EyeHateGod & Goatwhore @ Rebellion, Manchester 9th December 2024

I must admit to being a tad excited about the prospect of finally seeing Goatwhore live as I’ve wanted to see them for quite some time, but our paths never seemed to cross. Until now! An early start time meant I sadly missed After The Abduction, but as the Rebellion in Manchester filled up nicely with an expectant crowd for the Riffolution promoted night, a smattering of applause greets Goatwhore as they walk on, with the biggest cheers left for vocalist Louis Benjamin Falgoust II as he strides majestically onto the stage, as they lay siege to the venue.

Starting off with The Bestowel Of Abomination, the riffs from Sammy Duet are fast and furious as Falgoust prowls the stage like a wounded animal. There is simply no let-up as they rip into the superb Alchemy Of The Black Sun Cult as the heavy, rapid drumming from Zack Simmons was a sight to behold. With the crowd warming up and lots of fist bumps from the stage, Death From Above sees the first pit emerge and now we are in full flow.

‘Thank you, Manchester. Thanks for coming out on a Monday night. We were last here back in January 2023’ comments Falgoust, before Duet bites in with ‘there was a lot of stage diving at that show’ and right on que, the crowd respond as Under The Flesh, Into The Soul sees the first of many stage divers as Falgoust whips the crowd up into a bit of a frenzy with lots of fist pumping.

The NOLA quartet are exceptionally good and exceeded my expectations. The middle section of the set saw them play Collapse In Eternal Worth, Baring Teeth For Revolt and the superb Born Of Satan’s Flesh. With the stage overflowing with divers and chants of ‘Goatwhore’ ring across the venue, Falgoust thanks the crowd again, ‘A Monday night, look at this, and with Obituary playing down the road as well, thanks everyone’.

With the brutally fast Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven followed by the ensuing chaos with Apocalyptic Havoc, they invite fans to hang out at the merch stall and they ‘prefer cash, drug dealer style’. They slow it down a bit with a song about the devil, Wound Of Perdition before they crank it back up to speed with the stunning FBS. With the following words from Duet, ‘Make me one promise, that you’ll always keep Satan in your heart’ they disappear after delivering a storming set.

Confession time. The previous two times I’d seen EyeHateGod, I was none too impressed as they seemed to be going through the motions and, quite frankly, a bit of a mess, so I was hoping that this would be the third time lucky.

As is standard from the New Orleans reprobates, they start with a bit of a jam session, even getting a bit of crowd participation as they were setting up, so you never know when their show really begins. But they are soon in their stride as they kick off with Lack Of Almost Everything, I think, and that NOLA swagger and sludge riff is just perfect as heads and bodies begin that knowing swaying motion.

The energy is there from the band, Mike Williams swigging from a bottle, Jimmy Bower just being, well Jimmy Bower, and letting the heaviness speak for itself, whilst Gary Mader, sporting a nifty Buzzov•en t-shirt, just seems so at ease with the world. Masters Of Legalized Confusion is a belter of a track that gets the crowd all worked up with shouts of ‘EyeHateGod’ cascading around the room.

I start to get the feeling this is what I’ve missed out on when I’ve seen them previously, the rhythm is on fire, the groove is there, and when they slow it down, the riffs are deep and heavy, I’m finally getting to watch what I thought they should be like. But it wasn’t without it’s issues, as Mike commented ‘it’s a weird set up on here, but we’ll just carry on’ as there appears to be issues with the monitors, but that doesn’t deter the crowd who are just relentless, With songs such as High Risk Trigger and the brilliant Sisterfucker (Part I) they give the fans what they want. ‘Come on yeah, feed our ego’ says Mike as more shouts of ‘EyeHateGod’ reverberate around the venue.

‘Is there anyone here from the last time we played? If so, thanks for coming back. There’s no setlist as usual’ much to my dismay, but who cares, as the crowd goes mental when they play the next few songs, Agitation! Propaganda! and New Orleans Is The New Vietnam. There’s a punky/ thrash feel to a few songs with Jimmy throwing empty beer glasses, plastic of course, at Mike. He quips to the crowd, ‘he wants to be bad and you guys just keep chanting his name’ as they give us that two more songs left warning.

The drumming throughout from Aaron Hill has been spectacular and with the final song Every Thing, Every Day they leave the big crowd with a cracking performance, and I exit the venue, finally smiling. It was definitely third time lucky.

EyeHateGod

Goatwhore

Scribed by: Matthew Williams
Photos by: Lee Edwards