Thread: Behemoth, Goatwhore. Adelaide 13/04/10

This review may sound a bit retarded but that's how I gotta write it for the site, act as if the reader has never even heard of the band etc.


Job For A Cowboy, Behemoth, Goatwhore @ Fowlers Live (13/04/10)
An epic triple bill of metal saw a dedicated crowd out and on the piss on a Tuesday night.


A mixed crowd of impetuous scene kids and foreboding metal purists were piled into Fowlers for a triple threat of metal imports.

Up first with little warning was the first Adelaide appearance of New Orleans four piece Goatwhore, who came on stage wearing weathered studded wrist guards, shirts of their peers of the genre and a mean persona to boot. What followed was a 45 minute contemptuous assault of Celtic Frost riffs mixed with the punch and tightness of modern extreme metal.

Goatwhore set the fast pace early on and from then on controlled when their audience were allowed to breathe. One track in particular got my attention, A Haunting Curse from the 2006 album of the same name, a diverse track that had the fastest and the slowest part of the whole set. Vocals were shared between the more death metal oriented singer Falgoust and the higher register screeches from the aptly named Sam Duet, who also filled the guitar duties, doing so in a unique impressive style.

There was little time spent waiting between songs in their set which I really respect. They ended it all with Apocalyptic Havoc from their latest album Carving out the Eyes of God, an unrelenting three minutes of intensity, after which there a greatly positive reaction in the crowd, confirming Goatwhore had won over a new batch of fans.

A band to be feared and revered, Behemoth have done the hard yards as a relentless touring entity over a long career to get to this point, touring for their ninth album Evangelion, and their second appearance in Adelaide. The air was as sticky as the liberally applied black and white paint on the member's contorted, threatening faces as they arrived on the Fowlers stage. Nergal immediately began to show why he is considered one of an elite group of all-round talented frontmen with a full package of stage presence, blistering guitar work and perfected crushing vocal technique.

The band treated Adelaide to tracks assorted from their back catalogue with LAM from the Satanica album surprising some loyal fans, and this reviewer's favourite Slaves Shall Serve from Demigod being played somewhere in the middle. Nergal's lead parts refreshingly cut through the mix but Seth's could barely be heard. There was a short, blunt drum solo by Inferno at one point.

There was less theatrics than last time they were here, and I believe this resulted in a tighter and more personal show, however, the band having to pause after every single song became annoying and the pace of the gig suffered. At least there were some ancient Middle Eastern and European inspired string samples to be heard in these gaps, befitting of the lyrical themes of Behemoth's tracks. After playing their tenth track, they exited stage left and returned soon after, Nergal reappearing wearing a twisted gothic helm and they saw the set out with lengthy doom inspired Lucifer.

It was the end of the road for a significant portion of the crowd as many a metal purist left unsurprisingly, disconcerted by Job for a Cowboy being the headliner. For those that stayed, there was another hour of intensity to view. These young Arizona musicians were the odd ones out on the bill, having begun their thus far short career as a deathcore act before being steered into a typical death metal direction but keeping their hardcore fanbase.

Cowboy went straight a few modern death metal tracks and a few hardcore influenced tracks. By this point the band has yet to impress musically as songs are not entirely memorable, a side affect of the modern American metal riffing, or Lamb of God Syndrome. Passages that are good to mosh to, and there were many that did, but dull to listen to intently. However a nice surprise was an eerily melodic track at the halfway point of the set in Ruination, title track from their latest album. And it has to be said that along the way some of the chugging riffs and breakdown sections were impressive.

Between songs there was much awkward interaction with a drunk fan or two, which was strange to hear on a Tuesday night. Singer Jonny Davy's handling of the situation left something to be desired as there was a lot of local dialect being spouted, but it all made it more entertaining for the audience. Ending the set with the track Embedded and doing away with the rock star encore, it was all over 15 minutes early than advertised, and I'm still unsure where that time went.

Wigg, did you write this for some toddler's site or something? Odd, but I liked reading it anyway.