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Today Noisey, the music arm of VICE, is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death And Heavy Blues From The Bayou, episode 1. A seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like Down, Eyehategod, Crowbar, and so many others, episode 1 features New Orleans native Phil Anselmo who exports his style to Dallas band Pantera, thereby changing the landscape for metal in the '90s. Meanwhile, a visit from the Melvins to the New Orleans area would alter music as we know it, while Kirk Windstein of the band Shell Shock was discovering that slower was, for him, indeed heavier.
Starring: Members of Down, Pantera, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Corrosion Of Conformity, Goatwhore, and more, Noisey delves in deep with the NOLA natives on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting TODAY
Two years ago, EYEHATEGOD frontman Mike IX Williams told me he and his band hated the term "sludge." Considering the band has spent two and a half decades pioneering the sound, he can call the shit whatever he wants. What's less ambiguous, however, is the NOLA-branded bootprint ExHxG have left behind during their tenure. The band's self-titled fifth album arrives at the end of a path strewn with bumps, potholes, and fallen bridges. Where lesser bands throw in their towels, EYEHATEGOD collect the fragments, lift their heads, and whiten their bloody knuckles.
The band's first full-length studio release since 2000's Confederacy of Ruined Lives fits snugly within their abrasive discography, offering eleven tracks of distortion, corrosion, and revolt. Long-promised and hotly anticipated, the album delivers to fans a perfect amalgam of tradition and progress. Longtime followers can rejoice that the destitute New Orleans torment hasn't slowed one hair, while anyone experiencing ExHxG for the first time can clear their calendar as they eagerly dissect the band's previous landmark efforts.
Phil Anselmo's production captures the band's truest sounds, navigating between screeches, shifted gears, and endless angst. From the onset of Agitation! Propaganda!, feedback is checkered amid thick, chewy riff-rolls and the late Joey LaCaze's drum flurries. The torrid clip re-emerges on Framed to the Wall, a potent blend of hopelessness and distemper. And when Medicine Noose guns its quick-rolling groove, the abrupt close is hardly noticeable with all the hot ash left in your mouth.
But the slower, swinging, stop-motion grind best signals the band's return. Thickening beneath Mike IX's scourge, Trying to Crack the Hard Dollar sways and grinds with sweaty, twisting coils. Robitussin and Rejection allows the guitars to hang with long sustain, chopping on some of the disc's thickest moments. The muddy grooves do seem to find bright moments of near-clarity, but the South is never more than a whisper away. When the riffs rise, the imminent plunge is that much greater for it. The varied viscosity, you realize, is hardly the point.
Distorted, snarled spoken-word broadcasts introduces Flags and Cities Bound, a seven-minute doom highlight. There's no end to the praise and colorful descriptors I could heap onto this track, one that drags us by our heels and slowly extols grief. Opening on a powerful oration, the columns supporting the song's frame are of the heaviest breed, but the descent under a sooty yellow sky can't hold a dim fucking candle to LaCaze's showcase at track's end. Un-fucking-real.
And I can't help it. That sludge label had to go somewhere. The fat, cumbersome The Age of Bootcamp stays low to the ground and marks the album's best evidence that ExHxG have lost zero steam with regard to either mission, energy, focus, or output. Stopping, starting, spiking at the mid-section, these final breaths grind out until an abrasive and jarring overstimulation in the closing minute. It's exhausting. Which reveals exactly what we'd been hoping: these guys still got it.
The EYEHATEGOD trademarks and trackmarks are all here. That's not the surprise, though. These sounds transcend the decades of abuse, both inflicted and received. They could have been laid to tape in 1988 and they'll still resonate decades from now. Call it a refreshing helping of cold truth or a self-inflicted road to warped relapse. Another in a storied, weathered history of blooze-metal NOLA cocktails, EYEHATEGOD find their mark and fucking nail it.
Here's the last part of my interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus. We talk about New Orleans super groups, punk rock, and some new bands he digs.
Justin Gish (JG)- Outside of this tour, you guys are still going strong in Europe at the big festivals right?
