A Night Out With GOATWHORE: NOLA Natives Return to Backstage Bar – DTLV

It’s been a while since the wife and I have had a proper night out together. Sometimes feels like it was Psycho Fest two fucking years ago. Alone without the kids- terrorizing their grandparents instead of us. The Buffet at Wynn, a comped room from my real job with a bitchin’ view and a metal show. But there are other important things to talk about…

Like how fucking great the crème brûlée is at that buffet. Their desserts come in these tiny servings and truly I feel foolish for not calling an audible and putting half a dozen on my plate. As it stands we got to Backstage Bar & Billiards just in time for the first opening act. 

Firstly let us discuss the locals starting with D’Angeled. I’m going to just be honest – it’s not my jam but hey – maybe they can be yours. 

In preparation of going to this show I tried finding demos or any music they might have released and found nothing. So the depth of my understanding of what they might sound like is a list of genres including southern metal, nu-metal, metalcore and deathcore. Having now seen them my impression is they can easily shorten that description to Las Vegas based southern nu-metal. 

My only real criticism or critique would be that a majority of their set falls into a similar tempo, making several songs difficult to distinguish from one another. They do however have a faster piece that certainly helped break up the set some. 

Southern and nu-metal aren’t exactly my thing (neither are metalcore or deathcore for that matter) and before someone cuts in with that I moved to Las Vegas from Louisiana twice and the NOLA scene is as much part of my personality as black metal. D’Angeled isn’t giving me Down or Acid Bath vibes. 

The most obvious comparison I could think of would be Godsmack. Perhaps it’s the singing voice that does it or the candence to the lyrics but that’s the vibe I’m getting. 

Don’t think I missed that you broke out the Dean Razorback on Dime’s Birthday either sirs. I saw what you did there. 

I plan on going to the Avenger of Blood gig that D’Angeled is already set to feature on so I do hope to get there early enough to check them out again and see if my opinion changes. 

Anyway check out D’Angeled’s socials for the release of any music or future gigs. There are currently a couple video clips from this show as well as out of place posts of anime and pin up girls advertising their t-shirt.

—–

Buried By Vengeance at least stylistically is more in my wheelhouse. I was surprised to see they self described as solely thrash metal when they also give me vibes of black and death metal as well as punk. This appearance celebrates the release of their new EP ‘Robbed Intentions’ which is as of this writing available on CD but not available on Spotify. Though their socials state it’s available soon for streaming.

Interspersed in their set list were songs that won’t be on the EP which I feel should have been played separately from the songs that are going to be available shortly. That said I feel like this is a fairly minor nitpick. 

In general I feel like there is a lot to like about Buried By Vengeance, however I would think it’s dishonest to not point out that they should have been better prepared for this show overall. At times they would play somewhat sloppily so I wonder how much time they had to rehearse together before this performance. Separately the guitar sound could have been better. The Boss Katana amp that guitarist Sarah was playing through is certainly capable of great extreme metal tones. Instead I was hearing rhythm tones better suited for either 80’s rock and metal. Other times during tremolo or triplets riffs I was getting more of an impression of distorted surf rock. Not a bad idea, mind you, but I didn’t take that as being intentional. 

Update: Buried By Vengeance posted via Facebook guitarist Sarah’s decision to leave the band and are currently looking for a new member to be ready for their show with Crowbar. This writer wishes Sarah and the band the best and that we continue to see them playing kickass music in the future.

Also please don’t try to subtly brag about having been asked to do an encore at a previous show. It wouldn’t be cool if even a genuine rock star said it to introduce a song. It’s certainly not going to happen here when you’re second on a five band bill. The next act would be within their rights to start setting up while you were playing if you have tried. It’s enough to say you’ve only played a particular track once before for an audience if you feel the need to share. 

I’d kill for a scene in a ‘School of Rock’ or ‘Spinal Tap’ -like movie where this actually happens though. Holy shit! 

