Deafheaven | The Forum | Melbourne | 9th July
One very cold Thursday July 9th, some friends and I made our way to the Forum in Melbourne, the crowd lines looped around the block of eager fans waiting to be let loose in the venue. The Forum is a well adored venue by fans of all genres, myself included, with many memories made over the years. Melbourne is the halfway show for the Deaf Heaven Aus 2026 tour featuring Peace Ritual as well as SPY who collectively are bound to amuse the ecstatic masses.
The time hit 8pm and Peace Ritual took to the stage, the Australian band initially began setting their sights on becoming a Moreso hardcore band and quickly pivoted to becoming the layered indie-pop rock band we hear today. Consisting of Vocalist Joel Martorana, who was formerly a part of Endless Heights and Instrumentalist/Guitarist Thomas Elliott also formerly in another band as well called Harbours. Peace Ritual also share co-writing and production credits with Ocean Grove’s very own Sam Bassal, encompassing a broader spectrum within their sound. The band played a variety of singles, enabling them to showcase their portfolio with ‘Tears of Joy’ and ‘Seconds’ certainly being my personal favourites of the night. Towards the end of the set, Joel spoke about a record they’ve been working on behind the scenes with hopes of release towards the end of the year or beginning of 2027. As he continued on, Joel explained that one of the songs featured on this new album is close to his heart, written about a friend that passed away with the song slowly morphing into a powerful song about dancing with grief and different manners of moving forward.
After a short intermission and drink refill by the crowd, next to take to the stage following Peace Ritual was SPY a hardcore punk band hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The band themselves are set to be a part of a couple of different tours over the next coming months, with their very own United Kingdom tour beginning early September and adding a few bigger festival gigs as well along the way. Composed of members Peter Pawlak owning the vocals that can be considered unique to the band, guitarists Drew Satterlund and Cody Kryst, Thomas Sherry on bass, and Josh Mendoza on drums. The stage was jolted alive as the band and crowd alike were restless and rocking, broadcasting their medley of brash and bold songs mostly from their newest EP ‘Seen Enough ’, which was released early 2025, as well as quite a few from the ever so popular album ‘Habitual Offender’ released back in 2021 filling up most of the spots within the band’s top songs on Spotify. SPY have a few shows left of the Aus tour with Deaf Heaven as well as their own upcoming United Kingdom 2026 tour, so be sure to stay up to date and have your tickets in hand.
An electronic voice broadcast throughout the room awoke the lights on stage once again just as Deaf Heaven took their positions. They began by opening the night with ‘Doberman’ which is featured in their newest album ‘Lonely People with Power’ currently holding the top spot on their most listened on Spotify. The band themselves originated in 2010 in the San Francisco Bay Area in California similarly to SPY but originally began as a duo, initially consisting of Lead Vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy. The band later expanded to include Drummer Daniel Tracey who joined in 2012, Guitarist and keyboardist Shiv Mehra in 2013 and finally in 2017 Bassist Chris Johnson came aboard to create the ensemble we know and love today. The American Black Post-Metal band fosters a large following around the world from London to Sydney but this can especially be seen here in Aus creating the perfect audience for their Australia and New Zealand tour. Captivating fans into the night with a few older songs from their album ‘Sunbather’ which was released in 2013, playing the title song ‘Sunbather’ as well as ‘dream house’ from the same album. Deaf Heaven have quite the array of upcoming shows over the next 6 months with their own personal UK / EU tour beginning in Vienna, Austria on the 22nd of July as well as joining Mastodon for the North American leg of their Tour for September and October, so definitely keep your eyes and ears peeled.
Deaf Heaven is certainly a band for the books and with so many gigs approaching in the next couple of months, it certainly presents so many opportunities to experience their heavy thrill live. I simply cannot forget about Peace Ritual and SPY, the dynamic tempos have a way of captivating and are a must to witness live throughout their tours, be sure to check out all three of these insane bands with all their electrifying events in the coming months.