EYEHATEGOD + KOHTI TUHOA – KUUDES LINJA, HELSINKI – 30/03/2015

por Emil Gil Bretón · 19/05/2015

HELSINKI IS THE NEW VIETNAM

Last week we attended the gig of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, and this week we fortunate enough to attend EYEHATEGOD´s live concert. It seems that the «sludge metal» has a metalhead audience in Helsinki. This article summarizes the key points and takeaways of the concert – a gig that was held on a cold and snowy night in the Finland´s capital – a night that was full of maximum excitement concerning the return of one of the flagship Southern sludge metal bands from New Orleans. And what would be a better way of starting this article than by describing the Finnish hardcore punk group KOHTI TUHOA that was responsible for opening the concert.

KOHTI TUHOA

Around 8:45pm the dissonant cries of Helena opened the chaotic performance of the hardcore punk quartet KOHTI TUHOA. Harsh, fast and very short songs were common during the presentation of this Finnish band. The band´s guitarist Ville with his occasional guitar solos was joined by the smashing rhythm section of bass player Aleksi and drummer Markus. You could see during that gig a few punk boys banging their heads and dancing to the mosh pit. This 15 minute long intense gig was summarized in the form of ten quick and powerful themes: «Massakuolema», «Orja», «Maan Cover», «Vituväsyny», «Rajo Itan Rbeäni», «Liian Elossa», «Taivaantie», «Ohjelmoitu Voittaja» «Koe Tuskaa» and «Noitavainoa».

EYEHATEGOD

EYEHATEGOD returned back to Helsinki this time with a new drummer, Aaron Hill who went on to replace Joey Lacaze who passed away in 2013 due to respiratory failure. This band from New Orleans started the show according to the scheduled time (9:30pm) by opening quickly with the extreme and distorted hardcore punk of «Agitation! Propaganda!» that belongs to his last studio album «Eyehategod» (2014, Housecore/Century Media). They continued in the spirit of punishing sounds with the cacophonous and dense blues in songs like «New Orleans is the New Vietnam», «Parish Motel Sickness» and «Medicine Noose». Their heavy riffs that sounded like a tormented combination of BLACK SABBATH, THE MELVINS and BLACK FLAG (on the album «My War») have become more intense year by year and nowadays one could say the band sounds like a concrete fist aimed directly to your face.

Mike IX Williams spit and vomited without pity severe lyrics so powerfully that it made a small room to seem like a crowded one to its limits. The detuned guitar of Brian Patton alternated between thick chords and more up-tempo sections – one should not forget that thanks to him the band manages to have that heavy, aggressive and mostly violent sound. Meanwhile, Mr. Jimmy Bower –a chain smoker- commanded the quintet through painful riffs on his bluesy guitar creating an effect of layers in sounds that easily deafened those without earplugs. For its part, the rhythmic and slow bass played by Gary Mader was excelled in songs like «White Nigger» and «Sisterfucker (part I, part II)». And one should not forget the incredible versatility and tricky time changes implemented by Aaron Hill, who as a relatively new joiner has adapted to the band very well as it was seen both in the swift hardcore songs and in the dense sludgy songs: «Blank / Shoplift» and «Left to Starve».

The band said goodbye with their song «Trying to Crack the Hard Dollar» from their last studio album and with a jam of two songs combined «Run It Into the Ground» from the album «In The name of Suffering» and «Methamphetamine» from the album «Dopesick». This concluded the brilliant performance of hour and a half with a full setlist of 18 songs. Again EYEHATEGOD showed that they can be the most brutal, fast, extreme and distorted band that we have had the pleasure to see live. This was a successful first night in Helsinki for the veteran sludge metal quintet from New Orleans.