Goatwhore, Caveman Cult, Herakleion and Intoxicated gave Winter Park's Conduit a baptism of fire

You can read more about what I saw inside at the opening weekend of new concert venue Conduit elsewhere on this site, but here's what happened onstage on Sunday, Jan. 8.


It’s hard to call it a warm-up when a night kicks off full-throttle with a double dose of thrash metal like this one did, but so it was. Orlando band Intoxicated rocketed things right out the gate with a dark crossover-thrash broadside led by impressively diabolical vocals. New Orleans’ Herakleion were even tighter in their death-thrash blitzkrieg.

Next up was Miami's own Caveman Cult. First, it’s hard to think of any virtue greater about them than the fact that they dress like actual cavemen, which would be hilarious were it not for the fact that they are absolutely bludgeoning live. But their sound — a smothering cacophony of black, death and war metal — comes on like a blackout blizzard. In both sight and sound, they are total savagery.



Headliners Goatwhore, however, were simply on another plane. Back on the warpath touring behind their first album in five years (Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven on Metal Blade Records), the New Orleans-based Satan homies came with pure fury, ripping their extreme metal without mercy.

Even so, their speedball of death, black, thrash and sludge metal was as dimensional as it was heavy. It was an attack that was clarified without being clean, impressively technical without being nerdy. Their evil sensibilities may come from the bloody entrails of the underground but they slay with major-league chops.





Coming soon: Orlando Weekly Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting Orlando stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter