Eye might hate God, but Raleigh showed nothing but love for Eyehategod with a rambunctious and rowdy tour stop full of super-fans.
The Dynamic Universe Disappears Into the Static Zero Tour arrived at Kings in Raleigh, NC, on a seasonably warm February evening. Kings is a small, 250-ish person capacity club with a reputation of hosting a diverse set of musical and performance artists. A very diverse crowd of all ages and orientations arrived to scream and mosh to Eyehategod and their special guests, also from New Orleans, Slowhole.
Two local North Carolina bands opened the evening, starting with Ape Vermin. Formed in 2017 and with one released album, Ape Vermin delivered a strong, sludgy set. True to the sludge metal genre, the band lingered on extensive jams full of dissonance, super fuzzy, and very dirty-sounding slap bass guitar, and low-octave rhythm guitar. The only treble to be found on stage came from the cymbals, a beacon of time signature above the growling music. Ape Vermin is still yet unsigned as a band but their strong performance suggested Raleigh will see a lot more of Ape Vermin in the future.
Next up came Scrape, another local North Carolina band. Scrape is releasing their debut album in 2025 and performed songs such as “Forgiven” which is currently available on their Bandcamp site. Going online and listening to Scrape’s recordings was the only way this audience could appreciate what Scrape really sounds like. Their drummer, bassist, and vocalist set up on stage with very humble equipment, appropriate for their age as a band and the size of the room. Scrape’s guitarist, however, set up a dual speaker/amplifier rig with enough power to fill a football stadium and completely obliterated the sound mix to the point of causing physical pain. No other musician on stage could be heard over the screaming guitar, and resulted in a lackluster audience reaction. Slowhole also hails from New Orleans, the same as Eyehategod. Many in the audience wore gear from the band Down, a much bigger name also from New Orleans, however Slowhole received an extremely positive welcome and was known to many in the crowd. Slowhole is a punishing noise/sludge metal band with an incredibly heavy sound and a wonderful mix of goth and evil vibes creating a captivating performance. Lead vocalist Shannon Arsenault led virtually all of the audience engagement while the rest of the band crouched, thrashed, and writhed their way through their pounding performance. Shannon’s viscous scream cut through all the noise like an artist possessed throughout the set. Slowhole is a young band and early in their career but delivered enough firepower to force the evening’s headliner to deliver their best. Headliner Eyehategod arrived on stage to shouting, screaming, and a mosh pit immediately forming. Vocalist Mike IX Williams immediately broke his microphone stand, the first of a series of destructive events including throwing a replacement microphone stand, Mike’s microphone cord becoming detached from the mic, a cymbal stand collapsing on drummer Aaron Hill, and guitarist Jimmy Bower becoming unplugged suddenly mid-song. Undeterred by the chaos, Eyehategod went on to deliver a crushing set including “Medicine Noose” and “Take as Needed For Pain.” The mosh pit remained incredibly active for the entire set, at many times dominated by the many women fans in attendance. Eyehategod could not have been more welcomed, applauded, and appreciated by the Raleigh audience, the entire show from start to end was chaotic, with bodies flying across the pit, and the band appeared to feed off the energy. The unsung hero of the evening was the sound engineer at Kings. They did a phenomenal job setting up, managing quick and effective sound checks, and engaged with the band like an artist to ensure their sound was as great as possible. The current leg of this tour continues through March 1, ending in Mobile, AL, with additional performances scheduled into September.
