Two underground heavyweights from the Norwegian Metal scene had teamed up for a short tour entitled The Blood & Bones – Live Collective 2011. Both bands hail from Trondheim: Manifest, a hard-boiling Groove/Thrash/Death Metal band, and Goat The Head, a “Contemporary Primal Caveman Death Metal” band. This mini-tour included gigs in the Norwegian cities Bergen, Oslo, and Hamar. The Oslo gig took place at John Dee, and though the venue was far from packed, those who were there got their money’s worth, and then some.

Goat The Head

Goat the Head opened the show with the heavy and massive “The Hunt Is On (Sexy Son),” and though they’re a Death Metal band (a “contemporary primal caveman” one) they have a lot in common with their mates in Manifest. Many of their songs have slower and incredibly heavy parts that hail from Groove Metal. “Uncanny Valley Clan” is a good example of this.

The band entered the stage in what appeared to be spacesuits. Everyone in the band kept these clothes on during the show, except for the vocalist. His clothing had to give way, piece by piece, for fur and blood throughout the show, giving the proper look to their own mantra “Contemporary Primal Caveman Death Metal.” The night’s funniest moment was when this growling maniac asked the crowd: “Is there anyone in the audience that has absolute pitch and can give me a B?”

Goat The Head is a band of skilled musicians. At times it’s really amazing to watch them play incredibly technical stuff with the greatest of ease. The band mixes incredibly heavy and groovy Death Metal with humor in-between and they owned the stage from the second they entered until the last chord was struck.

Setlist: The Hunt Is On (Sexy Son) / Primal Caveman Death Metal / Reveille / The Ubiquitons Cube / Crater Of Excarnation / Wicked Mimicry / Mother Horse / Salt / Uncanny Valley Clan / Neolithic Rocket Science / Otter Skull / Beast Man