PhaseOne brings metal-weight dubstep to ANTHM

The Australian bass producer headlines ANTHM on Friday, November 20, with a 10 p.m. start and tickets from $20 to $35.

Charlotte headbangers who also like bass music should look at the late show on Friday, November 20. PhaseOne headlines ANTHM that night. The show starts at 10 p.m., and tickets are $20 to $35 through Speakeasy.

It's a fair size for him. PhaseOne usually headlines rooms of about 950, and at $20 at the low end, this is one of the cheaper heavy nights in Charlotte this month. He plays Detroit on November 14, six nights earlier.

PhaseOne is Graeme Duffy, an Australian DJ and producer from Sydney, according to Wikipedia. His music is dubstep built with metal in it: Techno Airlines tags him as dubstep, metalstep and bass music, and his UK agency, MB Artists, describes his sound as a meeting point of metal and bass music. The genre crossover goes both ways. He has worked with heavy bands including Northlane and Polaris, per Wikipedia.

He worked his way up through the bass scene. Two early EPs on Firepower Records gave him two No. 1s on Beatport's dubstep chart. He then signed an exclusive deal with Disciple Records in 2017 and released the *Origins* EP, followed by *Dreamscape* and the *Double Up* EP, which EDM Identity covered in 2018. His first full-length album, *Transcendency*, came out on Disciple in 2019. He now runs his own label, Sounds of Mayhem, whose *Uprising* compilation Dubstep FBI wrote about.

Breakdowns built for a mosh pit, played on a club sound system.

That's the hook for Charlotte. This town has metal fans and bass-music fans, and they don't always go to the same shows. A PhaseOne set is one of the few nights built for both crowds: drops that hit like breakdowns, with guitars sometimes in the mix. Bring earplugs, since that's a lot of low end in a club.

A 10 p.m. Friday start means this is a late night. Eat before, get there by 10 if you want to see the room fill up, and expect PhaseOne himself later than that.

If you've been meaning to show a metal friend that dubstep can hit just as hard, this is a good night for it. If it doesn't land, it's only $20.

Sources: PhaseOne (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); PhaseOne (Techno Airlines) (technoairlines.com); PhaseOne (MB Artists) (mbartists.co.uk); PhaseOne Double Up EP (EDM Identity) (edmidentity.com); PhaseOne unleashes anarchy in new Sounds of Mayhem: Uprising (Dubstep FBI) (dubstepfbi.com); PhaseOne at ANTHM tickets (Speakeasy) (speakeasygo.com)