It’s been a while since I’ve been to a metal show. Maybe even longer since I’ve been to one as good as Haarp, Nachtmystium and Eyehategod a few Monday’s back at Fubar.

Part of that is my own fault. I didn’t go see Fuck the Facts last month (which I really regret. I really like their last two releases.) I didn’t go to the Liturgy show in March despite driving down to the venue only to return home because I got there an hour too early and they weren’t open yet and I really had to pee. I don’t take all the blame for that one though. It seemed reasonable to me that that since the show was being held at a local record store, APop Records, I’d be able to browse the records they had for sale. I was wrong, and my bladder made me pay for that mistake.

Whatever the excuse, it had been much too long. I was NOT going to miss Nachtmystium no matter what happened. I had been digging the band since last year when I first heard Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1 and they were one of the first black metal bands I could really get behind. I had already heard two tracks off of the yet to be released Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. 2 and I was pumped to see them live. So I set my sights on Fubar.

I arrived at about 7:45pm just in time to catch the last two songs of the opening band which I wasn’t saddened to miss. They were, um, thrash?? The vocalist was definitely doing a thrash thing, I think. The guitar and bass…. couldn’t understand a note they played. Glad I missed most of the set.

Moving on, I found out a good friend’s band, Fister, was up second. I was impressed with their set up. Bass: one Sunn 4×10, one Sunn 1×15 and a Sunn amp. Guitar: two Mesa 4×12′s, and a Sunn amp. I was expecting unrelenting heaviness. As far as their “sound,” Fister is Electric Wizard meets Zozobra on a path to the highest riff high Sleep ever attained; which is to say they’re a sludgy, stoner metal band that tunes to drop A.

Their set started off strong. Big riffs, big vocals, and solid drumming. Unfortunately after a few songs the bassist’s amp blew, and there was a good 10 minutes fiddling until a back-up amp was set up. The lull kind of killed the riffed out daze everyone was in. Well, at least I was in. Other than that, they were good. And rumor has it that Sanford Parker (Leviathan, Twilight) will be recording their album.

Up after them was Thorlock. Great, great St. Louis heavy rock band. I posted on Twitter the night of the show that “Thorlock are black robed priests following the left hand path of the metal god Thorrifficus,” and do they ever. In short, Thorlock are a blackened rock band with a bit of thrash and doom influences. They do perform in black robes, and they fit right into the “Black So-And-So” heavy music trend as though their name was “Black Thor,” or better, “Black Hole: What Your Brain Feels Like After So Many Of Our Sweet Riffs.” I enjoyed the hell out of their set, just fantastic all around. Nearly perfect even. The only thing I’d add is one really slow, sludge song right in the middle to help distinguish from the up-tempo, riff your face off rocking of the rest of their songs.

After Thorlock was a brutal nü-metal band whose name I can’t remember and I don’t care to look up though I think is something like “Black Tusk” which pissed me off because there is another Black Tusk I really like whose new album is awesome and I was stoked when I first saw them listed under the bands playing this show but as it turns out it was this brutal nü-metal band instead and not just brutal, but br00tal. On top of pissed, I was baffled. Brutal nü-metal? Is it necessary? Why not just play death metal?  Hmm, maybe more on this soon…

Now the touring bands. First up, from New Orleans, Haarp. They were so AWESOME. I made more crunched-up, “guitar faces” during their set than any, probably, ever. Slow riffs to head bang to. Their singer was hilarious. Short, fat, bald, probably over 30 wearing a New Orleans Saints jersey bent at the waist as though out of breath from a short jog after hearing the ice cream truck come down the block screamed so loud, and for so long I was amazed, and delighted. The dude also spent more than half the set in the pit, interacting with the fellow head-bangers, just having fun. When he wasn’t screaming, he was head banging and smiling. When I was “guitar facing,” I was doing the same thing. Such an enjoyable set.

Nachtmystium was next. I was amped. I made my way to the front, made sure my camera was ready, and was set for their first song. As soon as vocalist/guitarist/main-dude Blake Judd started screaming his mic stand started falling. After Judd tried twice to correct it to no avail, I jumped on stage, and tightened everything. An action like that is always kind of embarrassing for me, but the six people standing directly in front of him didn’t do anything about the falling mic, so I took it into my own hands to help the guy out. Anyway, the sound directly in front of the stage was severely lacking in clarity, not at all like Haarp who sounded incredible from up front, so I moved to the back. Once in the back, I couldn’t see shit, and it only sounded 2.6% better, which is to say it sounded VERY muddy AND they even brought their own sound guy. Not sure who is to blame as the guitarist’s gear was decent. Perhaps the bassist and his cheap bass run into a guitar amp were the culprit? Either way, disappointing set, and they only played two songs I knew well.

Last band was Eyehategod. By this point I was pretty tired. It was about 11:30pm and I had been standing since about 2pm. I decided to stay for at least a few songs because I had low expectations. Before the show, I had only heard Take As Needed For Pain, and while I think that is an incredible record, I didn’t expect to hear very many songs off of it. Boy, was I wrong.

EHG opened with my favorite song, the lead off to Take As Needed…, “Blank” and my jaw fell. Not only did the entire crowd of headbangers who, up to the moment before the first chords of “Blank” were struck, had barely moved from their respective places except to take a step to prevent an unchecked headbang from taking themselves out, explode into a wall of shirtless, football moshing douchebags; my ears were knocked on their asses by EHG’s overwhelming aural force. This band was loud! LOUD! Loud AND they had such great TONE! A Les Paul into a Marshall full stack obviously sounds awesome but to my surprise on the other side of the stage there was a Parker Fly (into another Marshall full stack.) Really? You choose to play a Parker Fly? And it sounds not only good, but really, really great!? I was shocked.

EHG played not only one, but two songs I knew first thing. And in between the songs their singer proved what you may have or have not heard before: dudes from New Orleans are probably the coolest, nicest, most laid back dudes you’ll ever meet. They also seem like the kind of dudes who’d know where to get weed. And they’re probably nice enough to share it with you.

SO. EHG blew through song, after song, after song and after probably 45 songs… okay, more likely 20, I was spent. I looked at my phone and it was 1am, and it was time to go. So I bounced before their whole set was finished but not until after hearing the singer talk about how “nigger is just a word man, just a stupid word” when mentioning how they were going to play “White Nigger.” (I also heard him chant both “drugs, guns and pussy,” and “fuck the police” and countless other un-understandable phrases, but I attributed them to his being either drunk, high or both.)

All in all, I’d see Eyehategod again if I had the chance. I’d definitely see Haarp again. I’d maybe see Nachtmystium again in a bigger club, or with other more tr00 black metal bands since I’d love the spectacle of a band like Watain or Portal or something like that. Some videos of the show are here.