Despite my criticisms I do overall like what I’m hearing from Buried By Vengeance.  I look forward to seeing them perform again at Backstage Bar & Billiards with Crowbar later this year and do check out their EP ‘Robbed Intentions’ on streaming services soon or they are selling it physically for five dollars. 

—-

Thantifaxath is a black metal three-piece that is from Toronto, Ontario and that’s about as much biographical information as your going to get. Despite releasing their self-titled debut EP in 2011 and touring with the release of 2014’s ‘Sacred White Noise’  the band has managed to maintain their anonymity. 

I suppose it’s easier when you’re a black metal band than it is when you’re the new member of Slipknot and you have hundreds if not thousands of people trying to pierce the veil of obscurity around your band. Black metal fans typically leave artists to maintain their vision rather than intentionally break our weird version of Kayfabe. 

Most of the time I find the anonymous band members gimmick to be just that. Each year I half suspect I’ll find ‘Nameless Goul’ and ‘Vessel’ costumes at my local Spirit Halloween location. You might disagree but back in the day you absolutely could put together a Slipknot costume for Halloween. 

With Thantifaxath playing the music they do, I can actually believe it’s largely to keep as much attention on their music rather than member changes or articles written to single out an offhand opinion expressed about another band’s new album or some shit. 

I’ve spent some time slowly exploring the band’s catalog and finding a lot to enjoy. I’m usually turned off by bands given the avant-garde black metal label. While they do the crazy dissonant melody harmonized by even more dissonant interval thing for the most part I’m hearing solid black metal interspersed with experimenting with cool sounds and instruments.

An example that comes to mind was the brief string quartet interludes that elevated Abigail Williams 2019 release ‘Walk Beyond the Dark’ as my album of the year. Though that is a more conventional example than what I’m hearing from Thantifaxath.

In other words it’s already black metal. Why the hell would you turn away even more listeners who are already black metal fans mind with nonsensical noise and try passing it off as ‘artistic experimentation’ that only a ‘real fan’ would understand. I’m discovering I really need to step away from Bandcamp for awhile from writing this. 

My point being I think it’s impressive what  Thantifaxath have accomplished. To have music that your listener can dissect and find something new to be interesting for its musical merit or how a sound was achieved but still holds up to casual listening just as well in a genre that’s in large part – how to put this simply? Unapproachable. 

Anyway short version is I came away from watching Thantifaxath wanting to listen to more Thantifaxath. I suppose that’s really the point of it all. 

Listen to ‘Hive Mind Narcosis’ HERE.

—–

Vitriol serves as final direct support to our headliner and was preluded with technical difficulties with that massive space station of a pedal board the band decides to say ‘fuck it’ and play naked as it were. 

Seeing as this was my first time seeing Vitriol it could be that there was control for backing tracks or effects that wouldn’t be utilized. My best guess would be that there were interludes figured into the set that we weren’t hearing but were part of a click track keeping the band in sync. 

Overall I found their live performance to be a powerful statement for the three piece they are. Personally I find one guitar extreme metal bands (which we see a lot of tonight now that I mention it) to be incredibly impressive when they maintain such a thick sound sonically. (Vitriol seem to have a fourth member, another guitarist missing from this tour, so sometimes they’re a three piece and other times they are a four piece.)

All said I can sometimes find some death metal at times difficult to enjoy on first glance. Though not for the same reasons as others might have. Someone off the street might be turned off by ‘all the screaming’ or that it’s ’all noise’ and say things like ‘why can’t you just be normal Ethan?!’

I tend to favor melodic death and black metal over other styles. For example my exploration of technical death metal kind of ended with Necrophagist in high school – sort of joking actually I would say that was the last technical death metal band I really loved. So it might surprise some that aren’t really familiar with death metal that I’d actually put Vitriol in neither camp and simply call them death metal. A more modern interpretation than Cannibal Corpse or Morbid Angel for sure but still death metal. 

