The Sands Tavern has been putting on same insane metal shows lately, so it could explain the lack of a decent crowd at this gig as the metal crowd may have already had their fill for a while.

The return of Stitches was a welcome sight to the Sunshine Coast scene. These guys have always refused to fit into a genre, and it’s good to see that they haven’t changed their approach to their material - the same chunky, head-fuck of a sound, with a few changes in the line-up, with Stitches main-man Beau Deeley (easily one of the busiest guys on the Sunshine Coast music scene with his many projects) now taking the lead, the return of Jeff on the drums, and new addition Barry on bass.

The Stitches sound has always had the ‘sci fi/trance/metal’ approach, and the band has continued this stye with newer material. Stitches switch between grinding death rock riffs and growls, to tunes that would fit easily onto a Rob Zombie- style gore/horror fest.

Overall it was great to see Stitches return to form.

We were there to witness Brisbane band Insinner’s EP launch, and the band was pretty much how I expected - hefty chunks of technical metal, plenty of metal/hardcore screams and the current trend of the use of keyboards and samples that many bands in this genre seem to use, but there were some nice surprises when the whole group would unite in a big groove.

I’ve long heard about Dead Letter Opener, but were yet to see a gig of theirs, so I was looking forward to seeing a band that has been raved about - and they didn’t disappoint. Mick Milard’s bass and vocal work was mesmerizing, along with the brutal drumming of Richie Young and the awesome fretwork of Chris Lait. They display a pretty unique mix of melodic progressive sounds blended with experimental death metal that can see them easily fitting alongside the likes of Karnivool, then supporting Cradle of Filth (which they are doing tonight as I write this, at the Hi-Fi Bar in Brisbane’s West End).

What I was really looking forward to seeing, though, were headliners Meat Snorkel. I have seen these guys once before in an earlier incarnation, and since then have noticed their sound evolve and mature. Having a very heavy Patton influence on the vocals, the lads displayed a metal-ska groove that had the small, but devoted-to-the-genre crowd shaking their butts from the first song.

Frontman Nickola’s extroverted-as-fuck antics and between song banter was reminiscent of early Mr Bungle, and the effects on the vocals added some extra dimension to the sound.

Guitarist Liam switches from full metal chugging to thrashy riffs, then to bouncy ska grooves with ease, and new member Huddo (guitarist from Coast metal legends Excruciate) has found his inner, repressed bass player and unleashed it with full fury.

The drum sound for Meat Snorkel is nothing short of awesome, with your typical metal double-kick sounds and tom tom trickery, but also I swear I heard some Stuart Copeland (drummer for The Police) inspired reggae beats that really added to the flavour of the Meat Snorkel experience.

Overall, it was a great show, just a shame about the smaller audience as more should appreciate talent like this on the Sunshine Coast.

Next Meat Snorkel or Stitches gig, I urge you to go check them out.

Rooster.