Behemoth, Job For A Cowboy,Goatwhore @ Amplifier(12/04/10)

Thu 15th Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

In an ever popular trend, April 12th saw yet another all star lineup steam into town, seeing the return of Behemoth and Job For A Cowboy along with newcomers to Australian shores, Goatwhore. Even with this stellar lineup, the show was moved from Capitol to Amplifier; yet another regularly occurring trend.

Goatwhore had quite a bit of publicity for this upcoming tour, what with being mentioned on channel 10’s 7PM Project and all. Whether or not metal heads rate high among their avid viewers is unknown, although with the crowd in full participation of their blackened death metal approach, it was hard not to make that assumption. They started churning through a slew of cuts from their twelve year history.

Founding guitarist Sammy Duet showed his years of experience and no frills approach by working away at his axe, slowly banging his head and grinning wildly at appreciative fans. His occasional vocal attack backed up a Grey bearded Louis Benjamin Falgoust II who stalked the stage barking out to the ample crowd. “We have a new album out, download the fuckin’ thing, cause it means less money goes to the label and that makes us happy!” punters roared with approval.

“Now pump your arms like a Judas Priest concert, and guys I know you guys must jerk off a lot so you can pump for a long time” he spat as they kicked into Carving out the Eyes of God. Surely this band would be worthy of their own headlining tour as the whole room reacted so positively to all of the ‘whore’s sultry advances. They finished their set with Apocalyptic Havoc and waved goodbye to their newly acquainted fans.

It wasn’t long until the air was drenched with excitement, lights dimmed and Polish black death heavyweights Behemoth signalled their imminent presence. It was surprising to most punters that they weren’t headlining the bill, but that was soon forgotten.

Like a nuclear explosion, Behemoth took the stage and let loose with Ov Fire and The Void, the light show perfectly matching the explosive force of the song. It was demonic sight, all members smeared with white and black, swirling smoke and blood red lights. Breathtaking theatrics. A few slight guitar problems were apparent but it did hardly anything to deter the simply brutal audio attack of the Poles. The string section standing in unison across the front perfectly in sync, while drummer Inferno held them together at the back, working away at his kit.

Nergal had quite a rapport with the crowd, evident in the chaos that he summoned from them with ease, crowd chants and fist pumping became commonplace. The theatrics continued with Slaves Shall Serve, At the Left Hand ov God and eerie instrumental pieces played between. Each song delivered a powerful punch to the face, each intermission mopped the blood from the chin and lulled the audience to calmness only to be beaten senseless again.

They may as well have headlined, with a fantastic drum solo by Inferno mid set, displaying his excessive ability to beat the fuck out of a kit. Chant for Ezkaton finished the ferocity, leaving the crowd begging for more. They approached the stage for one last bloodbath, punters cheering and giggling like school-girls as Nergal donned a mask of some sort. They launched into the doom laden stomp of Lucifer, the audience swaying to and fro to it’s hypnotic, hellish rhythm. A borderline anti-climactic conclusion to the destruction before, but a decent one.

As with any nuclear explosion there is always the imminent fallout. At least half of the crowd filed out of Amplifier muttering Blowjob for a Gayboy and the terrible injustice of them headlining over Behemoth. Terrible injustices and misleading names aside, Job For A Cowboy are a great metal band. Opening with Unfurling a Darkened Gospel JFAC displayed that perfectly. Front man Jon Davy writhed about the stage like a metal Iggy Pop, raising one hand as if delivering a sermon. Bassist Brent Riggs provided occasional backing vocals, guitarists Bobby Thomson and Al Glassman kept riffs a-chugging over Jon Rice’s incredible drum beats. Everything seemed to be in place for a metal band, some of the playing-drumming especially-would put some to shame.

JFAC continued though their set with Constitutional Masturbation, heckling from the crowd combated with some comedic remarks from Davy. “Fuck off you fag, we ain’t playing that one.” He said oh-so-coolly. They dragged out two skeletons from their closet tho, Entombment of a Machine and that song with the viral Spongebob Squarepants video, Knee Deep. Both were met with a great response from the crowd, clearly some die-hard fans in the audience.

They gave fans plenty enough to chew on, no need for a self-gratifying encore. Job For A Cowboy undoubtedly put on a decent enough metal show, yet sadly half of the punters had other ideas, old stalwart punters merely dismissing them because of their name. A poor effort; had they stuck around they might have liked JFAC’s modern take on death metal.