Labels: Century Media
Review by: Alex Deller
These guys are basically the godfathers of this whole malignant genre. Caustic sludge with a bad fucking attitude, too many bad drugs pumped into an already depraved system. Lysol drinking, crack-smoking wild-eyed swamp-dwellers tearing out their withered hearts to the songs of Black Sabbath and Black Flag. Shouts and screams blurred with lurching riffs over a backdrop of shuddering feedback. Disturbing imagery featuring religious iconography and scenes of torture and mutilation, with writings I’m scared to peruse. These are the pieces to the ugly Eyehategod puzzle, and despite fitting together all too well there’s something still missing. Something lacking in the aggression factor, something making the vocals not quite as on edge as I remember, something in the guitar playing that sounds too much like derivative stoner shamblings (jesus, some of the riffs are almost, ugh, *bouncy*) than the oozing filth I’m familiar with. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that the they’ve allegedly quit the drugs – pot aside – so perhaps they’ve just gotten sluggish and lethargic now they’re not all strung out and craving heroin or whatever, instead kicking back in a midst of green smoke and simpletons’ grins. Whatever it is, it’s odd and not particularly welcome.