Dave Chandler (DC)-
Yeah those are really fun because that was something back in the 80’s
we always dreamed of doing, and now it’s really cool to be able to do
it. The only bummer is that if you do one you have to wait three years
before you can do it again, and that’s just a weird thing. So it’s like
if you play Hellfest in 2013, you can’t play again 2016, unless all the
sudden you’re the best band in the world. Which, I understand Because
they want to keep it different but there’s still quite a few that we
haven’t done yet.
But
those are hard to do, there’s some difficulty because there are so many
bands, and there are road crews you’re not used to, and it’s really
hard but it’s really fun when you walk out there and raise your hand all
all these people are screaming, it’s a blast.
JG- I can only imagine. Are you seeing younger folks at the shows, thanks to the “Doom Revival” we seem to be in now?
DC-
Yeah, and that’s a really cool thing that we dig. Apparently between
the time that we ended and now you know there’s been like a couple
generations and that’s really nice because parents are bringing their
kids. I have pictures of me with little tiny kids with Saint Vitus
shirts on and that’s really bad ass. And the old fuckers will say they
only go see one concert a year and they get in their wheelchair or their
hoveround and they go to our show.
JG- Must make you proud
DC- Yeah, and they come up to the stage with the shirts they brought thirty years ago.
JG-
The fall is going to be a big month in Grand Rapids. Monster Magnet is
opening their North American tour here, we get you guys, and Church of
Misery-
DC- And Kylesa's been there we’re doing a tour kick off thing with them in Oklahoma.
JG- So do you work a lot with Season of Mist bands?
DC-
It just kind of depends. LIke this one, we just did four days in
Australia and that was with Season of Mist, one of their bands, which is
Monarch. And then we did local bands who opened up, but this tour is
kind of like we’re trying to work with new people to get more of a new
crowd, so everybody was like okay, you need to do either this band or
that band, which is Pallbearer and Zoroaster, and both of them couldn’t
do the whole thing, so we split it up, because these are really big
upcoming bands and we wanted them on. But usually we don’t care, the
only thing we don’t want is a band who is going to make the stage messy,
before we play because if we’re going to slip and fall, on something it
is going to be our fault, not some Satan band’s fault.
JG- No pig’s blood?
DC-
Yeah, if they want to play with us, we don’t care, we’ll just play
before them. And they can mess up the stage after. That’s fine. We just
don’t want to slip and fall. But that’s the only thing, we don’t really
give a shit who we play with.
JG-
Yeah, you guys were on SST and with the whole punk thing, you guys are
no strangers to playing with bands that don’t exactly sound like you.
DC-
Yeah, we played in front of numerous audiences that really couldn’t
care less about us, and some really angry ones who really wanted us to
get off the stage and showed it very violently.
JG- Just wanted you to play a little faster?
DC-And we didn’t which made them madder, but that got our rep going.
JG- And that’s punk rock, playing by your rules and sticking to your guns.
DC-
Yeah, it’s funny you say that because we were doing an interview one
night and this one guy asked Wino “how would you classify yourselves?”
and Wino goes, “fuck doom metal, we’re actually a punk rock band, cause
we don’t really rehearse and we just go out and piss everyone off.” And I
thought that was great.
JG- Pallbearer is slow. They are really great.
DC- I’ve heard they are really outstanding. I’m looking forward to seeing them.
JG- And you're living in New Orleans, right? How’d you end up down there?
DC-
I moved here to get married. Bottom line was I met my wife in
California, we were both working in the same place, I was a bartender,
she was a waitress. And it was going nowhere, it was just going to be
absolutely nothing, and I was doing Debris, Inc which was our stupid fun
band, and she said she could get us a place to live in New Orleans,
would you be willing to move, and I said yes. There was nothing in
California, the bar was going to fire me anyway, so I said fuck it and
we moved. And it’s been great.
JG- New Orleans fits the Saint Vitus vibe.
