Hard-rocking, energetic and underworld-ly metal outfit Battlesnake plans to "melt faces" at Kryal Castle in April, onboard a Australia-wide tour coming to Ballarat.
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The Sydney seven-piece band will be touring alongside American rock greats The Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction as part of this month's The World Is A Vampire Tour.
Playing into fantasy and sci-fi aesthetics, guitarist Ben Frank describes Battlesnake as a "cult metal" band, combining many spices from across the genre.
"We go for the over-the-top theatrical side of things," Frank said.
"For me, Battlesnake is the band I imagined being in when I was six, but it is better. I just think about what would excite my inner-child, and we do that, and it seems to work really well." The World is a Vampire tour won't be the first time the seven-piece has brushed with music royalty - opening for KISS for its Sydney show in 2022.
"KISS was one of those things, it was our first taste of really big-budget touring. Even though it was just one show," Frank said. "Now being on a tour with a band like that, it really feels like a step up. It is our first proper tour where we go place to place to place. It is a proper tour, and our first taste of that. It is really, really exciting."
And it won't be the band's first time in Ballarat, having performed a show at live-music venue Volta in 2022.
"It was good, a great venue. We loved it there," Frank said.
The band's explosion of success has even seen them partner with Xbox to make a song for the release of Total War: WARHAMMER III, a game fitting with the band's aesthetics.
The tour comes as Battlesnake looks to release its latest album, The Battlesnake, with the first track of the album I Am The Vomit out already. Frank said the band drew on primordial inspiration during the writing of the album.
"We tried to put ourselves in the frame of mind that in 5000 years, if people discovered these lyrics, they would think that they are holy texts," he said.
"I am pretty excited to have that out in the world, and for our future descendants to discover it and turn in into The Bible 2."
However, Ballarat's Kryal Castle show will be the chainmail-clad lads' first time playing in a castle.
"It is the first time we have played in a castle, and we have been wanting to play in a castle since we formed. We are very excited about that," Frank said.
The World Is A Vampire is part of a massive world tour with Jane's Addiction, which recently announced Josh Klinghoffer will sit in to replace long-time guitarist Dave Navarro.
"People can expect to leave with their faces melted," Frank said.
The tour comes as Kryal Castle bolsters its live music and events profile.
The experiment was deemed a success in 2022, after the castle hosted metal music festival Knight and Day on New Year's Eve 2021.
The medieval-themed venue's run of massive music festivals has not been entirely smooth, with the cancellation of the Ballarat leg of the Boardwalk Country Music Festival, which was due to play at Kryal Castle on April 22.
Tickets to the World Is A Vampire tour can be purchased online.
