Category Archives: Ben Hosking

Live Review – Dead Letter Circus + Sleepmakeswaves at Metro Theatre, Sydney – December 19, 2014

Words and Pics by Ben Hosking – www.hoskingindustries.com.au
Dead Letter Circus at Metro Theatre, Sydney
What a way to close out the gigging year: a headlining shot from Dead Letter Circus at Sydney’s venerable Metro Theatre, supported by sleepmakeswaves. Sydney’s 4-piece instrumental act sleepmakeswaves are an interesting proposition, given the lack of a front person. Yet despite the unconventional post-rock style, in the vein of recent acts like Scale the Summit and Russian Circles, the band is keeping the audience’s attention easily – no doubt via their combination of soaring crescendos and delicate, intricate twin-guitar interplay. Tonight is certainly the perfect Aussie prog’ tonic for a hard, working year.
Continue reading Live Review – Dead Letter Circus + Sleepmakeswaves at Metro Theatre, Sydney – December 19, 2014

Interview with Dino Cazares – Fear Factory

Interview by Ben Hosking
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Fear Factory are heading to Australia in 2015 to play at SOUNDWAVE festival. Our Ben Hosking spoke with Fear Factory co-founder and guitarist Dino Cazares.

Continue reading Interview with Dino Cazares – Fear Factory

Interview | Tommy Victor – PRONG

Interview by Ben Hosking

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US metal favourites PRONG will tour Australia and New Zealand for the first time ever this coming November (2014). We chat with founding member, singer/guitarist Tommy Victor

Hi Tommy it’s Ben here calling on behalf of LifeMusicMedia.com
How are you?

Hi Ben, I’m fine thank you

Prong has been going, on and off, for almost 30 years. Yet this is your first time to Australia. How come?

Why, I guess it’s just demand over the years and the band has been really active and more recently in the last three years we’ve had more momentum to play more places.
Continue reading Interview | Tommy Victor – PRONG

Interview | Jordan Rudess – Dream Theater

Interview by Ben Hosking
Dream Theater
Post Progressive Metal masters Dream Theater are returning to Australia in October 2014 to perform a number of intimate shows and it’s with great pleasure that Life Music Media spoke with Dream Theater keybordist Jordan Rudess ahead of the tour.

With a career spanning 30 years, how does the band stay motivated?

It’s not hard, we love what we do. Music is our lives and what we think about pretty much all of the time so playing it together is fun and when we go out we play concerts which is really cool because the audiences are generally great and it keeps the fun alive.
Continue reading Interview | Jordan Rudess – Dream Theater

Live Review | Cannibal Corpse + Hour of Penance @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – September 11, 2014

Words and Pics: Ben Hosking
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When Cannibal Corpse last played Sydney two years ago at the Manning Bar, punters were left bruised, broken and scarred. If the line up for tonight’s show at the Metro is anything to go by, there’s sure to be a room full of battered corpses by the end of the night.
Continue reading Live Review | Cannibal Corpse + Hour of Penance @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – September 11, 2014

Photo Gallery | Cannibal Corpse + Hour of Penance @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – September 11, 2014

Photographer: Ben Hosking
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Continue reading Photo Gallery | Cannibal Corpse + Hour of Penance @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – September 11, 2014

Live Review | Devildriver + Whitechapel @ The Hi-Fi, Sydney – September 6, 2014

Words and Pics: Ben Hosking – www.hoskingindustries.com.au
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With a line waiting out front that stretched around the corner and up the street, there was no question tonight’s show with US metal bands Whitechapel and Devildriver was going to be a brutal one. While it’s unfortunate that most of those people would miss the opening act due to the HiFi’s super slow entry process (to the extent that the tour manager would have to delay Whitechapel’s start time until everyone was allowed in well past 9pm), Whitechapel and Devildriver no doubt made every single punter in the full room forget about any annoying delays.
Continue reading Live Review | Devildriver + Whitechapel @ The Hi-Fi, Sydney – September 6, 2014

Photo Gallery + Review : Anathema at Metro Theatre, Sydney – 22 August 2014

Words and Pics: Ben Hosking
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Spiritual. Transcendental. Spellbinding. Miraculous. That’s the best way to describe Anathema’s first Sydney concert in their 25-year history. There’s electricity in the air and from the first bars of Untouchable Part 1, everyone can feel it – including the band themselves who are visibly stoked at the reception.
Continue reading Photo Gallery + Review : Anathema at Metro Theatre, Sydney – 22 August 2014

Interview with Daniel Cavanagh – ANATHEMA

Interview by Ben Hosking

Distant Satellites – AnathemaWith ANATHEMA making their long awaited first visit to Australia this August (2014), we were absolutely delighted when Daniel Cavanagh took time out to chat with LifeMusicMedia.com

Your August tour to Australia will be your first to our shores in your 25 year history. Why so long?

I don’t know why so long, it’s just the way it happened. Our career trajectory has had a kind of difficult course and hasn’t always had the backing or focus that it needed to really achieve great things. I think it’s only in the last few years that these things have been in place.
Continue reading Interview with Daniel Cavanagh – ANATHEMA

Live Review | Carcass + Tortured @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – June 14, 2014

Words and Pics by Ben Hosking
2014_Carcass_20Since their formation in the mid 1980s, UK’s Carcass has been at the forefront of the death metal movement. Even during the years of their break up in the mid-’90s through to their reformation in 2007, no other bands in the genre came close to matching the forward thinking, cutting edge metal they created on classic albums like Heartwork and Swansong.

So, it was no surprise that Sydney’s Metro Theatre should be near capacity for the band’s first tour here in over five years. Even Canberra’s Tortured played a punishing barrage of brutal death riffs to a significant crowd – although many were waiting patiently in the line up for the merch stand, with the line stretching out past the bar!
Continue reading Live Review | Carcass + Tortured @ Metro Theatre, Sydney – June 14, 2014