Lock Up + Goatwhore Destroy Brooklyn, N.Y.

Thursday night (Feb. 16), Brooklyn, N.Y. gave us one of the best underground metal shows we've ever seen. With five bands tearing up Club Europa, the show offered a diverse lineup with extreme assaults of sound. Among the two bands were American blackened death metal band Goatwhore and Lock Up, a project filled with metal royalty from the mic to the sticks.

The Year Is One opened the show with their unique brand of death metal consisting of a vocalist, drummer and two bassists. The duel attack of a four-string bass and six-string bass brought a gigantic low-end while keeping the sound surprisingly clear with their many riffs and chords.

Mutant Supremacy took the stage next and took no time at all in unleashing some technical death metal on the audience. The band absolutely killed at the show and they even brought their own smoke machine, which created a merciless haze.

Maryland grindcore band Strong Intention kept the show alive and energetic, blasting away with aggression throughout their set. The drummer for Strong Intention was especially impressive -- at times looking as if the entire kit was about to fall apart from the insanity of his playing.

Goatwhore came on next and holy hell did they deliver. Playing a ton of new material from 'Blood for the Master,' which we recently reviewed, as well as taking bits and pieces from their 15-year career. Frontman Ben Falgoust is one of the most intimidating frontmen in death metal, staring down the audience with ceaseless intensity one moment while delivering five-star gutturals, only to start smiling and high-fiving the audience the next minute. Another masterful quality of Goatwhore is that although they only have one guitarist, the low end of their music is so huge that when Sammy Duet goes for a solo, said low end brought by bassist James Harvey and drummer Zack Simmons leaves no gaps in the band's intensity.

Editor's Note: Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Goatwhore frontman Ben Falgoust.

Lock Up closed out the night with some of metal's greatest musicians taking the stage. The band consists of bassist Shane Embury (Napalm Death), drummer Nicholas Barker (ex-Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir), guitarist Anton Reisenegger from Chilean band Pentagram and almighty vocalist Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, Disfear.)

Although it was announced earlier that Lindberg's appearance was questionable from battling with the flu, the vocalist took to the stage with a powerful performance. Although Lindberg apologized for his illness, stating that he left half of his voice at the last show, Reisenegger replied, 'We'd rather have half a Tomas Lindberg than no Tomas Lindberg." It was a sentiment that the crowd shared 100%.