Noisey Presents NOLA: Life, Death And Heavy Blues From The Bayou Episode 1

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

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Sunday Cinema: Slow Southern Steel

Half the bands I love stomp south of the Mason-Dixon line. For all the dribbling of these exhaustive Sunday Sludge posts, I've spent the last few years never succinctly outlining exactly WHY these sounds are distinctly Southern, likely due to geography's shortcomings. The grit and groove of Southern metal is unique, powerful, and impossible to stuff into a box of labels or expectations. Sure, Portland has its place. The Southwest is buzzing with anger and fuzz. Greece, Hungary, and Denmark have all bred incredible sludge acts tattooing the genre's landscape. But let's be fuckin' serious: Sludge metal owes everything to the American Southeast (Texas, we'll let you in, too).

Rwake's Chris Terry has (sort of) finally unveiled Slow Southern Steel, a documentary wholly devoted to a dissection of Southern metal. What sets apart Southern sludge metal? What influenced acts like EYEHATEGOD and Jucifer? And what's with the fuckin' flag of the Confederate States? You'd be surprised. Loaded with booze, beards, and an alarmingly warm dose of unmatched brotherhood, this documentary highlights an under-appreciated musical niche via candid interviews, blunt assertions, and no shortage of flattening live stage footage. If you weren't raised in the South, you won't sound like the South. And they'll know it.

Strong family ties, nostalgia, religion, and unending uphill battles are just a few of Slow Southern Steel's triumphant reveals. This "dirt circuit" survives on familial bonds and realistic expectations. Word o' mouth is more important than social media, and there's no shame in sharing a disco-based rebellion. Beautifully-realized gravel road imagery complements the sounds, the stories, and the impact of a scene so ripe with mutual respect and appreciation that it's damn-near overwhelming. This film perfectly explains the things I can't. I'm just a dude who loves Acid Bath. But this is a film that helps me understand why.


For fans of: Rwake, EYEHATEGOD, Acid Bath, Buzzov-en, Dark Castle, Hank III, Dixie Witch, Down, HAARP, COC, Arson Anthem, Black Tusk, Kylesa, Deadbird, Seahag, Beaten Back to Pure, Alabama Thunderpussy, (the) Melvins, Music Hates You, Outlaw Order, Mastodon, Goatwhore, Soilent Green, Lamb of God, Sourvein, Assjack, Weedeater, ANTiSEEN, Hawg Jaw, Crowbar, Hail! Hornet, Zoroaster, A Hanging, and countless fucking other bands you already love.

Pair with: Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys, one after another

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Sunday Review: EYEHATEGOD

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.

For fans of: You fuckin' kiddin'?
Pair with: In The Name Of Suffering Black India Pale Ale, Three Floyds Brewing

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EP Review: HOMOH - DEMOH

HOMOH are a power trio of stoner/doom sludgemen spawned from the deep dark caves of South Wales, UK, where once dwelt Lord Shakin' Stevens and Sir Thomas Jones. Having only been together since summer 2012, the band have dug up from the deathly and abandoned coal mines a fresh live 3 track EP which they have forged into "DEMOH". Aha! I see what they did there.

The first track "Witches Weed" is some grimy sludge metal in the similar pain and anger filled sludge stylings of EYEHATEGOD. It's a fast paced violent fucker that slams urgent riffs of solid stone right in your soft pretty face. Breakdowns of feedback lead to strung out furious doom as you're lying on the floor with blood pouring from your head and still HOMOH pounds you in the face with that slab of solid rock until they end the track with several devastating blows that leave you feeling grateful for the satisfying head battering they have opened this EP with.

Thankfully the lovely filthy noise that HOMOH make does not end there as they follow with "Troll Hunter" which deals us a fat bag of begrimed sleazy doom with riffs that bore a hole where your third eye should be. Somewhat reminiscent of the best that Church of Misery has to offer, this turgid gut wrenching stench of sludge vomits up a bastardized pile of psychedelic filth. Thick with slovenly low-end grooves, dirty smokey guitar licks and deliciously disgusting drawls all driven along by monstrous drums of doom; this track crushes you under the weight of every rotting corpse that ever has been or ever will be.

