In 1988, the abominable EyeHateGod arose from New Orleans, Louisiana. The band initially set out with one thing in mind: To irritate the world with their vulgar, detestable noise. Most of the members that were present during the earliest days wouldn't last long though, such as drummer Joey DeLatte and Chris Hilliard, who was the first vocalist as well as the one responsible for the band's moniker (based on some confusing concept he devised while high on acid). He later suffered some type of mental breakdown, forcing him to move to California and live with his parents. As members got weeded out by life's tribulations, the core of EyeHateGod turned out to be headstrong front-man Mike "IX" Williams, guitarist Jimmy Bower and Joey LaCaze the drummer (with bassist Steve Dale and a second guitarist by the name of Mark Schultz offering further assistance). Garden Dwarf Woman Driver and Lack Of Almost Everything (whose title was taken from that of a poem by Charles Bukowski) were the first set of demos the band produced in 1989 and 1990. The full-length debut, In The Name Of Suffering, was recorded shortly after at Festival studios in Kenner, Louisiana. According to Mike IX, the album cost $1,000 to make; $200 was spent on alcohol and narcotics while the other $800 went straight to the engineers.
Although it was originally released in 1990 through an ephemeral, small-time French record label called Intellectual Convulsion, the first album would be re-released two years down the road with new cover artwork (that portrays a spooky house in the dead of night as seen through a night-vision filter. The original cover featured grainy photographs of people in the nude) when the renowned label, Century Media, got ahold of it. In The Name Of Suffering surely is a wretched record, one that feels plagued by the demons of nihilism and misanthropy. Not being able to properly understand/decipher the lyrics, who knows what the hell all these songs are truly about, but aside from those things they seem to deal with a miserable reality, drug addiction and poverty. Research has revealed that some of the members of EHG didn't exactly have the best of childhoods. In a 2010 interview, Mike gave some insight on how the hardships he frequently encountered in his life correlated with his writing process:
"I hate playing some sort of pity card, but my childhood wasn't exactly a bed of roses. Of course that's gonna affect my writing in some way. Growing up in North Carolina wasn't a lot of fun, I suppose. From a young age I would watch my dad beat my mom, fire guns off, beat my ass for no reason after we would come home from fucking church, stash his porn and booze bottles all over the house. You know, junk like that. My mom died when I was nine, dad at eleven. My older brother committed suicide a week after my dad passed. Those are just the things I can talk about. I do remember the good times too, however. But anyway, what you gonna do? Life is life."
Sonically, EyeHateGod finds their inspiration in a handful of different groups which range from Heavy Metal and Doom Metal to Hardcore Punk and Noise Rock (Blues and Country, even). Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, The Melvins, Black Flag, Discharge, Corrosion Of Conformity, GG Allin, Carnivore, Flipper and S W A N S are some of the idols which the southerners worshipped. The tempo of the music (or more appropriately, noise) is oftentimes excruciatingly torpid, moving at the pace of a snail (with volatile bursts of speed). Also present are heavy guitar sludge, battering percussion, pestilent headache-inducing feedback (which is almost guaranteed to drive most casual listeners to some degree of insanity..... it certainly took me a bit of time to get used to!) and the agonized, cathartic screams of Mike. Both the production and musicianship may be raw, primitive and monotonous, yet they don't detract much from my enjoyment. Let's proceed onto the tracklist now: Mischievous, trembling bass lines and whining guitar feedback are heard as "Depress" untangles. Not before long a sludgy, Southern Rock-tinged guitar riff rushes in as Mike Williams screams out like a raving, tormented maniac. The tune goes through a rapid Hardcore Punk segment right before it settles down in languor. A great EHG staple.
