Home Live DIOCLETIAN (NZ) LIVE REVIEW Featuring Heresiarch, Cemetery Urn, Haste, and Karyorrhexis

DIOCLETIAN (NZ) LIVE REVIEW Featuring Heresiarch, Cemetery Urn, Haste, and Karyorrhexis

An evening of BLACK/DEATH/WAR metal destruction featuring Diocletian, Heresiarch and plenty more.

February 17, 2025

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It’s rare that an event conjures such excitement these days. The secret venue probably helped build the suspense. But beyond the cloak of secrecy, music fans, and I mean the ardent music followers who constituted the crowd here, have an ingrained intuition that allows them to sniff out truly special events and lineups. And the Australian Antichrist Festival, spearheaded by New Zealand heavyweights Diocletian, with fellow Kiwis and practitioners of death and darkness, Heresiarch, was one such occasion. Further in tow were Cemetery Urn, Haste, and Karyorrhexis.

Extreme metal has fallen victim to the newest iteration of the Satanic Panic; a moral hysteria during the 1980s where unfounded fears of widespread satanic ritual abuse led to false accusations, destroyed lives, and a mass social paranoia fuelled by sensationalist media, psychological blackmail, and religious fundamentalism. Ozzy Osbourse, Slayer, W.A.S.P. and even the game Dungeons & Dragons were targeted by groups of self-appointed cultural watchdogs. In its modern form, the self-appointed cultural watchdog is less of a religious fundamentalist, but an equally dogmatic brand of liberal progressive. A group whose approach to progression boasts little more than social and cultural paralysis. In reality, the overzealous constitute only a tiny minority, and the broad sentiment to these corners is one of frustration and resentment. It shouldn’t have to fall into the realms of cultural tribalism, and more good people should have the courage to tell it like it is; that the doctrine of hypersensitivity is predominantly rooted in self-interest and should be assessed within this context of narcissism. Alas, that’s not the case, which is why we need to keep shows secret.

Since the show, the venue has been review bombed on their Google Business Profile. Watching people on the internet work so hard to destroy an honest business, their behaviour looks more like online incel culture than it does a sincere moral argument. The uproar being over some undesirable iconography one of the bands used when they were teenagers, and a vague guilt by association charge. Within the crowd, all I saw was a positive social environment and a passion for the artists playing. There was nothing political and no agenda to be found.

But that’s enough of a rant – there’s an evening of death, destruction and madness to cover.

Karyorrhexis

This was their first show, and as I was told, the band consisted of members of Cemetery Urn and possibly some others from the night. Generally pretty fast music and there were some good riffs on display. A kind of Gaelic interlude, or ANZAC wartime passage popped up once or twice which underscored the thematic direction of the group. This was their first show, and I found that to be quite evident. The group felt a little bit rigid like they hadn’t quite found their feet, and some effects on the vocals would have been a good touch.

Haste

Haste were by far the coolest looking band of the night adorning classic spiked armbands, t-shirt cut-offs, leather vests and sunglasses on their female guitar player. But beyond their killer outfits, Haste offered a surge of evil blackened speed metal, adding a healthy dosage of adrenaline into the crowd. As someone who can find the black/thrash spectrum a little cheesy (I’d die a happy man if I never heard another Iron Maiden inspired solo), I love the emphasis on the ‘evil’ rather than the ‘heavy metal’.

By this stage, the venue was beginning to pack out and the crowd rewarded the group for their full throttle attack. Speaking to other attendees, Haste appeared to be a strong point of interest, and I even met some of the band’s family members at the show. Their performance hit the high notes of dark blackened thrash metal and with only the Veracious Bastion EP out, I’d like to think the future is bright for these speed freaks.

Cemetery Urn

“Dark death metal from the grave” is how Cemetery Urn was described by the Australian Antichrist promoter, and by and large that was what they brought to the stage. I enjoyed a few listens to their three albums – Cemetery Urn, Barbaric Retribution, and Suffer The Fallen – in the lead up to the event. What we saw live was renditions of their utterly brutal form of death metal with many-a-beers in hand. Unfortunately, I missed a good portion of this set, but from what I saw the heavy drinking, heavy hitting band did a stellar job of bludgeoning the crowd with sonic skull fuck-ery. The particularly performative vocalist was also a nice touch.

Heresiarch

Heresiarch comes from Wellington, New Zealand, which happens to be my birth city. The city boasts a small but passionate scene, and Heresiarch hold a triumphant place within that. Speaking with the vocalist after the show, I found out that this was their first performance in 6 years (aside from a local show in Wellington a week earlier). The timeline makes sense given the band had a 7 year gap between albums; Death Ordinance (2017) through to the much lauded Edifice (2024).

The band preach death metal with touches of black metal and war metal. From my vantage point, the death metal element is the biggest takeaway by a large margin, but an exceptionally virulent form at that. The vocals alone bring such strength and power to the sound of Heresiarch that they almost command the weight of an instrument unto themselves. Every moment was bone rattlingly heavy, with the scowl of that vocal cutting through everything that surrounded it. The doom section toward the end of their set was also a personal highlight here – dense, slow and desolate destruction that manages to feel many magnitudes more masochistic when the punishment slows down to a crawl.

Awesome set from Heresiarch and great to see the band more active. I hope to see the band build on the momentum since the release of Edifice.

Diocletian

New Zealand’s pinnacle war metal act, Diocletian, headlined the night with an unmatched sense of ferocity and dense sonic violence. This was the first time I’d seen the band live, despite following them for a good number of years now. Diocletian sit on a throne built by the likes of Blasphemy and Beherit, and do a damn fine job and furthering that same legacy. I sadly missed them at a warm up event for the NWN/Hospital Fest in Osaka, Japan in April 2024. However it was with a replacement vocalist at a very small Japanese club, which, in retrospect, I think barely counted as a true Diocletian show. It would seem this was a more opportune moment for me to witness the mighty Diocletian for the first time, off the back of their excellent 2024 album, Inexorable Nexus.

RELATED CONTENT: DIOCLETIAN INEXORABLE NEXUS FEATURED ON THE DISCIPLINE MAG BEST ALBUMS OF 2024

Despite the relentless assault from the preceding four bands, the evening’s momentum never wavered. The extreme intensity of the earlier performances only heightened the anticipation for Diocletian’s headline set. Their sound—a monolithic wall of sonic brutality—stood in a category of its own, defying conventional metal frameworks. Where lesser bands might have been overshadowed by the preceding sonic warfare, Diocletian emerged with a density and weight that was not just heard, but physically felt.

Diocletian honoured all five of their albums in sequential order, spilling forth select highlights from each. The sound was very brutal. There were passages of blast beats that seemed to defy both physical and musical endurance, pushing their instruments beyond conventional limits. It was the kind of sound that makes your head feel like it’s going to explode. And even with earplugs firmly in place for the entire evening, my ears have been left with high-pitched ringing for days after.

This first viewing of Diocletian was a sonic assault that embodied the unrelenting brutality of extreme metal. Their sound is a calculated, militaristic barrage of sonic violence—dense, uncompromising, and designed to overwhelm. Rooted in the most aggressive strains of black and death metal, the band delivered a performance that read like a ritualistic declaration of sonic warfare. Their music isn’t just played; it’s weaponised, with each track feeling like a strategic sonic attack that leaves audiences feeling energised and primal. Raise your hammerfist for the mighty Diocletian.