Live Review: Thrown ‘Excessive Guilt’ Australian Tour – Adelaide 2025 – Spotlight Report
Capable of conjuring both our best and worst, the human mind is a mystery. guilt the epitome of its workings, we’re condemned ‘for the things I’ve done’, yet illuminated by knowing, ‘every bad decision I’ve ever made has led me to this point’.
Even the most humble among us know when they stand On the Verge of a life-changing moment. It’s instinctual and, whether it’s voiced to others or a silent self-acknowledgement, it’s recognised. What separates the boys from men, so to speak, is resolve: the ability to embrace the challenges good, bad or otherwise, to keep sure footing, and not be THROWN in the face of change.
Inciting violence and two-stepping early, OUTSIDER takes the place Thrown occupied on their last visit to Australia some six months ago. Opening the Adelaide edition of the headliner’s sold-out national tour, Shadows Still Linger in hardcore fans’ psyche, as one of our own, Surrounded By the Ashes of Others, shows No Remorse in setting a synonymous precedent.
The Lion Arts Factory already oppressively hot, Outsider’s frontman, Tom Drizners, instructs: Let It Consume You tonight, as DIESECT splits the stage. Carbon dating the event as its own, tonight’s next players administer a Second Death, tying up any Loose Ends of memories passed. The brief journey encapsulates A Different Kind of Alone, dichotomising an experience of being surrounded by others whilst seeing things through singular eyes.
Hailing from Hamburg, Germany’s HALF ME is fully Fatalist in their approach. Nothing Left to Lose but the Chains, Chrises Zuehlke & Hesse trade vocals – the former leading their show of support for fellow European hardcorists, the latter commanding one of two guitars. Bassist Tobias Sajons unleashes Ex Negativo upon the audience via literal tongue lashings, which accept no Quitter Talk. Zuehlke’s calls waking up all still In Denial; the time is nigh, just try and keep pace.
Without a moment to dwell, backfire’s infernal heat fuels an already firing, “fucking great Friday night”. From the dark, Marcus Lundqvist’s deep inhale spits and Andreas Malm writhes with the Parasite. Rapidly moving, the Bloodsucker that is Thrown assaults the Adelaide crowd, bringing feverish bodies from the moshpit to a New Low, and out into open air. Scrambling for oxygen at the fringes of the venue, Excessive Guilt’s deepest cuts slice with blistering efficiency.
The Extended Pain of earlier issues trigger, activating the reptilian brain’s fight or flight mechanism, after only thirty minutes and almost-half as many songs, the stage shutdown is jarring. Without a moment to freeze in such a furious display, only this nights rest will reconcile the flash images between first and final greyout.
Wildly challenging and unpredictably thrilling, that is the pure force of Sweden’s THROWN, and the miraculous power of the human mind. The most beautiful and brutal part of our being, keeping our consciousness in step and racing time, isn’t it wondrous; we have such manic music to play along with us too.
