BATTLESNAKE + DZ DEATHRAYS + MANNEQUIN DEATH SQUAD – CHALK, BRIGHTON 8.7.25
Tonight’s line-up is something of an Ausfest, with all three of tonight’s bands hailing from Australia. The pun with Ozzfest is entirely intentional. Hopefully with the spelling that I’ve used I won’t have to pay royalties to Sharon Osbourne!
The show is part of a co-headlining tour featuring Battlesnake and DZ Deathrays. However due to an early curfew of 10pm support act Mannequin Death Squad take the stage at the ungodly hour of 7:15pm in front of an at best sparsely populated Chalk. Indeed, as the opening chords erupt from the stage I’m sure that I see a ball of tumbleweed roll by. Thankfully as their set progresses more people rock up to see what’s happening. Mannequin Death Squad are a two piece from Melbourne comprised of Elly on guitar and vocals, and Dan on drums and vocals.
It quickly becomes clear that they trade in rock ‘n’ roll with an insouciant attitude. Elly has a voice that could strip paint when she screams. Dan sings backing vocals and throws in some awesome drum fills. Elly doesn’t play lead guitar as such, but does lots of interesting stuff on the guitar, like playing what would ordinarily be the bass parts for example. She’s also wearing skateboard knee pads. What’s she gonna do?
Then something unexpected happens: Elly and Dan swap instruments! When I’ve seen this kind of thing happen before, it can be a bit ropey, but not with this band! Both are equally as good on each other’s instruments. Dan also has a voice that can strip paint at a thousand paces! So they display some good musicianship, what about their material? Well, since you ask, it’s every good as their playing. As well as being powerful, the songs are tuneful without losing any of their bite. They swap instruments back again to close the set. Unfortunately the final song of their set doesn’t get played, as Elly manages to dislodge the fretboard on her guitar, which must have taken some doing. Proof, were it was needed, that this band play hard. See for yourself at Our Black Heart in Camden on 2nd August – Tickets HERE.
Mannequin Death Squad:
Elly – guitar, vocals and drums
Dan – drums, vocals and guitar
Mannequin Death Squad setlist:
‘San Fran’ (from 2022 ‘Super Mental Psycho’ album)
‘Seventeen’ (from 2022 ‘Super Mental Psycho’ album)
‘Everybody’s Movin’ (from 2025 ‘Wise And Dangerous’ album)
‘Van Gogh’ (from 2016 ‘Eat Hate Regurgitate’ EP)
‘Addicted To You’ (from 2022 ‘Super Mental Psycho’ album)
‘Honey Punch’ (from 2022 ‘Super Mental Psycho’ album)
‘Nightmare’ (from 2022 ‘Super Mental Psycho’ album)
It would appear that a band’s position on tonight’s bill is dependent upon how many band members there are, as DZ Deathrays are a three piece, comprising Shane Parsons on vocals and guitar, Lachlan Ewbank on lead guitar and vocals, and Simon Rodley on drums. A bassist? Who needs one of those?!!! They open up with ‘Paranoid’ (no, not that one) and are immediately kinetically mobile. There’s some very reasonable guitar soloing from the off, courtesy of Lachlan. He doesn’t play absolutely all of the lead guitar, but is responsible for the lion’s share. Shane’s vocals are raucous, distorted and a tad indistinct. Still, vocals like that didn’t do Motorhead any harm! Shane encourages us to “get drunk and rock up to work the next day”. As it happens, in my younger days I frequently arrived at work with a Monday morning hangover. Whilst the Sunday evenings may have been fun, I’m not convinced that the Monday mornings particularly helped my career progression.
‘King B’ is a particular highlight mid-set. It’s much heavier than the record, which is a good thing in my humble opinion. The rest of the crowd seem to agree with me too! ‘First Night Fever’ also kicks ass with a spectacularly awesome riff. ‘Sideways’ is introduced as a “brand new song”. Well, that’s not strictly true, but it’s their latest single so it’s close enough I suppose. DZ Deathrays have been plying their trade for over fifteen years, and they are really good. However, part of me feels that there’s maybe something missing. I guess I expected a bit more from a co-headlining act I suppose. That said, I enjoyed them, and the bottom line is that I would see them again.
DZ Deathrays:
Shane Parsons – vocals and guitar
Lachlan Ewbank – lead guitar and vocals
Simon Ridley – drums
DZ Deathrays setlist:
‘Paranoid’ (from 2023 ‘R.I.F.F’ album)
‘My Mind Is Eating Me Alive’ (from 2023 ‘R.I.F.F’ album)
‘Cops Capacity’ (from 2012 ‘Bloodstreams’ album)
‘In-To-It’ (from 2019 ‘Positive Rising Part 1’ album)
‘King B’ (from 2023 ‘R.I.F.F’ album)
‘Like No Other’ (a 2025 single)
‘First Night Fever’ (a 2024 single)
‘Witchcraft PtII’ (from 2018 ‘Bloody Lovely’ album)
‘Ocean Exploder’ (from 2014 ‘Black Rat’ album)
‘Like People’ (from 2018 ‘Bloody Lovely’ album)
‘Sideways’ (a 2025 single)
‘Shred For Summer’ (from 2018 ‘Bloody Lovely’ album)
So we come to tonight’s de facto headliners: Battlesnake. I describe them as such for three reasons as follows: firstly, they have the most members of all of the bands playing tonight; secondly, they’re the last band playing; thirdly, as they will prove over the duration of their set, they’re the best band playing.
