### Eyehategod: Southern discomfort

#### 10/07/09 || Daemonomania

Another day, another Eyehategod review. For those not familiar, EHG are OG’s of the NOLA scene. Taken altogether, that acronym could stand for: E very H orny G uy O rders G eishas N ever O ld L adies A sshole! See, aren’t letters fun?

So after twenty years of substance abuse, poverty, and feedback you’d expect a greatest hits album or three out of these guys. And sure enough, this is one of ‘em. However, according to my interview with lead singer Mike Williams it appears Century Media cobbled together this collection of demos, splits, singles and outtakes without the band’s consent. And being that they were all over 18 at the time, verbal consent is necessary. Doesn’t matter how they were dressed or what part of town they were in or at what hour.

Despite the band’s dislike of how the whole thing was compiled, this here disc was my introduction to the band and it was a good one. The production is uniformly ace, there’s some weird and funny stuff sprinkled in that doesn’t appear on the regular releases, and each tune is a winner. The first six tracks are some of EHG’s best and each one has its own instantly memorable Sabbath-in-the-swamp groove. Next, the craftily titled and very short “Peace thru war (thru Peace and war)” kicks some ass for just over a minute.

Then comes “Depress”, my favorite song off their first album and one slow motion VOMITOUS KILLCHAIN of a track. The fact that they re-recorded it and beefed it up is just the semen-based icing on the syringe-filled cake. Last but not least you get a laid-back jam session featuring bits and pieces mostly pulled from “Dopesick”. Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food!

So if you’re not sure if you can handle the pure, unadulterated bilge that ElvisHuntsGuacamole (told you letters were fun) has been shitting out since 1988 – give “Southern discomfort” a spin. Try to get it used though, or you’ll just be encouraging Century Media to continue pissing off good bands and signing terrible ones. Still can’t take teh sludge, eh? Well make sure to clean up that marbled discharge that’s ruining your stockings. Pansy. 8 enraged hapless grandpas on Geritol naked ordaining llama anuses out of 10.

- Info
- Released: 2000
- Label: Century Media
- Website: Eyehategod MySpace
- Band
- Michael Williams: vocals
- Brian Patton: guitars
- Jimmy Bower: guitars
- Gary Mader: bass
- Joe LaCaze: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Ruptured Heart Theory
- 02. Story of the Eye
- 03. Blank/Shoplift
- 04. Southern Discomfort
- 05. Serving Time in the Middle of Nowhere
- 06. Lack of Almost Everything
- 07. Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)
- 08. Depress
- 09. Dopesick Jam