake.

A score of gig-hardened photographers valiantly held their posts against a whirlpool of limbs and a monsoon of shaggy locks when the downright nasty riffs rolled around and among them was lens-bearing legend Connor Crawford. Witness the fruits of his pit bravery below...