Proceedings begin with a taped intro of what sounds like a monks’ choir. I guess that it’s intended to lend gravitas. However, it reminds me more of ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’. That might be a bit of an own goal there lads! Vocalist Sam Frank reads from what looks like a ‘holy book’, then the band open with ‘I Am The Vomit’ from 2023’s ‘Battlesnake’ album. This song must win a prize as having one of the most stomach-churning song titles of recent times. However, there is some distinct reasoning behind the song’s title and its lyrics. Here, vomit is seen as essentially being a cleaning agent: it gets rid of bad stuff physically, spiritual and emotionally.
Lyrics are very important here. They have a broad ‘sword and sorcery’ theme, and twenty or thirty years ago that would have got the band roundly laughed offstage, in the UK anyway. However, I think UK audiences are now perhaps ready for such lyrics, and outlandish costumes. This is good news for Battlesnake, as they deliver both of these in spades. It’s not just that either. Battlesnake’s musicianship is utterly jaw dropping! If you’re a guitar junkie, you’ll find plenty to enjoy here. Guitarists Ben Frank and Paul Mason essay plenty of dual lead guitar, and both impress with solo lead as well.
‘The Fathers of Iron Flesh’ from the current album ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ demonstrates that the band (and especially vocalist Sam Frank) have something of a taste for theatricality. It’s just enough though, and not enough to be ridiculous. They have a sense of humour too, as shown by ‘Beelzebug II’, which on the current album follows ‘Beelzebug’s Nativity’, which itself isn’t played tonight. The song sounds incredibly serious. It ends with a sternly spoken ‘Beelzebug’, which is then followed by the equally stern “two”. Honestly, it’s hilarious! It’s on a par with Tenacious D’s ‘The Best Song In The World…..Ever’, which is an intentionally very close cousin to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’.
There’s room for audience participation too, which is always nice. During ‘Murder Machine’ the crowd are encouraged to chant “murder! Murder!”. The musicianship displayed during this song is astonishing. The drumming is awesome, whilst one of the guitarists is happily tapping. There’s plenty of showmanship too. ‘The Battlesnake’ starts with a clearly choreographed mass leap off the drum riser. Then Sam Frank stands on the bass drum, while bassist Elliot Hitchcock sits on the drum riser in front of him. Sam then jumps over Elliot’s head. What could possibly go wrong?
Going back to the band’s musicianship once again, they sometimes make it all look so effortless. One of the guitarists crouches down and drinks some water (well, I presume it’s water) whilst soloing with his left hand during ‘Shepherd Hunter’. That is undeniably pretty cool. The band necessarily need to have a degree of suspension of disbelief in order to play songs with lyrics like these, whilst wearing costumes like those. I’m not entirely convinced that all of the members of the band have that. There are occasionally barely concealed outbreaks of hilarity. None of them corpse onstage though. I bet they have in rehearsal.
As the set edges towards its close, during ‘Nightmare King’, Sam Frank falls backwards into the audience and crowd surfs. He momentarily disappears, and then reappears onstage minus his costume to sing a set-closing cover of AC/DC’s ‘Let There Be Rock’ in just his speedos! Well, if you were Australian you would do wouldn’t you? The guitarists and the bassist are in the crowd. One of the guitarists is on the bassist’s shoulders, whilst the other follows behind, all three of them playing.
And so we reach the end! It hasn’t been the longest set known to humanity, but it’s been crammed full of good stuff. Don’t worry about the length – feel the quality!!! If you haven’t seen Battlesnake before, I can’t recommend that you do strongly enough.
Battlesnake:
Sam Frank – vocals
Ben Frank – guitar
Daniel Willington – guitar
Elliot Hitchcock – bass
Nick Zammit – drums
Battlesnake setlist:
‘I Am The Vomit’ (from 2024 ‘The Rise And Demise Of The Motorsteeple’ album)
‘The Fathers Of Iron Flesh’ (from 2025 ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ album)
‘Beelzebug II’ (from 2025 ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ album)
‘Murder Machine’ (from 2025 ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ album)
‘Sanctum Robotu (from 2025 ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ album)
‘The Battlesnake’ (from 2023 ‘Battlesnake’ album)
‘The Key Of Solomon’ (from 2024 ‘The Rise And Demise Of The Motorsteeple’ album)
‘Shepherd Hunter’ (from 2025 ‘Dawn Of The Exultants And The Hunt For The Shepherd’ album)
‘Nightmare King’ (a 2019 single)
‘Let There Be Rock’ (AC/DC cover)
