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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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THORNHILL — Christmas
Festival Extravaganza 2025
+ Trophy Eyes, Yours Truly, JFTD,
Diamond Construct, Diesect,
Headwreck, Blood Oath
@ Melbourne Pavillion,
Kensington, Melbourne,
20^th December 2025
(Live Review)

Photos and Review by Jeana Thomas (@jeanathomasphotography)

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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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THORNHILL

Thornhill, the band that’s quietly been turning heads in alternative heavy music took over the Melbourne Pavilion and turned what could have been a standard end-of-year gig into a neighbourhood-sized morale boost: a curated, ego-free and unapologetically heavy celebration that felt like the band inviting the whole city to their living room and leaving the heaters on. Thornhill fronted the night with a kind of tasteful chaos — not the sloppy, festival-lineup hustle, but an intentional evening designed around contrast and camaraderie. Their choices in support acted like chapters in a book: some dark, some brash, some sincere — all of them necessary.

The production at Melbourne Pavilion was crisp without being flashy. Lights were used to accent — a slash of cold white for the jagged riffs, a warm amber wash for more melodic turns and the PA balanced grit and clarity so that every snarl, every melodic line and stage quip landed. It’s a hard trick to make intensity sound like storytelling, but Thornhill and their chosen company achieved exactly that: the night moved from taut to cathartic and back again, without feeling like a checklist of crowd-pleasers.

The sense of a hometown show — one with friends in the crowd, bands who genuinely know each other and setlists that nodded toward shared history — gave the whole night an emotional weight you don’t always get at bigger festivals.

What I noticed was their intention. Thornhill weren’t just headliners who stacked the stage with names; they curated an experience. The pavilion never felt like a churned crowd. People sang, moshed, laughed and then quietened for a moment when a phrase or melody demanded it. That ebb — which could’ve easily been obliterated by bad sound, misjudged set lengths, or poor transitions — was carefully shepherded. For a band that’s been evolving rapidly on the back of a relentless touring cycle, this felt like a coming-home statement: loud, generous and quietly smug in all the best ways. If you left without having had your expectations bent (and possibly improved), you probably weren’t paying attention.

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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Opening their set with their song Nurture, it didn’t feel like a warm-up — it felt like Thornhill laying out the emotional blueprint for everything that led up to that moment. Parasite and Tongues performed with a kind of controlled aggression that only really translates live, where the tension in those songs feels physical rather than just audible. Their reworking of Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi wasn’t treated as a novelty cover; it was stripped back and reshaped into something unsettling and deliberate, sitting comfortably alongside their own material. Views From the Sun took on a heavier, more layered presence with Matt Van Duppen joining them, while Lily & the Moon with Mikaila Delgado shifted the room into a softer, almost suspended space, highlighting the band’s restraint as much as their power. Nerve, featuring John Florean, snapped that calm cleanly, reintroducing urgency and movement before the encore of Casanova closed the set with purpose — not as a victory lap, but as a final statement that tied the night together rather than simply ending it.

They brought the festive spirit onstage with them also, some of the band slipping into Christmas wear while a bloke in a giant blow-up Santa suit bounced around like he’d wandered in from a backyard party. It felt loose, joyful and totally unpretentious — a band comfortable enough in their own skin to have a laugh, share the moment with the crowd and turn a heavy set into a full-blown Christmas hang without losing an ounce of impact.

The Thornhill Christmas Festival didn’t just look festive — it moved like a living, breathing thing, with circle pits spinning up out of nowhere and crowd surfers sailing overhead like slightly uncoordinated reindeer. It was chaotic in the most joyful way, strangers locking arms, losing shoes and laughing through the madness as the music hit harder and the room felt smaller. For a moment, it stopped being a gig and turned into a shared release — loud, sweaty and exactly what a heavy Christmas should feel like.  The 2025 edition set a high benchmark for what a band-run festival can be: personal, loud and unapologetically Australian in spirit.

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TROPHY EYES – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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TROPHY EYES

Trophy Eyes’ appearance felt deliberate and grounded, shaped by a setlist that traced the band’s emotional range rather than chasing easy highs. Blue Eyed Boy set that tone early, its reflective lyrics carrying extra weight in a live setting where every pause and swell felt intentional. People Like You followed with a sharper edge, the song’s underlying frustration translating clearly as the crowd responded to its tension rather than just its chorus. Heaven Sent introduced a more melodic lift, offering a moment of openness without losing the band’s grit, before What Hurts Most pulled the focus inward again, exposing the vulnerability that sits at the core of Trophy Eyes’ writing. Chlorine arrived as one of the most physically charged moments of the set, its urgency pushing movement through the floor and snapping the audience back into the present. Closing with You Can Count on Me, the band delivered a quiet but firm sense of solidarity, the song landing less as a grand finale and more as a statement of connection. Taken together, the set felt cohesive and considered, capturing why Trophy Eyes continue to resonate so strongly in live spaces.

