New Orleans sludge beast Eyehategod are on tour celebrating thirty years of their breakout album Take As Need For Pain, and Goatwhore is celebrating with them.
The tour made a stop at Black Circle in Indianapolis to help the locals enjoy Earth Day, and it wouldn’t have been the same without them. Black Circle is a small club / microbrewery that attracts a stunning array of metal bands featuring local, regional, national, and international acts. It is a great venue for fans because of its cozy, laid-back atmosphere, and, of course, the beer.
The night started with Hatesong, a crust band from Indianapolis. Well known among the locals, their brief set was an irresistible aperitif, getting the gears greased and the room warmed up. Their music had strong doom elements, at least to my ears, and the riffs were strong enough to hold up a staggering inebriate.
Hatesong were followed by Vile Iniquity, a black metal trio from Columbus. The music they play drives at a different pace, and it carries the heavy along with it. Leaning toward the thrash side of the black metal spectrum, the relentless guitar sparked the first circle pit of the night – the first of many. Black Circle is a fairly small space, so when a pit begins roiling, everybody in the house feels it. Some beer was lost, unfortunately, but the metal was good.
Goatwhore is one of those bands I have listened to from the very beginning, like Eyehategod. From their earliest album, The Eclipse of Ages into Black (2000), to their most recent, Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven (2022), I have been along for the ride. I have always thought of them as a black metal band, but truly their music has elements of speed, death metal, and thrash, too. They are a genre unto themselves.
We got to hear a few tracks from Arches, and a lot of classic material as well. This is the third time I have seen Goatwhore in the past twelve months, and it is not enough. They played a full set with extremely high energy and the crowd loved them. What more could anyone want?
New Orleans band Eyehategod is revered as one of the early purveyors of sludge. It is often said that they refined the developing sludge sound as part of the specific New Orleans environment in the late 1980s. Low and slow, tortured and dissociated, bluesy and noisy…that is what I think of when sludge comes into my mind.
Eyehategod is touring now in celebration of the thirty-year anniversary of their famous album, Take as Needed for Pain, which is their second full-length record. It is an absolute classic that amazed me when first I heard it. I still have the original CD I bought back in the day, and I spun it again before the show. I had heard that the band was going to play the entire album on the tour. I am not sure we got exactly that, but most of what I remember was there, and a few surprises, too.
It was a great concert. I haven’t seen Eyehategod for a good long while, so I was thrilled to hear them again. Goatwhore is always on my drop-everything-and-get-to-the-show list, and the openers kicked ass as well. There are still a few more dates on the tour so check the poster below and see if they are coming anywhere near you.
Photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Eyehategod, https://eyehategod.ee/
Goatwhore, http://www.goatwhore.net/
Vile Iniquity, https://vileiniquity.bandcamp.com/
Hatesong, https://hatesong.bandcamp.com/music
Black Circle, https://www.blackcirclebrewing.com/
Photo Gallery.
More Goatwhore photos, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/04/30/photo-gallery-goatwhore-at-black-circle-indianapolis-april-22-2023/
© Wayne Edwards
Flying Fiddlesticks Music Blog 