Psycroptic and Goatwhore - Saturday 28 March, Crowbar

Ben Falgoust gets straight to the point in his condemnation of an audience member who dares to disagree with his love of classic metal, "Hey! Priest is the shit! Fuck you!”

The crowd erupts in laughter, cheers and applause, and the Goatwhore front man takes the round.

The New Orleans based blackened death thrash legends put on one hell of a show, ripping their way through a swathe of tracks from new album Constricting Rage of The Merciless, including Poisonous Existence In Reawakening, Cold Earth Consumed In Dying Flesh and Baring Teeth For Revolt. “We’re already broke. Get on line and steal our stuff; it won’t make us broker…” Falgoust jokes, encouraging the crowd to get more familiar with their recordings after an awesome rendition of Fucked By Satan.

Guitarist Sammy Duet is gloriously and unapologetically out of tune through practically every solo he plays, but the man dishes up riffs so monstrous, bludgeoning, tight, and overwhelmingly loud it matters not. The band delves into their back catalogue for some live favourites, with Judgement Of The Bleeding Crown from Blood For The Master and The All-Destroying from Carving Out The Eyes Of God.

Falgoust calls a “No fucking circle pits” rule before inciting the crowd to rampage through their final track Apocalyptic Havoc. The guys are super cool in thanking Brisbane locals Disentomb and Sydney’s Ourogoros for their brutal supports, and hang around to talk to the fans after their set wraps up.

Headliners Psycroptic were kind enough to invite Goatwhore along for the ride for their massive Aussie album launch tour. Their self-titled sixth release is barely a fortnight old, but the merch guys have already run out of vinyl copies by the time the Tasmanian tech death quartet take to the stage.

Guitarist Joe Haley absolutely shreds across his fanned fretboard guitar through the middle-eastern flavours of Echoes To Come, while brother Dave Haley’s drumming appears effortless while blowing minds with its complexity, syncopation and unnatural timing.

Carriers Of The Plague and Unmasking The Traitors continue to showcase the band’s technical prowess. Singer Jason Peppiatt looms over the front rows of the pit, pushing himself off Crowbar’s low roof, and climbing into the swarm of bodies. Ob(Servant) and the epic crowd favourite Initiate stirs those in attendance to even greater fury, and it doesn’t feel like long before it’s all said and done.

Fucking awesome night.

Words by Eden Howard

Photos by KenadaQ

PSYCROPTIC

GOATWHORE