I meet with a small army of black tees and battle jackets, who are out for a little neck wrecking at Brisbane's The Triffid (28 July).
Bringing the head-banging tunes are Mike IX Williams (vocals), Jimmy Bower (guitar), Gary Mader (bass) and Aaron Hill (drums) – NOLAs dark and heavy conglomerate of musos known as Eyehategod (EHG) playing their final Aussie show on their Turn Troubled Tables tour.First things would be first support. Right? That'd be Gold Coast's Defiant Ground. All I can confirm is that the band features Ben (vocals), Trav Reid (guitar), Eddy Edwards (bass) and Alik (drums).
'Is This It?', from their debut EP, 'Demo '24', released last month, ignites the air with a thrashy-punk tone with a crust of heavy melodic chuggs. 'Part One' is followed by 'Stronger' and there is an invitation for the beer garden dwellers to join the party inside.
Defiant Ground - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Ben admits he's not a public speaker, yet he gets his message across which should hush the judgmental twits in the crowd. In that vein, he confides that after 40 years he recognised he was the square peg that didn't fit in a round hole that his dad had been referring to for years.
'Square Peg' is all about that and has me reflecting on why it takes us so long to obtain that level of self-awareness and acceptance to go with the flow of our own shape.
Offering up soon to be released 'Fight Mug' before 'Her Design', Defiant Ground shows staunch support to make the world a more positive place to live. Ben confirms this song is about domestic and family violence, and the enduring strength of victims he's known. Ben vehemently challenges that any perpetrators can deal with him, and vocal support is immediately heard from some of the gathering punters.
Well, there are covers and. . . Defiant Ground take a stab, like many before them, at Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black'. To be honest, it really is their take, and it's not that recognisable to my ears until they crash into the chorus with all the doom and decay of a rotted corpse. I agree with Ben who did warn us, seriously or not, that they butchered a classic. Lol!
Defiant Ground - image © Clea-marie Thorne
'Stagg' is dedicated to their friends, and they end the set with 'Save Yourself' and a request to be kind and help the world become a better place by getting sh.t right in our own homes first. Damn straight! They are showered with rowdy applause for their hammering set.
We wait not much more than 20 minutes for extreme metalists, Goatwhore. Sammy Duet (guitar, vocals), Louis Benjamin Falgoust II (vocals), Robert 'Trans Am' Coleman (bass), with Melbourne's own Frankie Demuru (drums) who is filling in for Zack Simmons appear greeted with huge cheers from fans as they appear onstage.
Headliners in their own right and even stepping up to do so for the WA leg of this tour when EHG were unable to due to the recent worldwide IT debacle, despite their own band drama, they pulled it off even with Demuru being thrown on the tubs in place of Simmons with little time to get a handle on the songs.
Revving us up rather than priming us, with their tasty brew of death, black, thrash, and sludge metal, Goatwhore are effectively tearing us wider ear holes with 'The Bestowal Of Abomination' and 'Alchemy Of The Black Sun Cult'. What an intoxicating and wicked musical brew it is.
Goatwhore - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Falgoust II gives one of the photographers some special attention before 'Death From Above' from their 2022 album, 'Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven', and the aural barrage is righteously descending into our ears in a glorious hailstorm of the blackest and most formidable, blackened thrash. The groove hooks me in; this new album is crushing it IMO.
We are formally introduced to Demuru, and Falgoust II calls for us to give it up for him for doing an amazing job on drums. Apparently, they all get a sexy tour name, and Demuru is labelled the Australian Stallion. Evidently a tour with Goatwhore has many benefits!
Duet is not only a machine on the axe, but goes alright on the mic too! Goatwhore are giving a little of the old with the new for fans. The likes of 'Under The Flesh, Into The Soul', 'FBS', and the malevolent 'Born Of Satan's Flesh' with pulverising beats came ahead of the moody and melodic 'Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven'.
Duet masterfully captivates us and lulls us into a false sense of security before the band sets about wreaking 'Apocalyptic Havoc' inside Triffid Hangar! The mosh pit is fired up now.
To our delight, they are not yet done with us. We are told the first of the last two songs is a love song to the devil. A voice yells "I am the devil!" then more fans yell to claim the title and the song for themselves.
Goatwhore - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Goatwhore serenades this bunch of self-professed devils and fans alike with 'And I Was Delivered From The Wound Of Perdition'. Falgoust II is pumping his fist, as he has all night, like a piston with no end to his boundless energy.
Live Goatwhore is the only way to truly embrace what they are all about, especially understood when experiencing fan favourite, the mighty, meaty thrasher, 'Baring Teeth For Revolt'. What a fiery, non-ritualistic encore saved for the hellions who are frantically chomping on this last morsel from the sonic altar of Goatwhore!
As the interval starts, fans get an up close and personal with Falgoust II! Even yours truly got a fist pump before he gave the security guard a friendly hug and retreated backstage. In the blink of an eye Hill, Mader, and Bower nonchalantly claim the stage and give up a dark and sludgy instrumental jam.
The riffage coming from an expressionless Bower is a stark contrast to his knack for shredding expressive dirty blues, doom, and sludge metal that makes you instantaneously raise horns in salute.
Eyehategod - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Williams looks on, watching his three bandmates from the wings, has a few more chugs, gearing up to take his part to complete EHG's domination of the stage tonight. Out he staggers to make it the full EHG experience for us.