Third and final track "Slumberjack" opens with "Sweet Leaf" coughs hacked up from taking massive hits from Lucifer's hell-bong packed with the most evil grit weed known to man. Irreparable lung damage is a certainty. There follows some cyclopean low-down riffage and terrifying roars as we're launched into the worst of all bad trips. The intensity increases as the pace picks up half-way with riffs and beats that flay the flesh from your bones until you are left at the end as a quivering but happy skeleton.

HOMOH proudly wear their influences on their blim riddled sleeves but have successfully forged their own unique nightmare sound as evidenced in this most excellent EP and with their live performances scaring their audiences witless with their new brand of huge and terrifying noise they are sure to carve a lasting scar on heavy music. I, for one, cannot wait to see them live.

This debut EP is a satisfying filth bath of stoner/doom/sludge metal, so if big riffs, fat tones and bad trips are what you want to hear when feeding your daily weed habit then get onto their bandcamp where the EP is available now as a "name your own price" download.

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GODHUNTER: The Heavy Planet Interview / Exclusive NEW Track

Talk all you want about sludge and metal in the American South. It's a hot spot, it's where this band or that band started, it's where the spirit breeds, whatever. Making its own statement as a burgeoning regional metal community is the American Southwest. Spearheading the Southwest's metal cause and upping the fucking ante is Tucson's Godhunter. With a critically lauded album under their buckles, a new slab of heavy in the works, and an absolutely massive fall metal festival filling up calendars, these five miscreants are giving fans plenty to be excited about.

Heavy Planet pulled in the reins on Godhunter's David Rodgers, gnawing on everything from the Southwest scene and their tenacious fans to new tracks and the upcoming album. Hell, he even discussed why the name Godhunter was chosen instead of... Well, David can tell you all about that one. And let's all get a listen to a live take on a new Godhunter track! Here goes...

Heavy Planet: First, I wanted to say congrats on winning Heavy Planet's March Bandness!

David Rodgers: "That was pretty cool!"

HP: You guys beat out Clamfight.

DR: "It was a pretty fun contest to do. Tons o' good bands in there. It was cool to make contacts around the country."

HP: You guys are coordinating the Southwest Terror Fest, right?

DR: "Yeah, it's mainly myself and a fella named Dave Carroll from a band called Inoculara that's also from here in Tucson. We're in a band together called Diseased Reason with some guys from Oakhelm and Noisear. We'd both been to a bunch o' different fests like Maryland Death Fest and South By Southwest and what-not. We always kinda wondered why there wasn't something like that in the Southwest. So we just kinda got a hair up our butt and decided to go ahead and throw one this year."

HP: Awesome. Who's on that bill?

DR: "So far, there's 32 bands on there. A lot o' great bands from around the Southwest. Godhunter is on there. Other ones you guys have reviewed before like TWiNGiANT and Powered Wig Machine is on there. We also have a few nationals on there... We're gonna have Sons of Tonatiuh from Georgia are comin' out to play it. Hull from New York, the band -(16)- from California, and Pigeonwing from California, too. Ryan form Pigeonwing has actually been helpin' us do a lot o' stuff with the fest as well because he's been in the scene forever and done a lot of events like this."

HP: There's a lot made of the Southern metal scene or the Georgia metal scene. What's goin' on in the Southwest? What's that scene like?

DR: "That's a good question. Quite honestly, we're kinda trying to replicate what those scenes have done. There's a really tight-knit group of bands down here that go across a wide span of genres. You've got guys like our friends in Sorrower that are a pretty extreme grind band. On the other hand, you've got Powered Wig Machine, who's really like a stoner-rock band that kinda sounds like Clutch and The Toadies. But we're all pretty close down here and there's a lot of amazing bands. So we've kind of all banded together in the last few years and instead of all just fighting for ourselves, let's kinda try to fight together. So we can collectively get a little more attention on ourselves rather than just... all of us out there fightin' on our own."

HP: Aside from the Terror Fest, what other dates do you guys have set up? Any, right now?

DR: "Not a whole lot for this year. We're doing a local show in August. We've been writing a lot for the new album so once we've got that...We'll do a few shows in our hometown here and there, try the songs out live and make sure they don't suck, basically. So we're doin' one o' those in August and then we're kinda takin' it easy until the Terror Fest. Um... We do have two awesome shows in the fall, but I probably shouldn't... I don't know if I should say anything because they're not necessarily confirmed quite yet. But we do a Halloween show every year and this year we're trying to get a certain band from Portland and a certain band from Georgia to play that both have similar name structures..."

