![]() But Eyehategod, formed in 1988, made it feel rawer and more massive, adding in a certain kind of scuzzy, substance-fueled misanthropy. Other, earlier bands, particularly Raleigh’s Corrosion of Conformity on their 1985 cult classic Animosity, had homed in on a similar blend. Those are two of my favorite bands so it kind of made sense.” He put it more succinctly in the liner notes to a vinyl reissue of the band’s 1993 masterpiece, Take as Needed for Pain, which came in at number 92 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest Metal Albums of All Time: “Total hardcore and total doom.” Opening track “Blank,” with its contrast between frenetic uptempo bashing and a greasy, sluggish evil-blues groove, epitomizes the band’s M.O. I think we started a style of music, putting the hardcore punk thing with the slow, Sabbath-style metal - kind of like Black Flag meets Black Sabbath. We never called ourselves a sludge metal band. “To me, we are just a rock ‘n’ roll, blues band. “I don’t really like that term,” Williams told an interviewer in 2010 of the “sludge” tag. It doesn’t get at the way Eyehategod cherry-pick, mashing together elements from different eras and movements to create a kind of ultimate form of riff-based amplified art. There is a term, “sludge metal,” that often gets affixed to them and fellow Big Easy bands like Down (which features Bower on drums) and Crowbar, neither of whom really sound anything like Eyehategod except in the macro sense of “big riffs and slow tempos.” But it feels too limiting. There’s no single satisfying name for the kind of music Eyehategod play. No matter what your level of interest in metal or punk or any of their offshoots, if you value the cardinal virtues of rock, you need to see them live at least once. Then there are other bands, a very small handful, who, through some alchemical combination of execution and attitude, transcend their subgenre completely and connect with the primal root of rock & roll, offering showgoers a hint of that sacred, “What in the fuck is happening right now?” wildness that’s been the hallmark of great American artists from Howlin’ Wolf to Jerry Lee Lewis and the Stooges. You might catch them in a club, nod your head and shoot “not bad” looks to your friends during their set, and spring for a T-shirt at the merch table afterward. #Eyehategod take as needed for pain band professionalThey’re tight, intense, professional they project just the right air of macho authority. There are certain bands who are very good at playing heavy rock or metal music. For the next 90 minutes, the gig became a sweat-and-beer-soaked bacchanal, with shirts coming off, sweaty grins exchanged and the mosh pit threatening to engulf the whole room. But at this moment, it was like some sort of switch had been flicked in the showgoing hive mind. The crowd had been attentive and vocal for the night’s openers, which included veteran Maryland hard-rockers the Obsessed, the band’s U.S. Hill counted off the tempo, and the band kicked into “Agitation! Propaganda!,” the hardcore-style rager that opens their 2014 self-titled album, and the place went off. Then, Williams gave the signal, announcing, “We’re Eyehategod, from New Orleans, Louisiana,” in his trademark caustic bark. Even before the proper show started, when the band began its customary onstage overture - a lengthy, tension-building feedback drone, like a moment of zen’s nauseating inverse - people near the front were shoving and shouting, getting riled up. Just as often, they expressed sincere gratitude: Bower clapped for the audience Williams told them, “We fuckin’ love you guys, we really do.” When introducing the song “Medicine Noose,” Bower made an upside-down fist near his head and jerked it upward, miming a self-hanging, with Williams adding, “This song’s about killing yourself.” When it was over, the vocalist went back to playing the genial host: “Is everybody having a good time?”īy the looks of it, everyone was. #Eyehategod take as needed for pain band freeWhenever they had free hands, Jimmy Bower and Gary Mader, the 30-year-old New Orleans band’s respective guitarist and bassist, did the same. On Friday, at New York’s Brooklyn Bazaar, frontman Mike Williams flipped off the crowd constantly, both during and between songs. An Eyehategod show is a nonstop barrage of mixed messages. ![]()
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