Their name is god (We hate ourselves)

I've been forgetting to post about it but i have had it in mind ever since i heard about it, coming out on March 20 thru Emetic Records will be For The Sick: A Tribute To Eyehategod; yes, a very deserving tribute to Eyehategod. This New Orleans' band's music resonates today more than anything, combining hardcore punk with crust and doom to birth some of the most oppresive sounds ever comitted to magnetic tape and whatever other media; this sound is everywhere today, in bands who demonstrate it straight up like Khanate (RIP), Corrupted and Kylesa, and on pretty much the whole avant-garde doom metal scene of late (everyone from Boris to Mastodon to Jesu to you know); more so that the band has just gotten over some of their worst moments, what with the huracan Katrina leaving vocalist Mike Williams homeless and landing him in jail; but now they are reunited, out of prison and (allegedly) rehabed from their legendarious heroin addictions.

My fascination with Eyehategod goes beyong simply liking their music, it's not possible for me to just headbang to their stonerific riffs and be done with it; for starters and just like black metal, the band is negative to the extreme, i mean you just have to look at their name! But it's not just simple negativity what draws me to this band either, it's more like their sense of hate, it's their sense of things being wrong and that they will get worse no matter what; maybe it's the heroin thing, since it's something i haven't experienced and don't plan to, it's something completely alien to me and watching it's effects has some kind of exploratory quality to me like so many things in life, you can say it's a socioanthropological thing (like people who observe the homeless). Overall, it's because their hate is not monochromatic, it's both inner and outer, it's outer in execution mostly, but it's inner in any other way; even giving titles to their songs like "I Am The Gestapo" and "White Nigger", these are not fingerpointing declarations or prejudicism aiming to harm third parties, these are screams for external hatred, since hating ourselves (and we all do, at different levels) has a limit, you are just one person and feeling disgusted of oneself only leaves us to feeling bad; but hatred rises, so much that it can no longer be contained in our own thoughts and this urges to burst out, that's when we start to long for the spit of a stranger on our cheeks or someone else's boot in our groins, we want to inform them that they are better than us but we don't want them to feel good about it, we want to bring them to our level, so they can have a first-hand look at it, a first row sit to feeling like crap and we want them to feel what it's like to stab oneself from the inside; also, we want to remind them that they are no better than us, they are just as bad and they also can't really stand themselves. This happens every day and closer than we would like to think, but we seldom hear about it, except on certain European films and with certain existentialist writers (and taken to overpretentious plains in most cases); that's why Eyehategod are as important as any folky singer-songwriter denouncing the horrors of war and totalitarian governments, they're as important as whoever is currently topping the charts singing about uncorresponded love, as important as anyone who are documenting the time they are living in, etc. it's because someone, or more like many someones, feel like that and are so caught up in their own situations that they can't express themselves as much as they would like to, that's why there's someone to put a beat over it and some chords in the back to be able to memorize them and be set free from deep within the soul; it's because it exists and denying it won't make it disappear, it only makes it grow larger, they are not pathetic like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park or Eminem, because they are not asking for sympathy and are not looking to be accepted; more so, they demand rejection and won't stop until they find it, they don't have an agenda, they don't manipulate people into their hidden plans, they are brutal and straight up. Eyehategod are not positive at all but they are vital, more than anything for their own well being because their hatred can't let them consume themselves, they need to submerge themselves in it and feel it as much as possible, feel it from someone else to validate themselves, secure their places in the world as scum, to vent (spew?) it from the stage with screeching voices and incredibly thick, southern fried riffs; Eyehategod are vital for us because they talk about our own little inner intolerant beings that eat us from the inside out, but by experiencing hatred from the outside in, we give them a little window for them to spit their vile and let them back into the attic where they spend their time they are not spending in our ears telling us how perfect we're not, because of course we're not, it's because of error that there's learning and learning is the reason there's practice and practice lead us into doing things again and again for enjoyment in part (and it also makes perfect). It's peace thru war thru peace and war, but it's just that it's my war.