HP: YES! Yes, awesome!

DR: "And in November another awesome band from Texas, from Austin, is comin' through...that we played with before. Hopefully,they might be doin' that show again. Y'know, I'm kinda in charge of the band, not just in it. So I know a lot of things before they even happen. So I gotta sit on information a lot."

HP: Well, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with my next question... But, you guys have played with some prominent bands like Crowbar, Saint Vitus, RED FANG, BLACK TUSK...

DR: "Yes."

HP: Which live show or tour has been the most exciting for you guys?

DR: "Oh, man... We've played some really incredible shows. On our last tour, we played a show in Flagstaff that was a house-show at a place called The Big House. We played it with our friends up there in Swampwolf. There's video from this house on YouTube. If you look up Kylesa on YouTube and put in, like, Kylesa House Show, an awesome video from the same place comes up. It was just one o' them things where the place is packed and people are in your face while you're playin' and beers are gettin' spilled all over your pedal-board and people are fallin' all over themselves. I live for shows like that when there's a little bit o' chaos in it. We opened up for Saint Vitus and Crowbar for that Metal Alliance Tour last year and... I mean, I have a Saint Vitus tattoo on my arm, so opening up for Saint Vitus, for me, is like opening up for Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath or something like that, y'know? I mean, we've played some amazing shows here in our hometown, too. Last year, we opened up for Red Fang, we opened up for The Sword. They were at Club Congress, which is an amazing old venue. It's the place where John Dillinger got captured, there used to be shoot-outs in it and what-not. Every time we play there it's just a giant party because everyone in town comes out. We've definitely played some shows that are very memorable."

HP: Aside from the obvious... You've mentioned Saint Vitus, Sabbath, but who are some of the more influential artists on, not just you, but also Godhunter as a band?

DR: "Obviously, Black Sabbath, Black Flag, Neurosis... not that we'd ever get a chance to open up for any of those. But those are pretty big ones for us. We have a few different influences in the band... myself and Charlie are more comfortable with the hardcore scene. So we kinda bring in some stuff every now and then that sounds like Coalesce or somethin' like that. A lot of reviewers will pick that up and they're like 'this is like stoner-doom but I kinda sense a hardcore influence here.' They're pretty dead-on with that when they get it. Dick, our bass player, I think he literally listens to four bands. Like Slayer, Pantera, Black Sabbath, maybe Hank III. I don't know that he listens to anything else. Our drummer, Spyro, on the other hand, comes from a straight metal background. Basically, that's what he listens to. And Jake's kinda all across the board. He listens to a lot o' crazy stuff. We have a wide variety of influences but when you really boil it down, like I said, you get Black Flag, Neurosis, Black Sabbath, definitely stuff like that."

HP: Let's talk a little about the band's formation, was it 2008 you guys formed?

DR: "I think it was 2008. In 2008, it might have actually been a band called Blood Regime which was what Godhunter was before it was Godhunter. But, funny story... After a show one time, a girl walked up to us and looked at either me or someone else in the band and she goes 'So, Blood Regime. Do you guys mean like a girl's period?' And we all looked at each other and we were like 'Ohhhh! We have to change this name.' So shortly after that, which I think was January... I know we played a show in January of 2009 as Godhunter. So somewhere in there, the name changed. The lineup has kinda changed a little bit. I'm the one person that has been in the band from the beginning and will be 'til the end. A lot o' bands have that. They have the one dude. As bands go, you kinda have to build for a while and change out parts so you can get into the right formation that actually works, which took a couple years. The last year and a half or so, we've been there. And since we put Wolves out, we've just been chuggin' along."

HP: That kinda led into another question I have. The Godhunter name, who came up with that? And has that been met with any religious hostility or anything like that?