"Man Is Too Ignorant To Exist" is the shortest track of the rotten bunch, commencing with a demented intro that was obviously stolen inspired from the one in Black Sabbath's "Under The Sun (Everyday Comes And Goes)". Steve Dale also plays an ominous bass solo that evokes Geezer Butler. The band then finish in a swift motion reminiscent of Black Flag. Obnoxious, ear-piercing feedback and metallic, hammering trash-can drums mark the entrance of "Shinobi". Jimmy Bower and Mark Schultz dish out some morose guitar riffs that are tantamount to those of Dave Chandler (guitarist from revered Doom Metal messiahs, Saint Vitus). "Pigs" might be broodingly dark in texture, but strangely enough, it's simultaneously a very groovy jam featuring corpulent guitars and the sore throat vocals of Mike. One is usually left wondering what he is saying, as his raspy, smoker vocals are practically indecipherable. However, if you listen closely here, you can actually make out the lyrics a little ("When I'm with you I am falling / Peace is a word of the sea and the wind / Peace is the word of a day without end". "Run It Into The Ground" grinds with serrated riffs as it begins, but quickly falls to indolence.
"Godsong" is a psychotic instrumental containing not just catchy guitar riffs, but also hateful and blasphemous audio clips of one ranting, disillusioned Charles Manson. These clips are circulated on-and-off throughout most of the instrumental's duration, and are more comical than intimidating. He says various things (some being introspective while others just plain idiotic) such as "the only thing that makes up reality is death, then you get down and pray to it", "I'm Jesus Christ, whether you accept it or not I don't care", and the most humorous one, "I don't care about your society, the public's a bunch of assholes!" (As much as I dislike Manson, he isn't completely wrong here; there is definitely truth to this rambling, ha). Can't clearly tell if this instrumental is an ode to the criminal or just satirical, but it's an amusing one either way. The simplistic structure, distorted guitar and pounding drums heard on "Children Of God" bring to mind the sheer power of the legendary Noise Rock group from New York, S W A N S. It completely drags on, this being one of the sloooooweeeest songs on the entire album. "Left To Starve" kicks off with thrashing momentum, alternating with Bluesy Doom Metal passages (and vice versa).
The primal aggression resumes on "Hostility Dose" where Joey Lacaze batters with his violent, convulsive drumming. Unfortunately, Joey passed away in 2013 due to respiratory failure, but his stentorian pounding can still be heard on tracks such as this. EyeHateGod violates the listener's eardrums one last time with the scathing closer that is "Hit A Girl". It starts out very torpid with menacing, droning guitar chords. Halfway through it explodes into a phrenetic outbreak of speed along with Mike's rabid snarls. A satisfying way to round out this debut. The 2006 reissue contains four bonus demo tracks from 1990 (which are extremely RAW). These demo tracks are uglier and noisier as they are intentionally polluted with an even larger dose of metallic, screeching feedback. The sound quality is also even worse than that of the official versions. The demo cut of "Left To Starve" begins with an audio clip of Manson that is followed by annoying, scraping nails-on-chalkboard feedback (which at times sounds like the noise emitted from early Power Electronics acts such as Whitehouse, Controlled Bleeding and Ramleh) that persists for nearly a minute or so. The gloomy, tintinnabulation of church bells introduce "Hit A Girl" while repetitive clips that seems to mock Christianity are used for "Children Of God".
The biggest difference is heard on "Depress"; it's over seven minutes long as it originally also included "Godsong" as its outro. It features a sample clip, "now every human being has to go through some suffering", followed by a very funny one of "smoke a little grass, play a lot of music" (I'm curious to know the sources of these particular samples). Mike also appears to be spewing a different set of indecipherable lyrics. Overall, this extra material doesn't add much to the main album, but it is intriguing to listen to every once in a while and note the infinitesimal differences. Love it or hate it, In The Name Of Suffering is an important, cathartic slice of Sludge Metal and with it EyeHateGod helped pave the way (along with fellow NOLA heavyweights Crowbar, Buzzov-En from North Carolina, Massachusetts' Grief and Upsidedown Cross, not to forget Toadliquor from good, old sunny California). Upon the first couple of listening sessions, this album left me feeling somewhat disappointed, but I eventually got around to enjoying it a whole lot (with its defects and all). Recommended to enthusiasts of raw, heavy, filthy and noisy music (everyone else...... well, not so much). ... See More