While 'Dixie Whiskey' is not a ditty for whistling to, it has a catchy hook and a killer riff you can definitely get neck-wrecking to! Williams keeps you guessing if he has a punk-stylised rock & roll swagger going on as part of the EHG performance honed over the years or if he is still embracing the rock & roll lifestyle and doing this gig more than half-charged. Who knows? Both? It's all very metal either way!
I thought there was a sound issue with the vocals from my place up the front, but once I retreated for song four, I had no dramas picking the scathing rants and growls of Mike IX. Either that or it took that long for my ear to tune into his primeval tone.
It seems like I wasn't the only one though, as a heckler near the front threw up some less-than-warranted comments that led Mike IX to tell us: "Ok, we won't come back because of this dude." I felt the room tense by the thought of that possibility, but all is retracted shortly after realising there are more fans than twits in the room, and we are returned to Mike IX's caustic howling of his anguished, free-form verses of despair while we embrace the vibrations rattling our bones from Bower's dominating riffage and the killer heavy backend of Hill and Mader once more.
Eyehategod - image © Clea-marie Thorne
EHG assault us with classic cuts of new and old, supreme punk-addled, sludge belters and heavy, delicious, dirty-ass blues. The dense barrage of sonic sensations continues to whip the hyped crowd into a state while the more frenzied EHG fans in the circle pit show great stamina in a tumultuous whirl of their own.
Fan favourite 'High Risk Trigger' makes the set. "Infection is the way, disruptive crowd takes aim," takes new meaning as fans are belting out the lyrics with force at the band while Bower's riffage melts our faces with that sick groove.
Mike IX retorts to another fan "I'll turn up the vocals for you. I know I am a dick, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," before announcing 'Sister F..ker Part 1'. Magically, the vocal mix is up and so are the voices in the crowd. Fans are roaring and are getting more turned on when hearing the instrumental lead-in to 'Medicine Noose'.
There's some heckling from the crowd, and in his stride Mike IX tells us (probably just the hecklers), "you remind me of Adelaide now," which gets loud "boo" in reply, to which he responds, "I calls 'em how I sees 'em". The band cuts off the banter, and the annihilation of sound continues as EHG cuts sick on more fan faves. I remain on the outer edges of a crazed mosh pit for these songs.
Eyehategod - image © Clea-marie Thorne
I hear Mike IX redeeming himself by saying he likes a fun funeral after telling fans it's like a funeral in here as I climb the mezzanine stairs to get a bird's eye view of the spectacle before me. Reaching the top, I see the unfurling energy of the mosh pit as punters get unhinged to the punk vibe of 'Agitation! Propaganda!'
Mike IX tells us he is not going to insult us anymore unless we want him to, and we all laugh together. Bringing it back down to dark and dirty blues, 'New Orleans Is the New Vietnam' has fans frothing for its familiar dense groove.
The rapture of the moshers has them looking like a "downtown mess" or "uptown wreck" for it and it is such a freaking formidable sight to see. Bower leads us into the decay of 'Methamphetamine' that is unrelenting, highly addictive, and rousing power. By the end of it, I am left as high as a kite with hooks in my cheeks.
We are pummelled with more audible aggression, which I can't name as EHG have been slowing songs or changing them up, and with Mike IX's vocals (live or recorded) being unintelligible at times, I have no hope. Regardless, it feels so good to be permeated by the heavy-duty vibrations of their performance in every pore of my being.
Eyehategod - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Williams screams before 'Every Thing, Every Day'. Those rinse-and-repeat lyrics belt us about the head with a menacing brutality attempting to brainwash with the hard-hearted monotony of it all. A ruthless reality is met with a riotous response in the mosh pit.
Left with only reverb, the band disappeared before us. Well, all but Bower, who is sitting just on the side of the stage, indicates an encore is imminent. Yes! An encore is granted. We are asked, "whaddya want?" and fans yell for "more".
Teasing them with nothing except the discordant feedback travelling through the air around us, Mike XI takes a moment to whet his throat, then dropkicks the empty into the crowd before giving in to us and shouting, "alright!"
Within seconds, Hill hits his tubs to count it in for the steel strings that are now inflicting some more dirty blues groove on our ears with 'Take As Needed For Pain'. Fans thrash it out some more in the pit, others bang on the borders and barrier as they morph into '30$ Bag'.
Mike IX now commands: "Do you want one more? We can do one more." Fans scream greedily for more, and he admits: "I wanna do one more." Bower's guitar grind follows the groove of the bass and beat of the drums to a slowed-down version of 'Serving Time In The Middle Of Nowhere'. What a glorious beast to end with.
Leaving us with "Thank you! Thank you, Brisbane! We f...ing love you. Now we do [smiles]. . . we always loved you from the beginning. Thanks for coming out!" After a shout-out to Defiant Ground and Goatwhore, they are gone to the whooping and cheering from fans hoping to meet with the godfathers of black-rocking-punk-sludge blues – that descriptor may not be a thing but it is the feels!
Eyehategod - image © Clea-marie Thorne
EHG tore up the stage like a tempest trapped inside the confines of The Triffid, proving that neither time nor adversities such as losing a founding member in 2013, grappling with drug addiction, Mike IX's organ transplant surgery, and incarceration have put a chink in their armour forged of sludge/ punk/ doom mastery.
EHG remains a tight, brutal, and utterly punishing live act. Tonight's show is firsthand evidence of this. For decades now, NOLA's filthiest and finest are still showcasing their exceptional musicianship with unyielding and unbridled energy.
It's the unpredictable nature of a tight-knit group of mates led by a wild card that makes their sweat-drenched blasphemous shows so invigorating and thrilling to experience. That, and a whole lot of Bower Power!
More photos from the concert.
