The Moshville Times - Dying Fetus / Goatwhore / Malevolence

[Photo sets: Dying Fetus / Goatwhore / Malevolence]

[avatar =”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]So, a night of extreme metal awaited me. Due to some security issues, searching everyone at the door, I missed nearly the entire set of the first band [That was Fallujah – Mosh]. I’ll only review the next three, as it would be unfair to review the first.

The second band of the night to hit the stage was Malevolence. When I heard that they were playing, I was slightly confused. They are a hardcore band and they are playing with Dying Fetus and Goatwhore? Opening up the first pit of the night, the crowd was totally into them. With the singer commanding the stage, many a pit was witnessed. One thing that stood out for me was the fact that a good number of the people at the front knew the lyrics and were singing along. One downside of this band playing were the hardcore dancers. I mean, fair enough you are really into the music, but kicking and punching around… No. That’s how you get kicked out the venue and give metal a bad name.

Enough of me harping on about how I hate hardcore dancers. In short, this band were the oddball of the night, but that didn’t stop them delivering a killer set and leaving Goatwhore with a hard act to better.

Onto the next band, Goatwhore. When I first heard the band name a few months ago, I did laugh. I’ve heard some interesting band names in the past, but this one is one of the more memorable. Opening to a now semi-full Cathouse, they got the crowd going again. The crowd responded well, maybe not with as much energy as they gave to Malevolence, but there were still a good number of pits. Playing songs from their new album, Constricting Rage of the Merciless along with older songs, the band delivered a good set, finishing with a Judas Priest cover. I only ed this band recently and having not really checked them out fully, I’ll definitely be looking into getting some of their albums.

Goatwhore, a band who have an interesting name but some killer music. It was just a shame that the crowd didn’t give as much energy to them as they did the previous band.

A short interlude followed in which a behemoth of a drum kit was unveiled. Appearing on stage briefly to sound check, John (Vocals, Guitar), Sean (Bass, Vocals) and Trey (Drums) were greeted with a thunderous roar from the crowd. By this point, the venue was packed with very little room move in the main area. It was a shame that the other bands didn’t have as many people there, but I’m guessing that’s due to the lineup being a bit different from normal.

Opening with “In the Trenches” from their latest album Reign Supreme they exploded on stage, with heavy and rather bad sound quality. The issues were bad enough, that after finishing the song, John apologized saying that they were having technical difficulties. The crowd didn’t seem to mind, opening into pit after pit during “Intentional Manslaughter”.

The technical issues were fixed by the fourth song, “Second skin”, providing the customary abrasive “Fetus sound”. Having technical issues didn’t affect their performance one bit, playing through both old and new songs with no flaws at all. Once again, this was coupled with the crowd happily obliging to pit whenever John shouted for one.

Contrary to most gigs, the encore was almost not played. Surprising, given how many people were there. John even had to ask to make sure that we wanted more. Eventually the crowd responded effectively and they obliged by playing 3 more songs. Credit to the fans afterwards who helped me get a full set-list for the band. I wouldn’t have been able to figure out one of the songs had you guys not been willing to assist.

Dying Fetus, the headliner of the night with another interesting band name. That doesn’t meant their set was nothing short of amazing and flawless, despite the initial sound issues.

In short, despite the slightly strange line-up and technical difficulties, the gig was an awesome night with some truly phenomenal playing. It would have been nice not to have the hardcore dancers, but they didn’t stop it being a night to .