DR: "The actual name Godhunter was picked out by me and my friend Max who used to be in the band. He and his dad own a family business and he couldn't get on the road as much as we needed to, so he eventually  left with another guy who used to be in the band, Loren. And they formed a new band called Thorncaster that's pretty awesome. But Max and I came up with that name. It's actually from a comic book. Beta Ray Bill that's in the Thor storyline of Marvel books. They did a three-issue series and it was called Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter. And when it came out we were sittin' there reading it and we just kinda looked at the cover and we were like 'Wow, that's a GREAT name for a band.' And I think that was when the band was actually named Blood Regime, so when the time came to change it we were just like 'Well, how about Godhunter?' and everyone was like 'Oh, yeah. That's...' It's a pretty iconic name, it's easy to remember, it kinda sticks out. Have we had religious problems about it? I'm sure. Our shirts make people stare at you. We've had kids that have been kicked out of school or had to turn their shirt inside out. We had one kid that was actually suspended for three days. They wanted to kick him out for the day and his parents said 'No, freedom of speech,' stuff like that. And they're like 'Well, there's no freedom of speech in junior high,' or high school or whatever grade he was in. So anyway it came down to a stalemate. They kicked the kid out for three days over one of our t-shirts. We've definitely had religious people in... it might have been at Chick-Fil-A, actually. I was wearin' one of 'em one time and, straight up, the girl at the counter wouldn't serve me. The manager came out and did it and was just really abrupt the whole time. There's another place here in town, a local sub-shop, that's Christian-owned. I know someone else in town that's had problems wearin' one of our shirts in there where they just flat-our refused to serve 'em."

HP: Wow...

DR: "Y'know, people are gonna take it how they want. The term 'Godhunter,' to us, doesn't necessarily mean we're hunting, specifically, the Christian God. With Charlie and I being the main lyric-writers... we come from hardcore so we like to write lyrics about things that are real. We don't like lyrics about dragons or swords. Nothin' wrong with that, but that's not our thing. So a lot of what we write is socially relevant, from our point of view. Just kinda being a little anarchist and whatever. We're against gods of all forms, like McDonald's or Shell Oil Company or Apple. In our eyes, if you look through our lyrics... a lot of 'em are tellin' people to wake up, there are things wrong with the world. There are things you can do to make the world a little bit better place if you just unplug and get back to reality. So when we think of the name, that's definitely what we're thinkin' of. Do we use the religious connotation? Absolutely. We slap upside-down crosses on anything. A couple of our shirts we've put out are highly, highly offensive, I would say. Especially our last one, I don't know if you've seen it. It has Jesus flipping off... Jesus is flipping the camera off and in the other hand he's wearing a detonator and a terrorist explosive belt and there's a church burning behind him. So we'll pretty much throw out anything we can on a t-shirt because they're fun. Whatever people wanna throw at us for it, we're willing to take. Charlie and I will openly get into debate with anybody that wants to debate us about any of our artistic aesthetics."

HP: I think you'd win, that was pretty convincing. That ties into another thing I was gonna ask. I've read that the goal of the band is to show the world for what it really is: an ugly place. Personally, what's some of the ugliness that has made its way into your music?

DR: "Just... PEOPLE! Our biggest thing we'd like to point out to people is that we're not that special. We're animals. People are gonna do terrible things. It's animal nature. Chimpanzees... one tribe will go after another tribe because they think the other chimpanzees have better hunting grounds. Scientists are just now starting to realize we're actually not the only animal that goes to war. So maybe it's not just a human thing, we're just animals. We need to wake up to this thing. If we realize what we are, we can probably be better to each other in the long run, y'know? The person that actually realizes he's a jerk can somehow, sometimes prevent himself from being a bigger jerk. Or you get that completely oblivious asshole that never realizes it and that dude is gonna be an asshole until he dies. So we just want people to wake up. Like the song (Stop Being) Sheep. That's exactly what that song is about. Stop it. Stop buying into everything. It goes even for things like... conspiracy theorists. Everyone in my band... we HATE conspiracy theorists. If you believe 9-11 was an inside job, we probably think you're the dumbest person working that day."

HP: Yeah! Put a bumper sticker on your car that doesn't really mean anything. But you see 'em all over.

DR: "Yeah, and all that stuff is just used for division. It's just like political parties. We only have two here, which is a shame. It just divides left and right. People vote Republican because their dad voted Republican and their grandfather voted Republican and they don't even really know what Republican stands for anymore but they're just gonna keep voting it because they like country music and they like Ford pick-ups. So that's what they do. And I love country music and I have a Ford pick-up, but I really don't give a crap about bein' Republican."

HP: It seems like the press is starting to pick up on you guys. It's all pretty positive. How are you guys responding to the increased success and attention?

