Goatwhore, Venomous Maximus, Demoniacal Genuflection, Legion Fitzgerald's September 15, 2014
Of all the days of the week, none are less metal than Mondays. The domain of alarm clocks and rent payments, Monday must necessarily be the sworn enemy of middle fingers and Jager shots. Nobody applies KISS makeup on a Monday. No one has ever gotten a skull tattoo on a Monday. If you're listening to heavy metal on a Monday, it's only because you listen to heavy metal every day.
It was these everyday-metal types who showed up to Fitzgerald's on Monday night, with not a part-timer in sight. The black-clad die-hards came to see Goatwhore, the long-running New Orleans headbangers who draw upon the entire, vast universe of metal to arrive at a sound forged in the rank heat of the Gulf Coast. But they were also treated to a fairly stacked bill of local talent on a night when, by all rights, they should have been at home in bed. And they weren't about to just stand around and clap politely.
Fittingly, perhaps, there was already a pretty powerful stench emanating from Fitz's men's room when Legion took the stage first. One of my absolute favorite local groups, Legion plays classic thrash with a few modern death-metal trappings thrown into the mix. As usual, their wrists were snapping like rubber bands as they chugged out gnarly, precise riffs and harmonies. It was my first time seeing the group with new lead guitarist Vinay Joseph, who showed off some terrific melodic soloing and heavy-metal enthusiasm.
By the time they made it through the whipping set-closer, "Imitations of Life," it was clear from the crowd's response that Legion's young metal attack continues to win them new fans wherever they play. Catch them soon and count yourself among us.
I had never seen the next band -- Demoniacal Genuflection -- before, but right away I noticed that they looked familiar. Especially Dobber Beverly, the outrageously fast and fluid drummer who wears large headphones onstage to keep all of the 32nd notes from spilling out of his brain through his ears. As near as I could tell, the group is identical in personnel to Oceans of Slumber, the local prog-metal wizards and HPMA nominees. The only difference is that Demoniacal Genuflection is far heavier and much, much more evil.
As with Oceans, DG was at their most eye-popping when Beverly was unleashed, blast-beating the holy Jesus out of his handsome kit and cascading into endless fills and rolls. Guitarists Sean Gary and Anthony Contreras certainly delivered their fair share of notes, too, but sounded best to my ears on their many harmonized sludge passages.
I may have missed the boat initially with these Demoniacal boys, but I can say with certainty that I'll get up to speed quickly. They were wicked.
The familiar faces from Venomous Maximus appeared next, practically a prerequisite for a big metal show at Fitz. The band's majestically wasted guitars moaned and throbbed through a set well-stocked with songs old and new, from "Path of Doom" to "Angel Heart." Venomous must be inching pretty close to a new album release at this point, but as they uncorked Gibson-powered throwback after throwback, it was clear that the future is not of primary concern to these guys.
"This one goes out to all the old-school rockers," front man Gregg Higgins dedicated one number. "I'm not talking about you -- I'm talking about your parents!"
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