DC-
Yeah, and ironically, I moved here in 2005 and then Katrina hit. But we
lucked out cause we first moved here we lived in apartments that were
in a cemetery. Which was the highest point in the city, because they
don’t want the bodies to float around, so our house was dry, we just had
no power or nothin’. For a few months and we stayed in Chicago with
friends.
JG- You ever run into Phil Anselmo down there?
DC-
Not really, he lives way out, but when we play he’ll come out to the
show. Main person from Down that I hang out with is Pat the bass player,
he’s a good friend of mine and he lives close.
JG- It seems like in New Orleans it be real easy to put together a supergroup.
DC-
Yeah, but everybody just kinda does their own thing. But me Pat, and
Jimmy Bower were fucking around for a while but it wasn’t serious, we
would just get real stoned and fuck around it was nothing super serious.
And there’s a lot of people that do that around here, so it’s just not
something I want to do.
JG- I read in old interviews that you don’t listen to new music, that still the case?
DC-
Yeah, I don’t listen to music really unless I’m on the road. I listen
to the music I always have, and I’m more of a TV person. I watch TV
that’s my thing, and I get a lot of musical influences from that. But I
do like some new bands, well, Red Fang and Devil aren’t new anymore, but
I really dig them. And there was a band in Australia that opened for us
that was badass called Zodiac, they remind me of Witchfinder General
kind of, I just thought they were really good. And I asked them for
their record and they gave me a cassette and I said I like you even more
now. They really impressed me. And I don’t like bands where I can’t
understand the singer. And I could understand them. It’s fine to have a
gruff voice, I mean look at Lemmy, but you can hear what he says.
JG- The cookie monster stuff can get pretty old.
DC- Yeah I don’t like that GRRR GRRR UHHH GRRR GRRR. I’m just like sorry, I don’t know what the hell you said.
JG- So what television shows do you watch?
DC-
Well I’m like an old TV fan. But newer shows I like Big Bang Theory, I
watch a lot of Nickelodeon, iCarly is one of me and my wife’s favorite
shows, and cartoons, and my favorite show on TV, of all time, is
professional wrestling.
2013 marks the debut of Tilburg stoner-outfit Wangunst. From the deep south of the Netherlands, this power trio kicks you in the face with balls-to-the-wall riffage somewhere between stoner and sludge. Debut-EP 'Kempisch Ongemak' (Kempisch Discomfort) contains three originals in the vein of EYEHATEGOD, MYSTIC KREWE OF CLEARLIGHT, DOWN, KYUSS, WO FAT, SNAIL and many others. Their rendition of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's classic Blackbird Special homages both the rhythm 'n blues and stoner tradition of New Orleans.
THOUGHTS:
"The Bio pretty sums up the band's overall sound, but the fact that they chose to cover "Blackbird Special" by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a remarkable feat, minus the horn section of course and adding their own funky flair. Hailing nowhere near the glorious city of New Orleans (the band is from Tilburg, The Netherlands) this instrumental three-piece known as Wangunst move the Earth with loose and Sludgy riffing, devastating groove and a choice amount of fuzz that reaches into your soul. Wangunst is one of those bands that I could probably listen to all day, but unfortunately there are only these four songs from their latest EP "Kempisch Ongemak" to savor in the meantime. Great stuff!!"
Sludge is inherently messy. Relentless and unapologetic, sludge-o-philes want our sounds low, loose, thick, and absolutely fucking filthy. What we don't always get, however, is a release that's focused, well-realized, brilliantly-produced, and free of the metallic aftertaste that results from the absence of proper channels. It makes sense, I suppose. Fanning out to a broader base can get tricky when the music itself is as characteristically abrasive as some of metal's sub-genres are.
New Orleans-based haarp are spitting a nasty claim to the petulant throne with their first release since 2010's The Filth. The three-track Husks (Housecore), due September 18th, is a thematic stagger through death-rattled woods, loaded with shifts and transitions that go down easier than barrel-aged bourbon. Heavy with gravity and shit-caked boot heels, the Phil Anselmo-produced Husks is never over-saturated and never grows dull. Nearly thirty-nine ticks from onset to close, each moment on the album is one you'll surely revisit.
