Thanks to our Quick-fire reviews of all 68 albums nominated for the 2024 Taite Music Prize, loyal HUP readers will already know that Demons of Noon’s Death Machine is “a bloody good album that might even win some new converts to the metallic side”, and that on Infinity Ritual’s EPII “the riffs are properly catchy, the vocals are mostly decipherable, and there’s the right amount of bounce for headbanging”. Now both bands are teaming up to tour the country on the back of those same new(ish) releases.
Max Johns spoke with Adam Colless (guitar, Infinity Ritual) and Jonathan Burgess (bass, Demons of Noon). Jono’s bandmate Scott Satherley (guitar) turned up a little late but still got a few words in as well. BE A WINNER WITH HUP! WIN A DOUBLE PASS to the Succession Tour’s Hamilton stop, at Nivara Lounge on Friday August 23. Message us on Facebook and tell us why you deserve it. We’ll let the most deserving punter know before the end of the month. HUP: Hi guys. How did your two bands end up touring together? Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We both mutually respect each other's music, and we both put albums out last year. Infinity Ritual snuck theirs through as an EP for some reason. I met Adam in person when he came to our show in Valhalla in Wellington. We got to talking that night, and we came up with this idea to tour our albums. It feels really good to join forces to go around the country. It's a lot more comforting than doing it by yourself. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Absolutely, yeah. Captain Planet. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): With our powers combined! Then we also noticed we both have a song called ‘Succession’ on our new albums. So we named it the Succession Tour. We might have a competition about who did ‘Succession’ best. It's also a great opportunity to come up with some Succession TV show memes to promote the tour. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Yeah, one of the greatest shows.
HUP: You play relatively different styles of metal, and there’s no headline band for the tour. Do you think you’ll draw a different crowd into each corner of the bar, or will your fans have more love than that?
Adam (Infinity Ritual): I think there'll be more love in the room. It’ll be a Doom gathering. Both bands share common elements in our influences, we come from the same sort of place, but with the metal that we play we're a bit different. It's an awesome pairing because when you see the Demons, Jonathan and the guys, get together it's such an experience. One thing we're quite excited about is playing at least one or two new songs in each show. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): I’m feeling the love, too. This is a more complementary thing, rather than pushing the boundaries of varied lineups. We’ve picked up a whole lot of cool local support bands, too. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Jono’s managed to sort out some awesome opening acts. In Hamilton it's Wolf Wizard, which has got me very excited. We’ve been talking to those guys for a couple years now and now we get to actually meet up and play with them. I'm really looking forward to Hamilton; it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We’ve got to give a shout out to all the bands that are going to be joining us on the tour. Obviously Wolf Wizard, but all the others as well. From Moose Mountain have switched into the Christchurch lineup. Soulseller in Dunedin have been extremely supportive and helpful, and we’re got High Lords in Wellington - they're the guys from Beastwars going undercover and playing instrumentals. And we're excited to be playing with The Death Spell in Auckland, because quite a cool thing has happened here. Like us, they put out an album last year as well. There's a thing called the Doom Charts, which is a collection of doom reviewers who vote on these charts each month. All three of us have spent some time in the Doom charts for our albums, which is an honour - a dream come true. Adam (Infinity Ritual): It is, yeah. Making New Zealand Doom alive again. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): And it’s a huge lineup in New Plymouth. We're playing Battle for the Mountain 2, which is a sort of big festival show with a whole pile of bands. That was a case of good timing. It’s been organised by a guy called Jesse, who's in Caldera. They recently got the New Zealand support slots for EYEHATEGOD. That’s a total coup for them, stoked about that. Adam (Infinity Ritual): It's a big deal. They're awesome kids, man. I call them kids, but just they’re only bit younger than us. They've got this amazing sludge tone. Unique's not the right word, but it's very them. It's heavy, and they're just awesome. A great bunch of guys. So we're over the moon that they've got those shows. HUP: New Plymouth is your home turf, right, Adam? Adam (Infinity Ritual): Yes where we're from good old Ngāmotu, under Taranaki, which is awesome. And in New Plymouth it's quite amazing, because we had a scene a few years ago which died an honourable death. Then since covid there has been a massive resurgence of really awesome underground music coming out now. We’re stoked because we got to come up at the same time as all these other bands now. For us it's a cool throwback to the ‘90s when there was Sticky Filth and all these other bands. Another chapter is happening for heavy music in Taranaki. [If you’re after an intro (or a throwback) to the original Taranaki Hardcore days, get started with 1994 compilation New Plymouth Rocks Hard on Bandcamp.] ![]()
HUP: What do you think led to separate bands emerging at the same time?
Adam (Infinity Ritual): I would say all of us being locked up. Personally, I loved lockdown. I indulged in good beers, and we had phone parties and good times like that, but everybody got a bit of an itch. There's not too many venues in town but a couple were starting to come up. The great thing was that people just wanted to come out to see live music again, which had kind of died off. It's been awesome. That’s given people the drive to actually give this a crack in our hometown. It gives us that confidence, and now we’re heading out to see the country with the Demons. People will see and hear this emerging scene coming from New Plymouth again. Then to bring the Demons of Noon to end the Succession tour here, that's very cool. HUP: Jonathan, last time we spoke to you in 2021 I asked what your local scene is like in Auckland but you didn’t know yet! Jonathan (Demons of Noon): No, we’d just unveiled ourselves in Wellington and we were leading up to our first Auckland show. HUP: So, let’s try again. What’s the metal scene like in Auckland? Jonathan (Demons of Noon): The scene in Auckland is wonderful, but it has its challenges. It ebbs and flows. The big news at the moment is that The Wine Cellar has closed down after 20 years. Rohan (Evans) is taking a well-deserved rest. That's emotional for us because it's the venue that we grew up in. It’s where we first started playing in our early days. Rohan looked after us the whole way through. But it's extremely positive because they're knocking out the wall between Whammy Backroom and the Wine Cellar, and turning it into a 500 person venue called Double Whammy. Next door, Whammy Bar will remain as normal. It's a great evolution for that place. Lucy Macrae and Tom Anderson from Whammy will run the new venue too. They really hold up the music scene - they're both involved in promotion and Tom's a big production guy in town. Whammy’s a good place for them to store all of their gear, so consequently it has a really good backline available.