My only fear is that this will end up like the Melvins tribute, with lots of promising bands and (in the case of the Melvs one) collaborations but having, in the end more copies than real covers.

So here's the tracklisting with some comentary by myself where i felt like commenting:

Disc one:

01 - Dot(.) - Man is Too Ignorant to Exist (This band is good, i have their 12" EP, and this is an amazing song)
02 - Unearthly Trance - Shinobi (I have been hearing a lot about this band lately but i'm yet to listen to them, "Shinobi" is also an amazing song.)
03 - Cable - Pigs (No idea)
04 - Bowel - Run it Into the Ground (No idea)
05 - Alabama Thunderpussy - Godsong (ATP are good but i'm not fully into them for some reason, Jeff Gilbert (Metal Detector is still sadly missed) described them as Saint Vitus with coveralls and he's pretty spot on there.)
06 - Deadbird - Children of God (No idea)
07 - Kylesa - Left to Starve (This band is awesome and EHG's influence can be seen in their music, their records are nuts..)
08 - Rue - Blank (No idea)
09 - Brutal Truth - Sister Fucker (FU-Ckin-A; Brutal Truth is the shit!!!)
10 - Byzantine - Shop Lift (Never heard them but their on Kylesa's and Lamb Of God's label)
11 - Buried At Sea w/ Kevin Sharp - White Nigger (I haven't heard BAS yet but if Kevin Sharp is in it, it's probably great)
12 - Raging Speedhorn - 30$ Bag (These guys are Kerrang! darlings or something, the song is a classic though)
13 - The Unholy 3 - Take As Needed for Pain (No idea)
14 - The Esoteric - Crimes Against Skin (I have the feeling i have heard this band before)
15 - Total Fucking Destruction - Kill Your Boss (No idea)
16 - Triac - My Name is God (I Hate You) (n.i.)
17 - One Dead Three Wounded - Dog's Holy Life (I was going to say n.i. but the name rings a bell)
18 - Halo of Locusts - Dixie Whisky (Awesome song!!!)

Disc two

01 - Minsk - Ruptured Heart Theory (I need ginseng or something for my memory)
02 - Ramesses - Lack of Almost Everything (Fuck yeah!!!!! this is what's his face and what's his face from Electric Wizard!!!!!)
03 - The Mighty Nimbus - Zero Nowhere (n.i.)
04 - Lair Of The Minotaur - Peace thru war (Fuck yeah!!!! Thrash band with strong Venom/Bathory/Celtic Frost influences and one dude from Pelican plays here)
05 - Sourvein - Broken Down But Not Locked Up (Lady Sovereign? cool!!)
06 - Bloody Panda - Anxiety Hangover (Great name but n.i.)
07 - Mouth Of The Architect - Story of the Eye (Well known or something, i'm yet to hear them)
08 - Left In Ruin - Southern Discomfort (n.i.)
09 - Watch Them Die - Serving Time In The Middle of Nowhere (They got a spot in here because these used to be the dudes in Buzz*oven)
10 - Ozenza - Revelation/Revolution (n-i-)
11 - Swarm Of The Lotus - Blood Money (n.i.)
12 - Ichabod - Jack Ass In The Will Of God (n.i. although i think they are black metal)
13 - Kill The Client - The Confusion Machine Process
14 - Sow Belly - 99 Miles of Bad Road
15 - If He Dies, He Dies - Age of Bootcamp
16 - The Nain Rouge - I am the Gestapo
17 - The Unholy 3 - Torn Between Suicide And Breakfast



Now here's some songs for the band that's being paid respects:

Eyehategod - Masters Of Legalized Confusion.mp3 from the classic Dopesick, 1996
Eyehategod - Shinobi.mp3 from their live demo, 1989
Eyehategod - 30$ Bag.mp3 from 2000-???-?? somewhere in Europe.

For The Sick in MySpace (it has 4 songs from the tribute for listening): http://www.myspace.com/forthesick