Immediately captivating is the track list; titles of deadman/rabbit, bear, and fox summon images of dense forest and placid wind-whispered timber. These images are shredded at the onset of deadman, however, with a violent stutter of riffs atop a bevy of thunderous drums. Vocalist Shaun Emmons barks with confident disdain, a bellow so seasoned and gut-wrenched that you can't imagine how he must sound off-record. The rhythm relaxes and sinks under wispy licks, plodding through echoes of Rwake. Patient, brutal, versatile... the mood is thoroughly troubling. Churn and grind are never out of reach, though, as we complete the life cycle and crawl home to die. Sure, metal can breed a catharsis. But listeners are scrubbed raw on this 18-minute opus.
An immediate onslaught of sludge introduces bear, the album's lumbering, bipolar thorax. Grant Tom's clash of riffs and licks is eye-opening, hinting at melody but ultimately fraught with melancholic realism. At times, bear is driven more by brute strength than speed or cunning, and being stunned with haarp's stiff cudgel is a strangely welcome nightmare of thick disorientation. Twisting and churning, bear furls home on a true sludge trample, more soiled with each labored stroke. I'm often leery of pointing out any absence of faults, but haarp display NONE.
fox's doomy mist is pensive, patient, and quixotic. Husk's slowest, most plodding moments occur here in a fog of questioned existence. You knew this would break, but you didn't anticipate how seamlessly haarp would transition to an agonizingly awesome stomp. Emmons has incredible vocal range, symptomatic of what his eyes have seen. "Weeping women gather under shadows to eek out a false fate," he barks. Seeking answers, only more ("Hollow explanations") questions arise. A hell-bent bounce emerges, strung through Bret Davis' bass plugs. Tempos hold steady, kissed with blistered groove and growing disenchantment. "Save your two-bit dreams," Emmons warns. Sludge barges back, peppered with fading machine-gun drums; Keith Sierra is given marquee-billing as the album enters its unsettling flat-line. Hollow, simple, and emphatic, fox's coup de grâce is Husks' brilliant, prolonged exit.
Planting their feet as sludge metal gods, haarp take their time trimming the fat and let the truth simmer. Between the sludge barrages and atmospheric back roads is tempered, expertly-timed black gold. The band's proficient but patient approach is lined with beautifully rich and vile vision. Husks isn't merely another NOLA sludge-metal record; it's a sonic catapult for a band wholly deserving of every accolade they accrue. Take a walk through these rotting woods and sink with your sorrow. When the animals finally smell your stink, haarp will be waiting.
If you've paid attention to what comes up in your Google searches, then you're completely misinformed. EYEHATEGOD have spent nearly a quarter-century defying categorization, spreading their misanthropy, and doing whatever the fuck they felt like doing. Yet despite their catalog, their accolades, and their ever-growing and evolving fan-base, they still need to clarify a few things.
The band's European tour kicks off July 23rd in Germany. Heavy Planet caught up with EYEHATEGOD frontman Mike IX Williams to discuss the tour, new material, the state of New Orleans, and some asshole sitting at home who's got nothin' better to do than start rumors.
Heavy Planet: Pretty soon you guys have the Europe Is The New Vietnam tour starting. Who's going along with you on that?
Mike IX Williams: "So far we're headlinin' and it's gonna be just local acts, I'm pretty sure. In the UK there'll probably be a certain band that plays a couple shows with us and then... on and on, through Germany and all that, y'know. We're not goin' over there specifically... like, last time we went over with Church of Misery, we hooked up with them... guys from Japan, y'know. This time there's been no talk of us meetin' anybody or followin' another band or anything. We're headlining... I mean, we headline that tour anyway, but we'll see what happens. Mostly local support, I'm sure."
HP: Where'd you get the name for the tour? I know you guys have a new song called New Orleans is the new Vietnam, is that right?
Williams: "Yeah, that's where we got it from."
HP: How bad are things in New Orleans? That makes it sound...
