LIVE REVIEW: Eyehategod / Goatwhore – Thekla, Bristol 19th December 2024
Not quite the final show of 2024 for me, but certainly the remaining ones won’t be as heavy or as aggressive as this brute. Moved from the Marble Factory to the more intimate venue of the boat known as the Thekla in Bristol dock, this was a double NOLA header from two bands whose heritage is similar, but whose sounds are somewhat different. Both provided enough entertainment to satisfy the raging pits that kicked in early and swirled for the remainder of the early evening show.
Yes, due to disrupted travel plans and a club night, it was all over just after 9.15pm. As someone who enjoys an early finish, this was no bad thing, but I do appreciate that getting into central Bristol for 6.30pm doors wasn’t as easy for everyone, especially battling the frantic hordes of Christmas shoppers and revellers.
It was a bitter evening but once in the hold of the boat, things rapidly warmed up as Goatwhore tore through a 50-minute set that spared no one. It’s not that long since the band were in Bristol, part of a touring package at The Fleece which was headlined by Revocation (and contained Creeping Death and Alluvial as well). This is acknowledged during the set by the hugely intimidating but utterly charming frontman Louis Ben Falgoust II on the band’s fourth visit to the city.
The set is similar to that in February 2023, with five choice cuts from the band’s last album, Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven. Powerful in delivery, this was no time to be a shrinking violet, as the band exploded into The Bestowal of Abomination. With 50-minutes to fill, there was little time for chatting although Falgoust II did respond to cries of “chug it” by necking his can of San Miguel, only to be handed a can of Red Stripe by a kind punter. This time he resisted but supped the rest during the remainder of the set.
Goatwhore are one powerhouse of a unit. Alongside guitarist and founder Sammy Duet, bassist Robert Coleman doesn’t stop moving, whilst the band is propelled at breakneck speed by the battering ram with the double kick drums, Zack Simmons, whose drumming is at times breath-taking in power and precision. It all rolls into a ferocious ball of blackened death thrash that gets the assembled throng moving. It may not be the biggest pit, but the Bristol crowd has brought their A game and don’t stop throughout. It may therefore not be a surprise that Duet tells the crowd that they are up there with the best on the tour.
Born of Satan’s Flesh sees the tempo increase further, and with a couple of Goatwhore classics in Apocalyptic Havoc and finale FBS included in the set, there’s enough to sate even the most committed devote. With a band like Goatwhore, you really don’t need to have hours of music. It’s the intensity and rage that works best, and 50-minutes of bone-crunching riffage worked fine. A band which thrives in the live arena, they also shift a lot of merch, which are apparently becoming fashion items. There was certainly a lively scrum for the band’s stuff (and that of their co-headliner) before the start of the evening, and that is always good to see.
In contrast to the frantic speed of their peers, Eyehategod rely on the power of the crushing riff to do their work. They do it with a punishing level that doesn’t immediately penetrate, but you soon realise that internal organs are moving, your legs are struggling to maintain balance, and the whole room is spinning. Such is the suffocation level that the NOLA legends deliver, I wonder if their sets should really come with a warning.
They amble on stage, drummer Aaron Hill and bassist Gary Mader starting a groove that slowly builds. The mighty riffmeister Jimmy Bower takes his place with his guitar and joins in, giving the front row the finger. Singer Mike Williams joins in, and after a brief pause, Eyehategod are in full swing. There’s not a huge amount to watch on stage. Bower and Mader are focused on delivering that spleen splitting sludge, and it’s Williams who takes most of the focus. He’s a slurring, drawling frontman, at times clinging on to the mic stand as if it was a necessity before unleashing some fearful screams that penetrate deep into the soul.
With a catalogue dating back to 1990’s In The Name of Suffering, there is a lot to choose from. Eyehategod draw deep, although the most tracks still come from the 1996 classic Dopesick. Lack of Almost Everything and Master of Legalised Confusion kick off a solid hour or so of deep, sludgy goodness, and although it’s not at the same tempo as Goatwhore, there is if anything, more action in the pit with more bodies crashing against each other.
Eyehategod has nothing to prove of course, but few can match them in this genre. A blast from that debut release arrives in penultimate song Run It Into the Ground before a final blast from the band’s Last studio album, 2021’s A History of Nomadic Behavior, Every Thing, Every Day concludes a thoroughly enjoyable and quite neckache induced evening.
Review and photos by Hutch - https://www.facebook.com/hutch224/
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