Lifemusicmedia.com recently published our photos and review from the Whiplash Festival IV, held at the Sandringham Hotel in Sydney on October 20, 2012. We now bring you the images and words here for your viewing and reading pleasure. Headlined by Denmark’s Mnemic, it was largely an excellent showcase of Australian metal. Read the unedited review below and CLICK HERE or on the thumbnails for the full image gallery:

So let’s set the scene of the Sydney leg of the Whiplash Festival: It’s been a 35-degree day of hot winds and sweaty butt cracks, but there’s been nowhere quite as hot as the insides of the iconic Sandringham Hotel in Newtown. Sadly, the heat is not all related to the scorching Aussie metal found within. This old venue is a steaming hot, sweaty, stinking series of boxes with stages and you feel the oppression from the moment you walk through the front doors. If the venue has air-con, you wouldn’t know it.

The building is a scene of barely controlled chaos with music equipment stacked into almost every corner with no sign of security for any of it, besides the two security guards at the doors of the venue. As a result, we were unsurprised to hear that one band’s cymbals had gone walk-about before their set.

Don’t get this reviewer wrong. A pretty picture it isn’t, but there is the overwhelming positive aspect to the Whiplash Festival that remains: it’s an incredible showcase of Australian metal with bands traveling from every corner of this country to perform. That’s something that can’t be undervalued.
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