Gutalax

GUTALAX  'Australian Smear Campaign' at Milk Bar, Perth - 23 September 2025

Many Perth metalheads made the Pilgrimage to Milk Bar, to catch a glimpse of Czech goregrind band Gutalaxs’ Australian Smear Campaign tour. Featuring a heady roster of local metal and punk staples Tom Thumb, Raw Dog, Iniquitous Monolith and Dripped. There were gratuitous power chords, guttural vocals. A guest appearance of a popular inflatable sex doll, and faster than the speed-of-light headbanging. Coupled with faecal themed wordplay, it made for the most memorable Tuesday night in Perth in living memory.

Tom Thumb  opened the night with a mixture of tongue-in-cheek soundbites, being abruptly interrupted by barrages of heavy metal. Lasting only for a minute at a time, it was hard not to be convinced that the guttural yells where an intense form of spoken poetry. A highlight was very metal cover of Three Blind Mice.

RAW DOG  gave punters a dose of angsty punk. Featuring guest vocalist Molly Corderoy left her own mark on the band. By peppering the stage and punters with a vocal veracity of tumultuous screams and angsty lyrics. Screaming in punkish anguish, and saying ‘fuck Spotify’ in protest. Their music awakened the inner anarchic spirit of many a punter.

The night lurched back to metal again. With Iniquitous Monolith  providing their own brand of death metal. Who provided show-stopping vocals which bellowed and roared across the venue. Back by a drumbeat and drummer whose pair of legs moved at an RPM higher than most forms of industrial machinery.

At this point the endless attack of airborne inflatables begun in the mosh (think the Gaza strip, but replace shells with barbie-themed inflatable rings, and an anime inflatable sex doll). The inflatable doll proved popular with many punters as they brandished her on many of their shoulders across the night. It was hard to pay attention to the bands at this point as it was difficult to navigate the mosh, and endless barrage of toilet paper and inflatables.

Dripped  won the hearts of many Perth metal purists out there. Offering punters a heavy instrumentation of bellowing guitars and headbangs which moved so fast you could get vicarious whiplash by watching them do it. On top of being hypnotised by the spinning headbanging of the various guest vocalists who each threw their hat into the ring with how deep their vocal pitch could go (spoiler: deeper than the Marianus Trench). Upon finishing their set Dripped offered a lot of love and gratitude for the local metal scene in Perth. With many punters cheering them on.

Gutalax arrived on stage dressed in their signature get up of full white spray suits. With lead vocalist Martin Matousek wearing his signature goggles. Punters got excited when the set opened with the Ghostbusters theme music. Featuring several refers to poop throughout their set, their performance was the celebration of everything shit-themed and faecal.

Playing popular tracks like Diahero and self-deprecatingly joking that most of their music ‘sounded the same’ and they had just played 52 songs in 10 minutes. At times it was hard to know if the vocals came from a human being, or an endangered species of treefrog found in the equator.

Jokes aside, the encouragement and crowd engagement from Gutalax made punters feel like they were part of the show. And honestly, it felt like they were the stars of the night in their own way. With highlights including several wheels of death (with enthusiastic toilet brush and toilet roll in hand). A spontaneous conga line, the band encouraging punters to stage dive onto a barbie themed rubber ring and the infamous sex doll becoming deflated and stranded in the stage lighting.

It was hard to not walk away from the night without feeling a lot of love for Perth’s metal scene the support bands and Gutalax.

Photography by Adrian Thomson