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TROPHY EYES – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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They have a knack for writing choruses that feel like shared mantras — the kind of lines you’ll find yourself returning to in the days after a show. Live, their energy is buoyant and inclusive; they encouraged singalongs, moshing, crowd surfing and the crowd responded without hesitation. Musically, they balance pop-punk immediacy with alt-rock textures, giving their songs a wide dynamic range. The band’s performance showed confidence and a matured stage etiquette — they played to the venue with the assurance of a group who’ve been there and back. The set never felt like a victory lap; it felt like a warm, emphatic seal on a night full of varied voices.

If the festival’s thesis was “community through music,” Trophy Eyes were a great chapter: optimistic, melodic and generous — the sort of band that makes you walk out of a show feeling lighter, even if your ears are ringing.

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YOURS TRULY – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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YOURS TRULY

Here is a band that brought a different shade of sincerity. Their set leaned into pop-punk and alternative rock sensibilities, offering hooks that landed like friendly handshakes amid the evening’s heavier textures. They were the band that made room for singalongs and for a gentler form of release — crowd participation with the usual crowd surfing, circle pit etc.

They brought a sense of lift and momentum, shaping their set around songs that thrive on connection as much as sound. Sinking opened a clear lane between band and audience, its chorus quickly becoming a shared voice rather than a performance being watched. Bloodshot Eyes and Sour leaned into sharper dynamics, with the crowd responding instinctively — jumping, singing and filling the space between lines as if prompted. Back 2 U and High Hopes added a melodic brightness that never felt lightweight, drawing hands into the air and turning the front of the stage into a constant exchange of energy.

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YOURS TRULY – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Their choice to cover Silverchair’s Freak landed as a nod to Australian legacy rather than nostalgia, met with an immediate surge of recognition from the crowd. Walk Over My Grave shifted the mood again, heavier and more confrontational, before Call My Name closed their set with the audience carrying much of the vocal weight themselves. It was a performance built on movement and participation, where the boundary between stage and floor all but disappeared.

What stood out was their songwriting craft: verses that felt conversational and choruses that widened the pavilion. Their staging was confident, but unpretentious; you could see the pleasure they took in playing for an engaged crowd. Vocals were clear and emotive and their set choices balanced energy with moments of genuine tenderness.

In the context of the festival, Yours Truly acted as a palate cleanser that wasn’t afraid of being melodic. They reminded the audience that emotional weight doesn’t always wear a snarling face; sometimes it arrives with a chorus you can hum on the tram or train home.

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JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED (JFTD)

Justice For The Damned brought an old-school metalcore intensity with modern production sensibilities — a mix that lands like a gearshift you didn’t see coming but immediately respect. Their sound was muscular, with breakdowns deployed not as clichés but as structural pillars. The band’s frontman owned the stage with a commanding presence, surfacing a wall of sound that matched the band’s own.

JFTD’s songwriting favours momentum. Each song felt like a short sprint — adrenaline sustained by tight musicianship and vocal lines that alternate between barked urgency and pitched melodicism. The band’s heft was coupled with clarity: riffs were distinct and the rhythm section locked in, which made the harsher sections feel cohesive rather than noisy.

The song Retribution in Blood kicked off first and immediately changed the temperature of the room, its opening moments triggering a surge of movement as the pit opened without hesitation. Clawing Wounds followed with a relentless pace, the crowd responding in kind — bodies colliding, voices rising and every breakdown met with full commitment. Every Lie You’ve Spoken sharpened that aggression, its accusatory edge echoed back from the floor as fans shouted along rather than simply observed.

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JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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When the band moved into The Current and Ghosts of Tomorrow, there was a noticeable shift from chaos to control, the songs carrying a heavier sense of intent while the crowd locked into a steady, pulsing rhythm. Built to Be Broken closed the set like a final test of endurance, drawing everything left out of the room and leaving the audience spent but satisfied. It was a performance defined by force and participation, where the crowd didn’t just react — they became part of the machinery driving it forward.

JFTD gave the crowd exactly what they wanted: power, catharsis and a sense that the floor could become a short-lived war zone at any moment. For fans of the genre, they were a highlight.