DR: "We're all really happy with it. We're pleased that things are generally positive. The things people point out, 100% we agree with them. I'm sure you've talked to bands that look back on an album six months or a year after it's done and they say 'Well, we should've changed that, that could've been better, we should've done that part totally different.' We pretty much agree with the criticisms that are out there. We're happy with the praise that we do get. We've gotten reviews from Germany, The Netherlands... I've shipped stuff to six, seven continents now, for mail order. So it's exciting when someone in Malaysia or Bangladesh orders one of your t-shirts. You start wondering to yourself how a band like Godhunter get into Bangladesh in the first place."

HP: You guys confirmed Procession of the Equinoxes to be the opening track of the new album, right?

DR: "The song, as it's played, will be. We actually just got into a discussion... we've had long arguments over the name. I named that one and Charlie actually wants to name it Despite All. So when the album comes out, it may be called Despite All, but that WILL be the song. That's definitely gonna be the first song on the new album. We're kinda playin' it in a live version. The way it is presented on the album will be different. I don't give it away too much, but there'll be a more extended intro to it. We like big lead-ups; if you listen to Wolves, you listen to Sheep, the vocals don't even start until four minutes into the album. I like building that tension, getting it worked up until something just slaps you in the face."

HP: Yeah, it's great the way you guys did that. I love artists that are patient and don't insult the listener by throwing the point directly in their face, they let it build. This Will Not End Well is also gonna be from the new album, right?

DR: "Yes, that definitely be the second song on the album. Procession or Despite All, whatever it ends up being called, I'll go with Despite All 'cause I think that's what we're gonna end up with... Despite All and This Will Not End Well are kinda parts A and B, the same way that (Stop Being) Sheep and Wolves of the North are kinda parts A and B of one grander song. Once you're able to read the lyrics, you'll see how it all ties in together. The new album is gonna, loosely, be a concept album. It's basically about living in Tucson, in the Southwest, the desert. The middle of nowhere in the age that we're living right now. Climate is changing, jobs are disappearing. You're in Illinois, you guys have had a big drought this year, right?"

HP: It's been terrible. All our corn is dead, our crops are dead. It's gonna be rough for these farmers, everything is gonna skyrocket in terms of price.

DR: "Our desert is getting more desert. What little rain we had is going away, it's coming at odd times. Things like that are affecting the extreme places quicker than they're affecting the temperate places. We have the second-lowest in education, the greatest number of vacant houses, per capita, in the country. We have an unemployment rate... we're not like Michigan yet, but we're a little bit higher than average here. We feel like it's kinda worse here right now. This is one of those places, so close to the border and us having really incendiary legislation like SB-1070 being passed and people like Sheriff Joe Arpaio being around. We almost feel that Arizona is a tinder box of what might happen to the country as a whole. If you see some actual... I don't wanna throw around the word revolution, but... if you see something like that happening, we feel it might happen here first."

HP: So that's what the concept is focused on?

DR: "Yeah, the album is gonna be called City of Dust. It's just about... we're watching our city turn to dust right now. It goes from Beverly Hills to Beirut in the space of two blocks."

HP: You guys have some pretty rabid fans. Talk about them for a minute.

DR: "I love our fans. A lot of 'em, like you said, they're rabid. Some of them are idiots, we're totally cool with that. We're idiots, too. Our fans kinda remind me of EYEHATEGOD fans, they're extremely dedicated.  But you never know when one of them is gonna throw a bottle through a window and set off a fire alarm. The one show we played here in town with Red Fang, we had fans pushing each other out the fire exits and building fire alarms are goin' off in the middle of Red Fang's set. Red Fang just kinda looked at each other and just played through it. We're just in the back like 'Man, everyone we know are fuckin' idiots! It's awesome!' So we'll take it, y'know? I love people that are dedicated, and our fans are extremely dedicated. I don't know how much o' this you wanna print, but I'm gonna tell you the story 'cause it's a great story. We were doin' a show in California in Palm Desert and some of our fans showed up. We do like to smoke weed, everyone in the band smokes except for Charlie. So they showed up with a mason jar packed full o' weed. And I don't mean like a little baby-food jar, I mean like a mason jar almost the size of a two-liter bottle o' soda. Packed. Full. And then they had another mason jar, a smaller one, baby-food sized, of this black oily liquid. I'm like 'I know what's in that big jar, what's in that little jar?' They said it was an oil of weed or something like that. I was like 'What do you do with it?' They're like 'just take a sip of it.' I took like a teaspoon full of it. Y'know, I fell back into the couch laughing. Like I was twelve years old, first time I got high again. They're tellin' us 'You guys should take this home,' and I'm like 'Our next stop is back in Arizona, we can't cross the border with this.' They're like 'No, take it! Take it all, really!' We literally had to give it all back to 'em because we're like 'Look, this is like six or eight felonies, we don't know. But whatever it is, we can't get caught with this crossin' the border, y'know?' They were like 'Okay, but next time you come back we'll have more, so plan on it!' We're like 'Jesus, I can't smoke this much weed!' So I will NEVER complain about our fans, they're amazing people!"

