EYEHATEGOD

BILLY CLUB/HEADLESS CROSS

UNDERWORLD, LONDON

Scottish heavyweights HEADLESS KROSS

bring a metric fuck-ton of low-end, fuzzed-up noise and suitably unpleasant vocals, but unfortunately with no real sense of engagement they don’t quite connect to the early crowd. Northern punks BILLYCLUB fare better with GBHmeets-motörhead via Zeke hard-rocking sounds and, at times, amusing banter – although “This song is for the laydeez” is fooling no one. Thirty years in and NOLA’S finest are still no closer to nailing the slick and polished thing. Ambling onstage one by one, Mike Williams says, “We’re EYEHATEGOD from New Orleans.”

And then… some feedback. They were never ones to rush. However, from their trademark chaos something wicked coalesces and when they do decide to start, it’s like a bomb going off… a very dirty bomb. With Jimmy Bower currently sidelined by arm surgery, old guitarist Brian Patton has stepped back into the fold for the tour, and frankly it’s like he never left. Wave after wave of tar-thick riffs and acid-etched shrieks formed from primeval Sabbath worship, decades of chemical-induced nausea and bitter disappointment: EHG prove yet again they are miles ahead of the sludge pack. ALASTAIR RIDDELL