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DIAMOND CONSTRUCT – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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DIAMOND CONSTRUCT

This band felt like they wanted to hug the room. Their sound is textured and layered, often drifting into atmospheric pockets before snapping back to punchy, anthemic choruses. There’s a melodic generosity to them — songs that admit you might sing along, even if you didn’t realise you knew the words. Live, they emphasised dynamics: quiet verses that pulled the audience inward, followed by explosive releases that had the Pavilion feeling pleasantly unstitched.

Their set was a masterclass in controlled chaos, each song layering aggression with intricate rhythm in a way that felt both mechanical and human. Opening with Hell Inside You, the band immediately drew the crowd into their sharp, jagged world, the pit forming almost instinctively as people collided in rhythm with the relentless beats. Enigma and Jynx showcased their ability to shift between tension and release, the crowd responding to every breakdown with tight, synchronised movement, almost as if they were anticipating the band’s next move. Psychosis and Faded brought a darker, almost hypnotic energy and you could feel the floor collectively lean into the grooves, heads nodding and fists punching the air in unison.

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DIAMOND CONSTRUCT – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Hypo and Neon ratcheted the intensity back up, with the audience feeding off the jagged riffs and precise drumming, creating a surge that felt cyclical — the band driving the crowd, the crowd driving the band. Closing their set with Hit It Back, Diamond Construct left the stage with a sense of finality that wasn’t just loud or fast, but fully immersive, a performance where the boundary between stage and audience had all but dissolved.

The lead guitar work left an impression: tasteful leads that never overshadowed the song, but threaded through the arrangements like a guiding hand. Vocals were emotive rather than showy and harmonies were used sparingly but effectively. Diamond Construct’s set was the emotional counterweight in an otherwise heavy night — they reminded the venue that heaviness comes in many shades and that melody can hit just as hard as distortion. Their performance felt curated for connection: moments of call-and-response, little crowd cues that paid off and an awareness of pacing that kept attention rather than forcing it. If you wanted a reminder that melodic depth still has teeth, Diamond Construct supplied it.

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DIESECT – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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DIESECT

Diesect brought metallic precision mixed with arena-leaning melody, a hybrid that sat comfortably between thrash-like urgency and alt-metal sensibility. Their set was the part of the evening where technical chops got a friendly handshake from accessibility: guitar lines flashed fast and tight, but they always stepped back into choruses built to stick. The band’s stage persona was earnest rather than theatrical; they trusted the music to do the talking and it mostly did.

Opening with Hide from the Light, the band immediately pulled the audience into a tense, almost palpable atmosphere, the staccato riffs and pulsing drums prompting an instinctive, forward-leaning energy from the crowd. Second Death and Too Many Cars shifted the intensity, layering jagged rhythms over driving basslines and the audience responded — bodies weaving and colliding in a movement. Shura and Pretty Much Dead offered sharp contrasts of texture and aggression, creating pockets where the pit paused, almost holding its breath before crashing back into motion.

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DIESECT – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Suffer in the Dark carried a weight that pressed through the venue, drawing a tight, almost reverent focus from the front rows, while There Was Never Light closed the set with a sense of deliberate finality, the crowd erupting not in frivolity but in a shared acknowledgment of the intensity they had just experienced.

The drummer’s fills were tasteful and relentless, underpinning the songs without ever feeling showy. Vocally, Diesect balanced harsher passages with surprisingly tuneful moments, a contrast that allowed their heavier sections to breathe. They also managed set dynamics nicely: no one track became background noise. Sonically, they favoured clarity over sludgy murk, which made their complex arrangements come through even on a packed dance floor.

For anyone who appreciates metal’s technical side without wanting the set to feel like a clinic, Diesect delivered. Their set felt competitive in the sense of pushing the night forward, but not competitive in a bad way — more like athletes warming up together, respectful and hungry in equal measure.

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HEADWRECK – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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HEADWRECK

Headwreck leaned all the way into the festive chaos, hitting the stage dressed as Santa and his mischievous elves, turning Christmas kitsch into part of the show rather than a gimmick. It was playful, slightly unhinged in the best way, and perfectly on-brand — heavy riffs wrapped in tinsel, proving they don’t take themselves too seriously while still taking the music very seriously.

Their set was the ticket-sticker on the gig’s energy: loud, immediate and honestly a little reckless in the best possible way. They leaned into punk’s feral roots — short, sharp songs, an itchy restlessness in tempo and a frontperson who treated the mic like a confessional and a cheerleader all at once. Live, their material trades in hooks that are dangerously hummable and choruses that encourage communal shouting rather than mere listening. There’s a youthful, borderline dangerous verve to their stagecraft; they delighted in shaking the room awake.

Headwreck’s set felt unruly in the best way, driven by a sense of momentum that never let the room settle. They kicked off with Low Blow, a confrontational pace, its blunt structure inviting an immediate reaction from the crowd, who responded with tightly packed movement near the stage. Bingo and Plan Z leaned into the band’s sharp-edged unpredictability, the quick shifts in rhythm prompting sudden surges across the floor rather than steady motion. When Razor cut through the set, the energy sharpened again, drawing louder shouts and a noticeable push forward from the pit. Filet of Fish brought a grimy, almost tongue-in-cheek edge that the crowd latched onto, matching the band’s attitude with unfiltered enthusiasm.

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HEADWRECK – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Closing with Busssaw, Headwreck left nothing unresolved, the final moments marked by a chaotic release that felt earned through constant engagement. It was a performance defined by immediacy and interaction, where the audience actively shaped the atmosphere from start to finish.

Musically, Headwreck rides a delicious tension between melody and scrap — a crunchy guitar tone that’s never too polished and grooves that nudge the crowd into motion. I appreciated the setlist choices: a few newer numbers stacked beside those that already felt familiar to the Pavilion regulars, which kept the audience engaged while signalling genuine growth. The band’s chemistry was visible — not staged, but earned, like a joke you only understand after years of touring together.

If Blood Oath felt sculptural, Headwreck felt kinetic — movement for the sake of movement, but never aimless. They gave the crowd an easy way in: chantable refrains, direct rhythms and that infectious bravado that makes you wish your headphones could squat beside you and crowd-surf.

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BLOOD OATH – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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BLOOD OATH

Opening the day, Blood Oath set the foundation for everything that followed, carving out an atmosphere of focus and weight from the very first moments and proving that being first on the lineup didn’t mean easing in, but defining the tone for the entire festival ahead. They showed up like a thunderclap into a quiet conversation. If Thornhill’s curation was the evening’s architecture, Blood Oath were the bold sculptural piece in the foyer: sharp angles, a bit menacing and impossible to ignore. They opened with a kinetic intensity that had the room reorienting itself — a lot of bands aim for aggression, but Blood Oath deliver aggression that’s meticulously rehearsed rather than merely unleashed. Their drummer sets a muscular pace that the rest of the band matches with almost surgical precision; riffs are articulated like sentences, then slammed home like full stops.

Their set carried a heavy, deliberate presence, shaped by songs that unfold rather than explode. Bound By the Weight of Intention set the tone early, its slow-burning tension drawing the crowd into a focused stillness before motion took over in waves. Gauze followed with a sharper edge, the layered vocals and dense instrumentation prompting a more physical response from the floor, where movement felt purposeful rather than chaotic. With The Dull Hum of Nothing, the band leaned into atmosphere, creating a low, pressing weight that held the room in near silence between surges of sound, the audience visibly locked in and attentive. Pardon My French shifted the mood again, injecting a rougher urgency that broke that restraint and pulled louder reactions from the crowd. It was a performance built on contrast and control, where engagement came not from spectacle, but from the audience being drawn fully into the band’s evolving intensity.

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BLOOD OATH – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Their presence onstage is economical but magnetic. The vocalist doesn’t scream into the void so much as narrate it: there’s intent behind every syllable and that makes the heavy bits land with narrative weight. I liked how their transitions avoided the predictable verse-chorus-blast formula — instead, songs breathed, grew and then contracted, giving the audience room to react rather than just respond.

Sonically, they favoured lower-register textures and dissonant harmonics; you could feel those frequencies under your ribs. Visually, they didn’t need pyrotechnics — motion and focus did the trick.

What makes Blood Oath interesting is a subtle songcraft, an attention to dynamics that separates them from many peers: one moment is crushing, the next is eerily sparse and both feel earned. If you’ve seen a hundred heavy bands and wondered which ones have something to say beyond volume, Blood Oath are worth your attention. They left the stage having burned a distinct shape into the night’s memory — not because they tried to dominate, but because they were unapologetically themselves.

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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Check out Jeana Thomas’ (@jeanathomasphotography) full gallery of this event Here

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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Follow THORNHILL
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THORNHILL – Photo – @jeanathomasphotography

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Press Release 28th August 2025 (below) HERE

THORNHILL ‘BODIES’
Australian headline Tour 2026

With special guests
Amira Elfeky (USA), Paledusk (JPN)
+ Heavensgate

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AMNPLIFY – DB