HP: Is there anything else you wanna share for our readers or your fans?

DR: "Just that if you're in the southwest, come see us in October for the Southwest Terror Fest. Literally, it's the best bands from six or eight states. A couple from the other side of the country. Other than that, we'll see everybody on tour in March. We're gonna do a giant run and hit South by Southwest for a few days. So we'll see everybody once we get out on the road."

HP: Well, Heavy Planet loves you guys, you've got some fans with us. Shit, you won the damn competition. So thanks for everything.

DR: "Thank you, man! We appreciate you guys. Ever since you guys featured us a couple years ago it's been a cool relationship. Thank you very much!"

And here's that new shit!

Facebook | Bandcamp | MERCH! (US) | MERCH! (Eur) | MERCH! (AUS)

EYEHATEGOD: The Heavy Planet Interview

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)."

Until then...

+ EYEHATEGOD Site + EHG Facebook + EHG Twitter + EHG iTunes +
 + Mike IX Williams Site + Mike IX Twitter + Mike IX Youtube +

NORIEGA launch E-Card; line up show with EYEHATEGOD.

Los Angeles' doom/hardcore band NORIEGA, have launched an E-card for their new album “Desolo”, where you can stream the album in it's entirety. “Desolo”, the bands debut album, comes out December 8th, 2009 on upstart label, Viable Records, in a limited edition digipak, and on cassette tape. You can view the E-card at http://www.viablerecords.com/Noriega-Desolo-Ecard.

NORIEGA have also been tapped to open for New Orleans sludge legends, EYEHATEGOD, on December 12th, at the Ultra Violet in Los Angeles. Vocalist Traevon Malone had this to say about the show: “I met the guys in EYEHATEGOD while working at the LA Murderfest earlier this year, and had a blast, as they're a great group of guys. We are extremely excited and anxious to share the stage with such a legendary band, and hope you can all come down early to catch our set”.

Upcoming NORIEGA shows:
12/4 – The Nitty Gritty - Rancho Cucamunga, CA
12/5 – CD Release Party – Chatsworth, CA w/ RIVERS
12/12 – Ultra Violet – Los Angeles, CA – w/ EYEHATEGOD, THE ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH + more

For more information visit www.viablerecords.com or www.myspace.com/noriegaband

EyeHateGod Announces Katrina Show

New Orleans own EyeHateGod has served up 20 years and seven albums of original, painful and misanthropic feedback laden hardcore blues to an ever increasing doomed climate of world-wide despair and degradation and have absolutely managed to have fun doing it. Multiple tours of Europe, the USA and even Japan have seen these southern gentlemen Preaching the End-Time Message and influencing new generations of hedonistic roustabouts to spread their Rock-n-Roll nihilism since 1988.

The band will play at One-Eyed Jack`s on the third anniversary of Katrina, Friday August 29 with Crowbar and Hellkontroll. Tickets available at Ticketweb.com.

CROWBAR, EYEHATEGOD To Play 20th-Anniversary Show In New Orleans

CROWBAR guitarist/vocalist Kirk Windstein (also of DOWN) has issued the following update:

"Big news for NOLA [New Orleans, Louisiana] fans!!! CROWBAR and EYEHATEGOD will be teaming up for a 20th anniversary show together. Both bands are regarded as the pioneers of the NOLA underground sound. The show will take place at One Eyed Jack's on August 29. This will be a co-headlining show with opening acts to be announced soon. The two bands haven't played together since 2000."

