Behemoth

W/ Goatwhore, Job For A Cowboy
Metro, Sydney – 16th April 2010

Anyone who has Goatwhore as one of their friends on Myspace will be aware of the incredible amount of live shows they perform – almost daily posts regarding an upcoming show that night. This band thrives in a live setting and you can hear in their studio recordings that the songs are written with a live performance in mind. Why else would you come up with a lyric like ‘Who needs a god when you’ve got Satan!’?

Lead by charismatic front-man Louis Benjamin Falgoust II, Goatwhore delivered a 45 minute set of blistering black metal with a rock and roll attitude. The set-list included material primarily from the last two albums – A Haunting Curse and Carving Out the Eyes of God. They threw in an older song which I wasn’t familiar with but that doesn’t really matter with Goatwhore – there are so many hooks and great riffs you can’t help but impulsively tap your foot, bang your head and raise those horns! If you can get through a Goatwhore show without raising the horns then I would suggest someone must have nailed your hands to your side while you weren’t looking.

The sound was great, a really good mix for the Metro which can sometimes dispense a wall of sound at you. Falgoust is an awesome front-man – exceptional stage presence and his interactions with the audience between songs were hilarious. All too soon did he announce their last song and they launched into “Apocalyptic Havoc”. Usually 45 minutes is ample time for an opening band but another 15-20 minutes would have been nice. Falgoust was selling t-shirts at the merch stall and mixing with the audience after the show and he seemed to be genuinely stoked to be in Australia. What a cool band!

There were a couple of other bands on that night. After Goatwhore, contestants for the world’s most ridiculous band name entered the arena. I’ve only heard a couple of songs by Job for a Cowboy and wouldn’t normally go see this kind of band but I thought they had a good sound and put a lot of energy into their performance. I’ve seen a few forums since this show with a lot of negative comments about this band and I have to say I think they are unjustified and harsh. Job for a Cowboy is not my cup of tea but I’m sure everyone who came along to see them tonight would have left a very satisfied customer.

Behemoth eventually took stage after the longest sound check in history. Their set consisted of material mainly from Evangelion and The Apostasy, but also threw in a couple of older songs including “Lam” from Satanica. After a few sound issues during the first couple of songs they delivered a typically powerful performance which was lapped up by the masses. However, I find all the posing a little difficult to swallow sometimes with Behemoth – they have these fans positioned so it appears their hair is blowing in the wind and they burst off stage after every song to fix their hair and have a drink of mineral water. The drummer is a bit strange too. His back is completely straight and his upper torso barely moves throughout the entire performance. Good healthy posture but he kind of looks like a giant erect penis. It’s very distracting.

What initially seemed like an odd line-up turned out to be a very successful event. Goatwhore certainly caught the imagination of many new fans and by the end of the night there were hundreds of ‘Who needs a god…’ t-shirts on display. Overall it was an excellent gig involving three very diverse bands.

Reviewed by Pete Williams