Williams: "Well, of course it's an exaggeration. It's just trying to concoct an image, y'know. I mean, we are a band. But since Katrina happened there's just a lot of abandoned properties, y'know, a lot of places that have still not built up and things are still kind of in ruins in a lot of places. It seems like the cops and the local government don't really care too much about it. A lot of these abandoned buildings are just havens for drug dealers and drug dens and stuff... more crime, y'know. So that's one thing; the crime rate kinda went up after Katrina. It was always pretty bad, but..."
HP: What's your relationship with New Orleans right now? That seems like the place where so much started. What's that music community like with bands like you guys, Crowbar, Soilent Green, all that stuff?
Williams: "Oh, it's amazing! It's awesome, y'know. We play like twice a year locally. Crowbar plays every now and then. Soilent Green hasn't played live in a while, not down here. But there's a ton o' new bands, man. Like, after Katrina the scene kind of exploded 'cause I think people wanted to prove to the world... I mean, in every type of music, too. Like Jazz, Blues, and all that stuff. Everything just got bigger and better. There's more clubs to play now, there's more bands. It seems like everything blew up after that 'cause we weren't gonna be kicked down. I mean, you read an article and it's like "New Orleans is destroyed. There's nothin' there." But that's bullshit! You can't kill the culture here, y'know. So that's better than ever. There's more bands, more places to play. It's just a good all-around place. It's still ghetto as fuck, but it's always been like that and it's probably gonna be like that. The cops are corrupt as hell. It's typical, it's like a lot of cities. It's a big city, one of the bigger ones in the South, on the Gulf Coast..."
HP: I caught a live take of Medicine Noose online. What's some of the other stuff you guys are gonna road-test in Europe this summer?
Williams: "I don't know, we haven't really thought of a set-list or anything yet. And we usually don't use a set-list. We pretty much wing it, y'know? Even playing Hellfest or Roskilde or some big festival, we'll look at each other and go 'What do you wanna play?' We still just have that down-to-earth kind o' way about bein' on stage. I talked to Jimmy (Bower) about doin' more of the newer songs. We have like 12 new songs, y'know? A lot of 'em aren't broken-in yet, a lot of 'em don't have the lyrics yet. But I was tryin' to say maybe we could do some of the ones that we have more structured and more together. 'Cause I would like to come home from that tour and go straight into the studio, hopefully. That's the plan, if we can get out shit together with this record-label thing, y'know?"
HP: You guys don't have a label now, right?
Williams: "No, we're not on a label at all. We're trying to decide... we've narrowed it down to a couple different ones. I know there are always rumors online that say 'We've signed to this person, we've signed to that person.' But that's the internet, y'know? They make up so many rumors. Like this one rumor I've gotta dispel quickly: I don't know what asshole is goin' around sayin' that our new album is called 'Whiskey Drink'!"
HP: Y'know what, I saw that and I wasn't even gonna mention it! It was on Wikipedia.
Williams: "I can't believe it's on Wikipedia! I mean, who took the time... It's not true! That's what blows my mind about the internet. Someone just made that up, sittin' at their house. They've never heard any of us say that, at all! If they did hear us say that, we were joking. Y'know, it was probably some stupid joke, but I don't even think THAT happened. Some idiot was sittin' home and decided just to go put that on the internet, it's pretty weird, man. Like, why would they do that? It's no big deal, it'll go away when the album's out. But I just wanted to dispel that rumor. You're the first interview I've done in the past couple days that didn't ask me 'So your album's called Whiskey Drink, right?' and I'm like 'FUCK NO!' That's cool that you kinda figured it was bullshit."
HP: I thought it sounded like a dumb title, anyway.
Williams: "It's stupid! We have a song called Dixie Whiskey we've been doin' for twenty-somethin' years live from Dopesick, but it's ridiculous."
HP: You mentioned some of the festivals you guys have played... Hellfest, Roskilde. How was Maryland Death Fest this year?