CROWBAR is currently working on material for a new studio album, tentatively due in 2009. An extensive tour will follow.

HALO OF LOCUSTS Featuring LAMB OF GOD's RANDY BLYTHE: 'Dixie Whiskey' Video Available

HALO OF LOCUSTS, the Richmond, Virginia-based band featuring LAMB OF GOD's Randy Blythe, has just released its first music video for the track "Dixie Whiskey", which appears on the "For the Sick – A Tribute to Eyehategod" release on Emetic Records. The clip features Brian Patton of EYEHATEGOD performing live with HALO OF LOCUSTS last month at the Virginia Death Fest in Virginia Beach. The video was shot, edited and directed by Tommy Jones. In addition to material that was shot at the Virginia Death Fest, the video features footage from Richmond and Trenton, as well as Baltimore and Philadelphia on the KINGDOM OF SORROW tour.

The video can be viewed below.

HALO OF LOCUSTS is:

D. Randall Blythe (BURN THE PRIEST, LAMB OF GOD) - Vocals
Judd Prather (1.25) - Bass
Alex Rodriguez - Guitar
Tim Forrest (ELBO DROP) - Drums
Robert Petry (ex-SIC SEED) - Guitar

Check out audio samples at www.myspace.com/halooflocusts.

Dixie Whiskey by Halo of Locusts

Album Of The Day-Eyehategod-"Confederacy Of Ruined Lives" (2000)

I have really been getting into some Southern Doom lately, so my pick for Album Of The Day is "Confederacy Of Ruined Lives" by Eyehategod. Brilliant!

A "comeback" album after a four-year recording hiatus and a rumored breakup, Confederacy of Ruined Lives finds Eyehategod returning to the same Southern doom metal style they have become infamous for over the years. There are a few slight changes that distinguish this CD from their earlier efforts. The production is cleaner than on their first two albums, while less dense and suffocating than on the previous Dopesick. The songs are still based around Jimmy Bowers' and Brian Patton's patented bluesy, down-tuned swamp metal riffs and do contain their share of painfully slow moments, but there are (relatively speaking) a few more grooves and catchy moments than in the past. There is also an especially noticeable Southern rock feel at points, as with the Allman Brothers-gone-metal breakdown on "99 Miles of Bad Road." Ultimately, though, this is the same Eyehategod: bitter, angry, hopeless, and alone. Needless to say, they do not offer the sort of experience everyone looks for in a rock record. At their best, however, Eyehategod offers up a sort of purifying negativity that is hard to find elsewhere, and Confederacy of Ruined Lives keeps that quality remaining strongly in effect even as it suggests the band may wind up seriously repeating themselves in the future. (William York, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01. "Revelation/Revolution" – 4:18
02. "Blood Money" – 4:11
03. "Jack Ass in the Will of God" – 2:47
04. "Self Medication Blues" – 4:46
05. "The Concussion Machine Process" – 2:20
06. "Inferior and Full of Anxiety" – 3:19
07. ".001%" – 6:23
08. "99 Miles of Bad Road" – 3:48
09. "Last Year (She Wanted a Doll House)" – 4:53
10. "Corruption Scheme" – 3:43

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Album Of The Day-The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight-"The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight" (2000)

The Album Of The Day is "The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight" by The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight.



With its combination of Black Sabbath's dirgy riffing, Deep Purple's organ flourishes, and absolutely no vocals (!), the Mystick Krewe of Clearlight is a peculiar side project featuring members of Southern sludge rockers EyeHateGod, Crowbar, and Down. It is also undoubtedly one with limited commercial appeal, as the extended instrumental jams on the band's eponymous album will certainly prove a major stumbling block for less open-minded listeners. Forget the short bursts preferred by similar all-instrumental retro-rock combos like Karma to Burn. The Mystick Krewe likes to stretch, and without the commercial trappings imposed by lyrical conventions, its music is free to soar uninhibited for seven, eight, sometimes eighteen minutes. In fact, compulsive head nodding is guaranteed to ensue during standout cuts like "Electrode," "Trapeze," and "El Nino Brown." An interesting journey. (Ed Rivadavia, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01. Swamp Jam
02. Electrode
03. Ride Out
04. Trapeze
05. A Fool's Outfit
06. El Nino Brown

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