Seeing Iron Maiden is more than just a metal show, it’s an arena sized spectacle that reels in a broader rock n roll crowd. . Given this, the last actual metal show I had been to was pre-covid, when I saw Morbid Angel and Watain. This was not only the first metal show since the pandemic but the first since moving to Florida. Tampa once had a legendary metal scene that spawned most death metal, but in my two years here I had not found a ton of metal heads. The Goatwhore / Eyehategod show would give me a better glimpse into the scene. The local openers were a mixed bag for various reasons. Dirt Witch had an excellent singer , but sound issues that plagued the band seemed to be the fault of the bass player and guitar who needed to have their tone dialed in. The Kate Bush cover, should have been rethought as well. They were followed by Tunnels of Set,a blackened thrash band with an affinity for Kreator and fetish for occult poppycock lyrics that drop plenty of legit names and concepts in a fantasy soup of non-sense, though the vocals were articulate enough to make this out and they care about writing songs.
The main support came from Tampa locals Tickle , who were old enough to know how to dial their tones in. They also played a very deliberate style of hard-core influenced doom crunch. They were tight and professional on stage, with a playful attitude and grind core humor to their songs. I was surprised to find out that for as good as they were at what they did, these guys had not done more in terms of releasing music, or even having a website. Then came Goatwhore who I have seen at least twice before this. While they are also impressive live, their aggression was infectious. The crowd exchanged this energy with the band and Ben formed a genuine connection with the audience, in a manner few front men of extreme metal do. There is rocking at you, then rocking with you.
Goatwhore’s set let leaned heavily into the new album “Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven”, but this was fine with everyone since the album kicks ass and goes to show how well those songs seamlessly stand with the rest of their discography as there was never a moment where the energy ebbed due to the fact they were playing new stuff. The “Blood For the Master '' and “Constricting Rage of the Merciless” albums were also pulled from more heavily to flesh out the 12 song set listl, but every album was represented. If you are a fan of this band, they had something for you. Even if you are just a fan of heavy, they displayed their ability to win you over. Given the nature of what EYEHATEGOD does their was a crusty punk element in attendance that made up perhaps forty percent of the crowd and they too were won over by the energy that Goatwhore brought with their cranked up fury .
EYEHATEGOD casually took the stage. It took a song and a half for them to get warmed up and dialed into the kind of performance you expect from these guys. Even front man Mike Williams joked about this fact saying that they were not as professional as Goatwhore. The swampy New Orleans signature to their sound was firmly in place with the crusty riffs grinding out a Sabbath like lumber that prevailed more than the punk shifts into more up-tempo thrashing . The crowd was there for it and the pit, while not as fierce as what exploded during Goatwhore’s set , kept it moving and people were drinking more and having fun. Mike Williams middle finger attitude exemplifies punk, and even though they are more of a metal band, even to the extent they are commonly thought as the creators of sludge. His don’t give a fuck attitude that finds him joking about what are today thought of sensitive issues like suicide , is what today’s climate in heavy music needs more of. This carried over into the overall energy of their performance to show how they have held such a long lasting place in music, as they bridge genres in more ways than one.
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