PIZZA DEATH - Live And Cheesy In Brisbane!
How Do Thrashers Eat a Pizza? PIECE BY PIECE!
Sunday 7th December 2025
Written by Tom Wilson
Photographed by: Rashid AlKamraikhi and Mike Klonowski
You couldn’t have asked for a better setting. Pizza-themed thrashers PIZZA DEATH are playing a venue called Blute’s in the Fortitude Valley tonight, and it’s right next door to a pizzeria.
When we arrive, I’m still brainstorming pizza puns to use in the review when local wrecking crew BORN AGAIN HYPOCRITE roar to life. Having recently started a new chapter with MASSIC vocalist Simon on screaming duties, they sound better every time I see them, with some sick backing vocals and some seriously attention-grabbing riffs. As always, Simon puts on a furious show, spending 90% of the show hunched down, punishing the mic like it owes him money, and as the last guitar riff collapses into feedback, the vibe is well and truly set.
Pictured: BORN AGAIN HYPOCRITE by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: BORN AGAIN HYPOCRITE by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: BORN AGAIN HYPOCRITE by Mike Klonowski
Pictured: BORN AGAIN HYPOCRITE by Mike Klonowski
ASYLUM aren’t big on banter tonight, instead opting to stand shoulder-to-shoulder onstage and attempt to demolish Blute’s with a wall of brutal thrash metal. The band is tight as a drum, and I find myself enthralled watching their bassist, who alternates between furious headbanging and an eerie calm (while looking like Bill Skarsgård). They sound incredible tonight, and as their final song comes to a climax, all three guitars line themselves up with their feet on the monitor like they’re in IRON MAIDEN and sign off with an absolutely crushing display of high-velocity riffage. Ooft!
Pictured: ASYLUM by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: ASYLUM by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: by Mike Klonowski
Pictured: by Mike Klonowski
It’s time for the main course, and PIZZA DEATH vocalist Pat Simkin (dressed in pepperoni-print pants) throws his head back and gives us his best DEAN MARTIN as he croons a few bars of That’s Amore before his voice is engulfed by a squealing wall of guitar, and BAM, they’re off. Within two songs the front of the crowd becomes a warzone, and the less hardy quickly evacuate to safety as the cheesy bedlam takes over Blute’s. Every song is introduced with a serious-sounding story that always comes back to their favourite food, and the crowd roars as we hear tales of cheese-based apocalypses and pizza-themed Facehuggers from Aliens.
Pat ducks offstage and comes back holding a pineapple high above his head, and half the crowd starts booing. I spent eleven years in the Army where “pineapple” is a slang term for an unpleasant task (because it hurts like a pineapple up the bum), so I have mixed emotions about this particular fruit, and it’s not from eating it! They split the crowd down the middle based on whether or not they think pineapple belongs on pizza before triggering a toppings-based wall of death, and at some point some absolute animal takes the pineapple from the singer, turns it sideways, and starts devouring it like a snarling beast, skin and all. The band are stunned, and he gets cheers from the crowd.
Pictured: PIZZA DEATH by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: PIZZA DEATH by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Pictured: PIZZA DEATH by Mike Klonowski
Pictured: PIZZA DEATH by Mike Klonowski
However you feel about Australia Day, this is a time of year where people think about what this country means to them, and what it means to be Australian. There was a moment last night watching this pizza-themed insanity that it occurred to me how lucky we are to be able to go out and bang our heads to songs about pizza and feel safe and secure, and it felt good.
Then, I realised that my wife and kids had giant Costco pizzas for dinner, and there was a massive stack of cheesy leftover deliciousness waiting for me when I get home. That felt even better.
Pictured: PIZZA DEATH by Rashid AlKamraikhi
Photographed by: Rashid AlKamraikhi and Mike Klonowski
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