Their sound is pretty impenetrable, not leaving a lot of space in a near constant barrage of guitars, bass, drums and harsh growling vocals. Not to say they aren’t still very musically interesting. I find myself listening closely to some very catchy hooks to be sure. My favorite example at the moment is “Pain Will Define Their Death” with this repeating riff that starts around the three-and-a-half minute mark that’s not quite buried in the mix for the remainder of the song (it’s definitely there) but I’ve found myself humming it to myself a lot recently. 

They are certainly listenable in a way that’s different then, I don’t know – Nails as an example. Similarly dense and unforgiving and as cool as the ‘Swedish Chainsaw’ Boss HM-2 guitar tone is, it will cause ear fatigue after a time. Vitriol’s sound doesn’t do that to me. 

Vitriol might not be my recommendation for the first death metal band you listen to if you’re not familiar with the genre or haven’t dipped into those waters in a long while. Though you could do much worse too. I’m finding myself inspired to listen more to Vitriol and I’m reminded I really need to take the time to explore more new death metal to add to my rotation. 

I’d say you can start from anywhere in their catalog but they did release a full-length this year entitled ‘Suffer & Become’ on Century Media. 

—–

This will be the third time I’ve written a piece on a Goatwhore performance for ZRockR and especially in my last write up I made like Aleistar Crowley’s scarlet woman or the band’s namesake and sucked the figurtive dick of the New Orleans based band. 

What I can’t believe is I don’t think I’ve ever discussed just how long I’ve listened to Goatwhore. It has to be pre ‘A Haunting Curse’ because one of my first exposures was the music video for “Blood Guilt Eucharist” and at the time in 2004/2005 I was in middle school sifting through the New Orleans scene bands due to some belated homesickness. Comfort music to accompany my mother’s dirty rice. 

Funnily enough my wife has a show flier taped to the wall in the kitchen of our friends in Babilos opening for Goatwhore (at the Cheyenne Saloon, a show I was too young to go to) right where I cook dirty rice and listen to NOLA bands. 

Last time we checked in with Goatwhore was shortly after the tragic passing of Trevor Strnad and was a night out I needed at the time and turned out to be one of the more memorable concert experiences with the guys of the band being so cool after. 

Shortly after we saw the release of their latest opus ‘Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven’ featuring the title track which became one of my all-time favorite Goatwhore songs and the album itself my personal pick for Album of the Year in 2022.

Before their set began I was checking out what was visible of Sammy’s guitar rig including the beautiful custom red crackle finish ESP in the SD-2 random star shape. His Randall amps and cabs have been replaced with signature Arachnid Cabinets as well as a Michael W Klein designed prototype amp with additional old Marshall Cabs on the other side of the stage. 

I may own his signature Ltd SD-2 guitar but I currently lack the space or excess funds to even consider going all in on a new half stack at the moment even if I was in the market for a new amp. Though if anyone is looking to offload a Michael W Klein Sammy Duet signature Dybbuk overdrive in black and gold (ya know Saints colors) please let me know. 

Call me.

Anyhow let’s talk more about Goatwhore in 2024 The set itself was great – the bandmates are certainly consummate performers. Ben being one of my favorite non guitarist frontmen to watch live and Sammy playing axe for two of my all-time favorite bands (Goatwhore obviously and formerly Acid Bath). 

My only gripes include the constant green lighting. Courtney expressed that the green color gave her fewer options to edit her photos. I was of the opinion that red is more ‘their color’ at the moment and the green light didn’t do anything to highlight that awesome red crackle finish of Sammy’s guitar. 

Other than that they got too much cool shit at their merch table and I didn’t see a vinyl copy of ‘Angels…’ on display. Don’t worry though I’ll get one soon. 

No news of a new record incoming but ‘Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven’ is still an absolute banger put out on Metal Blade. There’s also plenty of other great metal out out by these gentlemen dating back to the 90’s for you to explore. Get on it! 

Load More Loading More… You’ve reached the end of the list

Photos by Courtney Ware for ZrockR Magazine 2024 – All Rights Reserved.