Rod Cooper

Vile Apparition

Bacchus Harsh

Diploid

Sow Discord

Religious Observance

In celebration of its 2nd birthday, Blacksound Records presents for the first time in 4-dimensional quadraphonic sound:

Vile Apparition, Bacchus Harsh, Diploid, Sow Discord, Religious Observance, Rod Cooper: performing live on The Vessel, and Cadmium.

Melbourne's Vile Apparition return to the stage following the recruitment of Brendan Sloan (Convulsing, Altars) on lead guitar and drummer Dom Duszniak. Their 2025 full-length 'Malignity' (Me Saco Un Ojo, Dark Descent Records) was a highlight of the death metal calendar, now presented live for the first time in full and with renewed creative force.

Bacchus Harsh is the alias of Melbourne-based multidisciplinary artist Christian Bishop, whose previous incarnation Xian was a pioneer of the Australian breakcore scene. Bishop's 2021 full-length 'Caveat Tumultum' is the sonic embodiment of occult-themed electronics and deconstructed club music, deterritorializing exotica, occult psychedelia and industrial techno with polyrhythms and distorted blast beats.

Since 2010, Diploid has been a primal force searing underneath the pyre of Australian grindcore and heavy music more broadly. Crushing, urgent, depressing and fierce, few can stand toe-to-toe with the blistering vocals, thematic despair and rapid-fire instrumentals that strike straight at a listener's pressure points. Hot on the heels of their most recent European tour, Diploid's blend of noise, grindcore and bleak aesthetics will punish audiences again this November.

Sow Discord is the dense, subterranean electronics project of Dave Coen (Whitehorse). 2025 full-length 'Retroactive Extortion' (Televised Suicide) is a dark and heavy slab of carefully crafted sample-based electronics, filled with coded references to Coen's love of early '90s hip hop. His extensive back catalogue has seen him collaborate with the likes of The Body, Intensive Care and more.

Religious Observance is the long-running, all-obliterating hammer of Melbourne sludge, noise and doom. Established in 2015, the fiercely independent and DIY driven six-piece presents here with its twin vocal and noise attack in a never-more-fitting, all-encompassing quadraphonic sound.

For over 40 years, Rod Cooper has been building and performing on instruments and noise machines of his own invention. Incorporating tape, gadgets, mortal coils, drain spaces, bridge spaces, microphones, computers, wood, metal, paint, paper, plastic and glass — Cooper's devices are both performance instruments and artistic sound sculptures in their own right. The Vessel, designed and constructed over a seven-year period, was completed in 2009. Constructed from stainless steel, it has seen ongoing modifications to the extended apparatuses of its mast and musical riggings at various sites and performances across Australia. Measuring over 3.5 metres long and around a metre wide, this is a rare opportunity to witness Rod Cooper performing live on The Vessel.

Cadmium burst onto Melbourne's live music scene in 2026 with its dark brand of skramz, reminiscent of the early second wave of Ebullition Records-style emo meets powerviolence to explode at the turn of the century. Cadmium's bleak and dissonant style is a refreshing take on this sound within a developing new wave of underground acts reclaiming the early roots of the style in Australia.

Presented live at Quadraphonic Club, within the former Pontian Community Club building on the corner of Victoria and Percy streets in Brunswick, the venue features a four-channel quadraphonic sound system designed to place the audience inside a spatial field of sound built for volume, texture, physicality and immersion. Located 600 metres from Blacksound Records, Quad Club is easily accessible by car or public transport and features a full bar and kitchen. Blacksound Records-selected DJs will be spinning music after the bands until late.

Rod Cooper

Upcoming gigs