I am just a bit, mildly excited as I saunter down St Paul's Terrace in the direction of the Jubilee Hotel in Fortitude Valley, for that is where the event that will consume the next ten to twelve hours of my life is being hosted. I am of course talking about The Dead of Winter Festival which has been held at the Jubilee Hotel for the past six years and judging by the popularity of the event I feel confident to allow myself to start looking forward to DoW 2016.

For readers who are not sure of what Dead of Winter Festival is, it's a festival that celebrates the darker side of music. Pretty much, if you are a band that has the label 'horror' in front of your genre of music or the word 'metal' after your genre of music, then you are in scope for playing at DoW.

Realistically, and somewhat sadly, I can't do all the bands justice in this review. I will however attempt to take you with me as I journey through the next ten hours or so.

As I enter the venue, immediately I am as a moth to flame and head straight to the music. Walken are the first act I see on the Beergarden stage. Walken are one of the many incredible local acts performing today and the perfect way to whet my appetite. This amazing two piece defy the laws of possibility by making innumerable sounds with only four arms, four legs, two mouths and two instruments; and a heck of a lot of pedals. The beautiful grinding bass tones are mincing my brain matter to perfection. But it's not just the music where Walken excel, they write damn good lyrics too. If you haven't checked them out yet then you have homework to do.

After Walken comes Heavy Roller on the Deck Bar just a few meters away. These two stages run in tandem, as one band finishes the other starts. There are large clocks gaffa taped to the wall to keep everything on time. Brilliant idea. Heavy Roller sound just as their name suggests – heavy oppressive rock that massages the tension away. As I look around I see many pairs of black jeans swaying, their wearers mesmerised, entranced, as the relentless, pounding beats wash over them.

As Heavy Roller finishes it is time to grab a quick drink and have a wander by the merch stalls. As I walk around I notice all the people who have gone to a lot of effort to adorn costumes today and wear zombie or death mask make up. The spirit of the festival is really starting to take shape. Dotted around the venue are mock horror scenes and ghoulish adornments. Despite the dark themes the mood and atmosphere is fun and friendly.

Good on the Rocks was next on the menu for me, smashing me with their ska punkness. They delivered a really solid performance and I would definitely like to see them again. Then The Rared started up. The Rared are another of our local champions who have been pumping out the gigs over the past few months. The Rared are one of those bands that no matter how many times you see them you just can't get enough. Billy Boyle, up front of this powerhouse sound, is as much a pleasure to watch as he is to listen to. The Rared may very well do big things, I would keep my ear out for them if you, like me, enjoy watching the journey of our local lads and lasses from nowhere to notoriety.

I leave The Rared's set early to head for the Car Park Stage for the first time to observe Obserd. My first thoughts at seeing Obserd were “You had me at double Bass”. Not sure what it is about seeing that large majestic instrument in the midst of a thrashing, punk meets Rage Against the Machine type sound, but I'm transfixed.

While I'm in the mood for new experiences I head up stairs for the first time to where all the really heavy stuff is going down and I see the last few songs for Azreal's set. Azreal are “lose your shit” heavy, melodic and vocally appealing. I highly recommend them if you don't mind a bit of metal.

I'm six bands in and heading to my seventh. I'm feeling a bit high on live music and beginning to wonder if it is possible to overdose on Dark Rock.

Dead Joe, who have brought themselves up from Adelaide are up next to share their splendid punk rockness with us. I realise as I am watching Dead Joe that I will never tire of seeing the enjoyment in the faces of band members who are loving every moment of performing live in front of an appreciative crowd.

Dead Joe stop and Brimstone fire up. Boris Billing, the lead singer of Brimstone has undeniably spent many hours in tattoo parlours and thankfully performs topless displaying his skin art; the view interrupted only by his long hair that drapes over the designs.

Swamp Gully Howlers are playing at the same time as Brimstone so each of them get a half a set of my viewing. In stark contrast to Brimstone, Swamp Gully Howlers are a dark, rockabilly sound complete with harmonica and the first female fronted band I have seen so far today.

Those naughty rude boys, Release the Hounds tore their set to shreds, not literally, but as they were playing I could feel the energy in the room quadruple at the very least. The Hounds said during their set that they can't get their songs played on the National youth broadcasting station because their songs are too lewd. They didn't really seem to mind and neither did the crowd.

Things are starting to get a little blurry now as I realise I am not taking as many notes as I was. The next few acts I see are Hobo Magic who are always psychedelically awesome. Whiskey and Speed who are super soaking the audience with red liquid of some sort and Kill the Apprentice who I am going to blame if I wake up tomorrow with a sore neck as their fast paced punk rock and roll commands me to head bang.

It's well and truly dark outside now and the place is filling up nicely. One thing I notice is that although there are lots of people it doesn't feel over crowded. The venue seems to have just the right amount of people in it. It's a really good feeling here.

Smoking Martha is a pleasing the crowd on the Deck Bar Stage and it's easy to see and hear why. This is another band you need to watch. The places they can't go aren't worth knowing.

Now I'm really excited because Captives are on next and I have been bursting to see these guys live for over a year now. From Tasmania, Captives describe their sound as Tasmanian forest horror, which is really code for “we who shall not conform to being genred”. A sentiment I fully support. You will need to check them out and decide for yourselves where they fit in the genre spectrum. Just one word of warning, Captives are so good that you may experience involuntary loss of various bodily controls.

Up next is some of the best punk rock around from The Wrath who are a new band for me and I'm so glad I got to see them in this line up. Symptoms of my double bass fetish are resurfacing for the second time this festival, as the bassist for The Wrath, known as The Count, fingers the lovely fret board and holds her shapely body between his thighs; but I wipe my chin and continue to stare, mouth open.

I am now six and a half hours in to this festival and even though I wore comfy shoes the old dogs are beginning to whimper. There is still Totally Unicorn, the mighty Lagerstein, those fun loving boys The Stiffy's, the head liners Tumbleweed and if I am still able, I want to see The Go Set as well. So let's bring this review home.

Totally Unicorn were magical and legendary just as their name suggested. They hale from Wollongong and judging by the pictures on their facebook page, tonight is not the first night front man Drew has performed in nothing but his tie dyed Y fronts.

Lagerstein were indeed mighty. The masters of pirate rock. I could easily see them a dozen more times and still want more. The Stiffys duo were a perfect joy who helped me forget about my sore feet. Dressed in Speed Racer outfits they brought the right amount of comedy and light heartedness to this dark arts festival.

Finally Tumbleweed roll on stage and blow us all away. They have lost absolutely nothing as far as performance and sound go since their rise in popularity in the 90's. As we know they sadly lost their bass player Jason Curley last year but I imagined he was here tonight watching with a big grin on his ghost face just happy knowing that the music he helped create, lives on. Hearing Mountain and Wildfire performed live was worth the pain of thousand sore feet.

Very close to ten hours of attendance now and only one more band on my list. I drag my feet out to the car park stage one more time to see the last few songs from The Go Set and I am instantly glad I made the effort. You just don't get to see the bag pipes used in a punk folk rock genre everyday do you? What a great way to end a great festival. I will buy even more comfier shoes and stay until the very end next year. See you there.

- Jae Salmon.