HUP: Are there enough local metalheads for 500 people to fill Double Whammy?
Jonathan (Demons of Noon): There's a small and very engaged metal scene here. A cool thing that's happening is that the kids are really getting into metal again. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Yes! Jonathan (Demons of Noon): Early 20-year-olds are starting death metal bands and black metal bands, really hardcore bands. HUP: Have either of you played Hamilton before? Adam (Infinity Ritual): We played Nivara Lounge about two years ago with the Venom Dolls from Auckland. There were two other bands from New Plymouth in town, so we just decided to all meet up and meet Ivan there. A few people came out, which was awesome. I love the place. HUP: Will the Nivara Lounge stage be big enough for all the Demons of Noon? You’ve expanded between your first EP and last year’s album. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We’re technically a six piece but one of our singers, Aria, recently had a child. So on this particular tour she has been replaced by...umm...a Juno synth... HUP: Infinity Ritual’s a bit different - just the three of you, right? Adam (Infinity Ritual): That's correct. The line-up has been the same since we started, straight after the first Level Four lockdown. Mark, our drummer, owns Vinyl Countdown, which is a record store in New Plymouth. He used to run Real Groovy in Wellington so he's got a big reputation. I’d seen him playing in a covers band for a few years, so I knew he liked heavy music and asked if he’d ever be keen on a jam. Jase, our bass player, was another customer that bought records off Mark. Se he asked, ”hey, on the off chance, would you want to be in some stony, fuzzy, doomy band thing?” We were originally gonna be a four piece. We intended to get a bass player so Jason and I could both play guitar. Then one day Jase just decided to bring a bass to practise, just so we get some ideas, and he just hasn't given it up. Suddenly he’s coming to practise with 8 by 10 Ampeg and he's fully committed to bass. He loves it! He keeps buying heaps of bass gear, so that's a good sign. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): It's the gear that counts, right? Adam (Infinity Ritual): 100%, yeah, haha, there's a whole aesthetic.
HUP: How would you describe what the good readers of HUP will hear from your bands when they come to Nivara Lounge on August 23?
Adam (Infinity Ritual): We usually call it a heavy wall of noise. There are elements of doom, stoner, and in some ways groove metal is a big influence for us as well. We've got the guilty pleasure of loving Pantera and that sort of stuff, so elements of that come out. But mainly the stonery, fuzzy, doomy stuff. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We describe ourselves as a big, warm, air massage. A lot of volume, a lot of very slow riffs, a lot of low tuning. Quite a few people on stage, and and ethereal witchy tones from the girls. They’ve really kicked us up a notch and made us the band that we are. Adam (Infinity Ritual): It's beautifully haunting seeing Demons play live.
HUP: If this tour leads on to bigger things, where do you guys hope you'll be playing next year?
Jonathan (Demons of Noon): Australia. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Yeah, let’s go to Ozzy. Even if this tour is unsuccessful! Jonathan (Demons of Noon): I was in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago, and there’s a specialty heavy metal record shop. So I made a point to get over there to say hi and start building a connection. The guy there told me about a few festivals and things, so we've got something to start with. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Awesome, that's the way. HUP: Those connections are crucial, eh? Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We have no budget on this tour. So it's been a case of, “hey, would you like to play with us in New Plymouth? And, furthermore, can we stay at your house?” Adam and Jesse said yes straight away. So that's a mark of a great man. We're doing pretty well with couches to crash on. One of the High Lords is putting us up in Wellington, our drummer Joe's parents are putting us up in Dunedin. My friend Tony is putting us up in Christchurch. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Coins are quite tight. [Scott Satherley, Demons of Noon guitarist, joins the call.] HUP: Hi Scott, you’ve turned up just in time for me to say that I’m all out of questions. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): Scott, tell Max about the new songs that we're planning to play. Scott (Demons of Noon): Geez, where to begin. ‘Coward’ started as quite a funny idea of coming up with a song that's all hate, like a diss track. Just unleashing, but it's not actually about anyone. We’re just dissing someone who’s a real piece of shit. It was real fun doing that, just making shit up and pretending that it's a person we hate. So that's coming. HUP: Who do you think about when you're playing it? Scott (Demons of Noon): No one really. Well, maybe myself. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): That's probably a significant portion of the Doom genre. Diss tracks to yourself. Adam (Infinity Ritual): Yeah, yeah, self-loathing. Jonathan (Demons of Noon): We're very lucky to have Scott on board, because he's an extremely talented artist. He’s put together the posters and all the artwork for the tour. Adam (Infinty Ritual): Awesome posters.
Scott (Demons of Noon): Through my work I found a lot of open source content that the Met Museum has let out into the world. You can kind of just use any of these good old images freely, without getting in trouble. If you go to the Met Museum and search ‘hell’ you get this slew of beautiful, beautiful imagery. Not having a lot of time to draw up my own, I just trawled their archives.
HUP: They're genuine works of art. Hopefully they’ll attract heaps of people through the doors up and down the motu.
The Succession Tour reaches Hamilton's Nivara Lounge on Friday August 23. Get tickets from Under the Radar, and/or message us on Facebook before the end of July to be in to win a double pass.
EP II by Infinity Ritual and Death Machine by Demons of Noon are streaming and selling on Bandcamp right now.
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