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Eyehategod: In the name of suffering

23/06/08 || Daemonomania

Fucking ugly. Two great words to describe the Eyehategod debut. And Hillary Clinton. These guys purposely took all the speed and catchiness right out of metal and drained it like gutted deer blood right down into the dirt. Imagine Black Sabbath, heroined out of their gourds and lost in the swamp with minimal recording equipment and a dying lizard instead of Ozzy on vocals. Have you imagined it yet? Good.

Now imagine that lizard has a great pair of tits. Forget it, don’t bother.

So this was my first journey into the Eyehatecod camp, after seeming a particularly great live show (they opened for Crisis at CBGB’s, just to carbon date the whole experience). Mike came out in his underwear and stumbled around a little, disappeared, and then returned fully dressed with the rest of the band. They proceeded to polish off quite a bit of Jack Daniels and kick quite a bit of ass, so a CD purchase seemed a logical choice.

And boy, was I unprepared for what awaited me. This music is made for people who hate themselves, hate everyone else, and love only drugs and taking big stinky dumps. This is the soundtrack to giving yourself an enema with a piece of PVC pipe and a balloon. Each riff struggles forth from the primordial ooze to be born, and commands you to slowly bang your head. The drums are nothing flashy, but compliment the sludge perfectly, and sound like they were recorded at the bottom of a pool. The bass is strong, and certainly adds a lot to the bowel-scraping heaviness that is “In the name of suffering.”

And the vocals…my lord…the vocals. A thin, painful rasp is broken up intermittently by some shouting and some moaning. Very little of it can be made out. All of it sounds intoxicated, wasted, thrashed, and belligerent. Like a mean drunk who listens to too much metal. Is there such a thing as listening to too much metal? I guess not. Are these vocals GOOD? Who can say? Technically they are terrible, but for EHG they are perfect.

Actually, that sums up the whole album pretty well. Is it technically good, well-played, well-recorded, melodic metal? NO. But it wasn’t meant to be. Nasty, messy, and disgusting was their goal. And many a band has emulated them since – Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, and Grief come to mind. In fact, this is almost some class of 666 material for their influence alone. So check in out if you’re into being roughed up and abused deep in the bayou. Highlights include the fantastic “Depress,” “Shinobi,” the hilarious sampled lunatic speech in “Godsong,” and “Hit a girl.” You just might like it. But be warned – this ain’t your grandpappy’s happy music, this shit can safely be awarded the overused adjective BRUTAL. Oh yeah, and I’ve gotta mention the booklet and liner notes. Don’t download this, because if you download metal you’re a fuck, and because you’ll miss out on a bunch of stream-of-consciousness stuff that may or may not be lyrics to the actual songs, plus some cut and paste pictures of odd medical procedures, ugly naked people, a tree with a dick, and other such nonsense. Truly wonderful.

7.5 sludgefathers out of 10.

Information
Released: 1992
Label: Intellectual Convulsion (re-released by Century Media later)
Website: Eyehategod MySpace
Band
Mike: vocals
Steve: bass
Joey: drums
Marc: guitars
Jimmy: guitars

Tracklist
01. Depress
02. Man Is Too Ignorant to Exist
03. Shinobi
04. Pigs
05. Run It into the Ground
06. Godsong
07. Children of God
08. Left to Starve
09. Hostility Dose
10. Hit a Girl

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