EyeHateGod are the sound of Sludge/Doom Metal, New Orleans style and they lay out their distinctive endless drone energy field of music.
The Mothership is transformed into the Large Hadron Collider for an hour. Riffs and melodic sparks fly off at light speed only to be annihilated inside the heavy barrage.
This band materialised in 1988, in the birthplace of Jazz.
Jimmy Bower guitar was there from the start. He has the ZZ Top full-flowing ginger beard.
Mike Williams as lead singer was there within the year. He resembles the blond Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, mixed with Rod Stewart, and seemingly caught in the acid flashback of when Wilson hosted the Manson Family in Los Angeles 1968. In truth he is genial and good-natured, but you get the sense that he would not take any shit.
Imagine Alan Vega of Suicide, only doing intense screams. You cannot help but admire that over the course of an hour.
Joey LaCaze on drums, was the other founding member alongside Bower. He died in 2005 and was replaced by current incumbent Aaron Hill.
The revolving seat is the bass guitar, Gary Mader is playing tonight.
The band are noodling around a bit. Guitar squalls and drum breaks. It is hard to know if they have started. But the sound desk is adjusting for piercing feedback.
When they start properly, the sound is monumental and awe-inspiring for a Metal show. They have it just right for a small to medium venue. Most important is the definition encompassed inside the sludge.
I think I hear Grass! Seal! from the screamer, and there is a wall of monolithic sound with feedback.
When you get acclimatised, the meshing of guitar and bass churn out multiple riffs and brief seconds of melody which continually morph.
It creates a curious sense of relaxation, rather than anxiety and edginess.
The band has cited Black Sabbath, Melvins, Discharge, Black Flag as deep influences. Other enthusiasts have commented on elements of the Blues. I assume they mean the electrified Chicago Blues of the Fifties, and the dirtier distorted sound Memphis Blues.
You can certainly hear generous bits of Sabbath throughout. But the heavy pressure waves of sound put me straight into the mindset of the Zen Arcade album by Husker Du.
Guitar scythes through the skull like a laser. Tempo’s shift repeatedly. When they slow down it sounds like dinosaur Sixties heavy Rock.
Then you hear single chord drones. Drums throw flash bombs and majestic cymbal crashes.
This is measured violence in the sporting sense. There are rules which means you come to the brink of chaos and the abyss
I wonder if this Harmolodic Jazz? Everything All at Once melody inclusive.
Whatsa Problem!? Is that a song or a warning? Leads off with a nice Garage Rock riff frankensteined. Edgar Winter being tasered.
They take the early Cramps, when Brian Gregory was playing dissonant fractured guitar, and magnify it.
Dark dark, black dark, engine chews up metal. I cannot make out any lyrics, but this came to me from my fillings. I am not wearing an aluminium foil hat tonight.
What are the songs? Take your pick from a setlist in Melbourne a few days ago.
Lack of Almost Anything/ Dixie Whiskey/ Sisterfucker/ Man is Too Ignorant to Exist (many are)/ Jack Ass in the Will of God/ New Orleans is the New Vietnam.
Caldera are a Metal band from Taranaki who play just prior.
They are somewhere on the axis of Doom/Death/ Sludge/ Kill All Humans.
In recent times I am seriously wondering when we will see the first AI generated Metal bands. Fronted by the likes of Bender (Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass) the Robot.
High screamed vocals, and they are off with slow eruptions and the cathartic sounds of meshed guitar and bass.
Industrial sound of machines screeching as they devour and grind boy racer vehicles. (They come from the ‘Naki).
They use chugging lumbering riffs on second song in. Slows down to a funereal pace and the drums lead it out on the vamp.
Someone shouts out one more song after the second one. I laugh. We get three more.
These guys are quite expansive over 40 minutes.
Slow down for dinosaur style Sixties heavy Rock. Melodic cinematic Post Rock which ends up in a wild maelstrom.
Neil on guitar manages a menacing demon growl as he shares vocal duties with the lead Screamer. This was in response to a play some covers shout from the audience.
There is always good-natured humour from a Metal crowd. I suspect they are techies, IT analysts and accountants.
Slumbug are a female trio who play the very early slot. Too early for me.
EyeHateGod have slammed through their allotted hour, and I am amazed how much music is packed into that time.
It is an oddly cerebral experience, with the complete absence of Funk. The groove is in the head and not in the backbone. That is why it is the headshake and not the hip shake. Baby!
Of course they encore, as the crowd has been blissed out.
Last one is different. Post Rock or post Hardcore. Singer is possessed as he yells, I’m a gonna kill. This could be Kill Your Boss.
As I saw the Led Zeppelin tribute by Come Together in the weekend, EyeHateGod turn up the treble to slay the crowd.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Den
EyeHateGod
Caldera
Slumbug
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