Williams: "Oh, it was great! It was really good, it's always a lot of fun. The first year we played we were outdoors in the afternoon and it was kinda hot outside, but it was still a great show. There were tons of people watchin' us, probably a couple thousand people, like as far as you could see. But this time we played indoors on the inside stage and it was incredible, man. A lot o' people said that's the best show they've ever seen us do, and I was like 'Wow, really?' We were just puttin' on our normal gig, y'know? But a lot o' people said it was really good. I don't know, we're gettin' the new songs tighter and stuff, so hopefully we're blowin' people away. It was great, though!"
HP: How did they respond to some of the new stuff?
Williams: "People love it! People were already yellin' out the titles and stuff. A lot o' people wanna hear the new stuff. I mean, we've been gettin' by, somehow. Bein' a cult-band is why, that's the answer. We're a cult-band, y'know? Not OCCULT, but A CULT, y'know? We haven't had an album out in years, but we're still tourin' and sometimes we do the same songs in a set, but it's always gonna be a fun show. We're always gonna put 1000% energy into it. So I think they respond greatly to it."
HP: You guys have been doin' this for 25 years or so...
Williams: "Yeah, it's almost 25 years. 1988 is when the band started."
HP: You guys have your fans, you always have. But what's it like to see a new fan respond to stuff written before he was even born?
Williams: "I love it, man! It's cool to see somebody come out, like an old fan of ours that we see every time we come to that city. Like some dude we know, or some girl... the next thing you know, they're bringin' their kids out and their kid is this huge EYEHATEGOD fan. It's just really cool. And a lot of these kids are starting bands, I think that's just what it's all about. That's how it was for me, I started out this little punk-rock kid just bein' a fan of music and still am. So I love to see the kids get into it just like I did when I was a kid. So I hope it just continues on, I guess until we're old, OLDER."
HP: You guys have obviously inspired so many young bands, so many musicians. Some of them talented, some of them just totally unlistenable. But how do you respond to being considered, like or not, a pioneer of heavy music, of metal, of anything like that?
Williams: "We don't really like to label it metal or punk. We especially hate the 'sludge' label, just because... I mean, it's not a bad word. I use the same thing when I say 'punk-rock,' that's a label, too. Or 'thrash-metal.' It's the same thing. It's just somethin' that we don't wanna... We're not sludge, how could we be? 'Cause when we started that term didn't even exist. It got made up later on to call bands like us a certain thing like 'grunge' or whatever. But yeah, it's a good title now that kinda encompasses a whole little umbrella group that has that sound. And I've written before, doin' journalism for websites and magazines so I know sometimes you have to use a label like that. But as far as the pioneer thing, I think that's awesome! It makes me really proud that we could... when I was a kid, goin' back to that, I always thought it'd be great if we did somethin' that people really recognized and really respected us for and it kinda happened, y'know? So we're all happy about that."
HP: I know you're pretty prolific as a writer, whether it's music or journalism or...poetry. I saw something about an EYEHATEGOD biography. Is that gonna happen?
Williams: "We can't do it by ourselves, we need somebody to help us do the interviews, somebody's gonna have to interview us, y'know? 'Cause we've got TONS of stories, 25 years worth of crazy tour stories and everything crazy that's happened to us. And then we wanna interview the guys who drove our vans and the roadies and people like that. Friends, all the other bands we've toured with, stuff like that. It's a lot of work. I'm the only one in the band that lost everything in Katrina, but Jimmy and those guys, Gary and Joey still have a lot of photos and fliers and things like that. We just wanna do like a coffee-table, bio type o' thing, y'know? I think it'd be fun, mostly pictures and stuff. It's just hard gettin' somebody to stay on board. We've had a few people that were like 'yeah, yeah I'll do it' and then they see how much work it is and they drop out. It's just a lot o' work and we need somebody to stick with it and help us. Maybe they'll read it here and contact us about doin' it, y'know?"
HP: You guys all have your hands in other stuff, other bands and stuff. You've got Arson Anthem, Jimmy's in Down... How difficult is it for the five of you guys to even be in the same place, let alone find time to record or tour or stuff like that?
Williams: "It's hard sometimes, y'know? Sometimes it gets really hard. We just make it work, that's all you can really do, is just make it work. There's been times we were pissed-off at Jimmy because he had to go tour... I mean, that's how Outlaw Order started. We had a tour or somethin' and he had to go so we're like 'Well, fuck it. Let's go play.' It came out how it did, but that's just the type of things that happen. We usually work it out. Everybody tries to stay busy and respect the other bands everybody's in or whatever."
HP: With Outlaw Order, you guys were all on probation at one point. Where are you at now with the legal shit?
Williams: "I'm finished with everything, man. I'm done! I mean, I can't own a firearm and stuff like that. I'm not on probation anymore, but I just gotta stay outta trouble forever. Which I do plan to do. I'm older now, shit happens when you're younger. It's just a fact o' life, y'know? You're stupider when you're younger. People do stupid things, you get caught up in things you don't wanna get caught up in. You don't mean to, y'know? You just figure you're indestructible sometimes when you're younger. As you get older you get a little wiser and realize like 'Damn, why did I do that?' But I still drink a little, stuff like that. Nothin' crazy, y'know?
HP: You're clean now, right?
Williams: "Yeah, like I said I just drink a little bit. That's pretty much it. I'm not ashamed of anything. Some people are afraid to ask that stuff and I'm just like 'I don't care, man.' That's my life. People wanna know about my life so I'm not gonna lie or make somethin' up."
HP: From the name to the music and everything about you guys, everything about EYEHATEGOD has been never conforming, never givin' a shit what other people say...
Williams: "Right!"
HP: How crucial has that been to your success, your longevity? You guys have always stuck to your guns when a lot of other bands follow trends...
Williams: "But that's also hurt us, too. A lot o' bands break down and they just conform to what the label's tellin' them. Y'know, the record label's like 'Well, you can't do that' and we've always been like 'Fuck you, we're gonna do it anyway.' So it's hurt us before, too. But at the same time I think we've earned people's respect. It's just one of those things... people really respect the band that does that. Nothin's fake about this band, it's all true and everything's reality. So I think we've just earned people's respect that way. That's kept us goin, y'know?"
HP: You guys got a few US dates set up when you return from Europe, right?
Williams: "Yeah, we're goin' out to the West Coast. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, I think Colorado, I'm not sure where else. Yeah, doin' some stuff like that as soon as we get home. And then hopin' to get in the studio immediately. We wanna get the record out, y'know? This European tour was just somethin'... We thought we'd already have the album out by now but it's takin' a long time decidin'... y'know, this record label stuff sucks, to be honest with you. It's all business and crap. I just hate all that. I just wanna play music and go in the studio. Workin' out all the details sucks."
HP: Who handles all that stuff for you guys?
Williams: "We all do our share. We also have people that help us out, too. We have a lawyer and stuff. Just because we hate it... We have to do it. We don't have a manager, though. We kinda manage ourselves. We do have a TOUR manager when we go on the road, we have a lawyer and people like that who can help us."
HP: There's a distinct sound you guys have. We recognize it, we know it's you guys. We know you guys aren't gonna change. So what can fans really expect from the new material you guys are gonna lay down?
Williams: "EYEHATEGOD! I mean, we just do what we know how to do. There might be somethin' different... maybe some blues-ier parts to the songs. There may be some faster parts, maybe more Black Flag kind o' stuff. But for the most part, it's EYEHATEGOD. It's like AC/DC or Motorhead. We don't really go far from the formula. There's no reason to, y'know?"
HP: You guys have a fan-base with a certain expectation and they just expect you to sound like yourselves and you guys have always fuckin' hit the nail on the head.
Williams: "Yeah, but we do it for ourselves anyway. Even if we wanted to go completely experimental or somethin' we would, but we don't want to. We're all just down-to-earth rock and roll fans, y'know? We all like weird music and different kinds o' strange stuff. That's why we have other bands. We do different types of stuff with our different bands, y'know? I have an experimental, industrial-type thing I do. Like a noise-type o' band that helps me get that outta my system, y'know? Stuff that I enjoy."
HP: Anything else you wanna share with our readers?
Williams: "Just that I hope people come out to the shows, y'know? I hope we can get this record out because I know people have been askin' forever about a new EYEHATEGOD record. I hope people love it. We're playin' some o' the songs live. And I wanted to mention my book, it's called Cancer As A Social Activity."
HP: That's your poetry book, right?"
Williams: "Yeah. And that's like dark, negative poetry. And on the EYEHATEGOD page there's a scroll at the bottom, it just shows all the shows... I'll look at it sometimes and be like 'I can't believe we've played that many shows.'
HP: All the posters, all the gig posters, right?
Williams: "Yeah, it's like thousands of flyers! Posters, flyers just through the years. There are a ton of 'em that are missing, too. We just can't find 'em. That just shows how long... 25 years is a long time. And it's basically the same lineup except for bass players. We've only switched bass players maybe three times. But everyone else, we're the same people."
HP: Thanks for takin' the time to talk with us. Good luck in Europe!
Williams: "Thanks, man! I appreciate the interview!"
HP: We're lookin' forward to that record, too!
Williams: "Sure, man! We're gettin' to it! (laughs)."
Heavy Planet presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...DRESDEN!
Bio:
Dresden was started in 2009 by Miguel Rincon, Greg Farley, Daniel Highstreet and a vocalist simply known as The Singer. The band had played several successful show in the period of two years.Also, the bands name is taken from the city of Dresden Germany were in World War 2,the city was being bombed so bad that the air itself was ablaze with fire.Greg Farley,the drummer came up with the name because the bands music at times gives one the feeling of having sonic bombs dropped on them.In 2011,due to personal issues,Miguel Rincon was relieved from the band,and I,Mark Taranto,took his place. We have spent the better half of last year refining our sound,and just recently played our first show together with our revamped line up great reviews from concert goers and friends. Our influences include,The Sword,Fu Manchu,Black Sabbath,Rush and many others.
Thoughts:
"I have been sitting on this band Dresden for quite a while now and while the band barely has any online presence at all (the band has a MySpace page and a few videos) Dresden is a band that is looking to redefine their sound and for that reason I decided to give them a little press. For starters, New Orleans Stoner/Doom band Dresden is not out to reinvent the wheel. The band has a simple impenetrable groove, gritty southern rock flare and their full blown heavy ass sound goes right to your core. What I really like about the band is the soulful vocals which truly stand out and bring that extra feel to the band's live shows. The videos below show the band performing a few new songs at a recent show with their current lineup. With that being said, all that is left to say is Doom on Dresden, Doom the fuck on!"
Omean are a band from New Orleans that recently formed in October. Members include Ryan (former vocalist of Zync and In Every Nightmare), Greg (former guitarist of Organized Hostility and Drone), Steve (former guitarist of The Oggin), Eric (former member of the Robert Fortune Band), and Brandon on drums. The band has some tunes up on their MySpace page to check out and are currently in the studio working on their first full-length.
My 2 Cents:
Imagine yourself stuck in the bowels of a Louisiana swamp with Satan grabbing at your ankles trying to pull you down to hell. That is the feeling you get when listening to Omean. The band provides some pretty chilling down-tempo grooves along with bellowing throaty vocals for a compelling listen.
Recommended if you like these bands: Eyehategod, Crowbar, Acid Bath, Grief
Legendary U.S. doom metal band SAINT VITUS played a sold-out show at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans this past Saturday night (April 11). They were joined on stage by DOWN's Pepper Keenan, Jimmy Bower and Philip Anselmo for the chorus to "Saint Vitus" and Anselmo returned to sing the chorus to "Dying Inside". Also on the bill were A HANGING and HAWG JAW.
SAINT VITUS' setlist was as follows:
01. The War Starter 02. Living Backwards 03. I Bleed Black 04. Look Behind You 05. The Lost Feeling 06. Clear Windowpane 07. The Troll (guitar solo & drum solo) 08. Mystic Lady (extended)
