Eyehategod
- Story by Adrien Begrand
The metal underground comes together to pay tribute and lend a helping hand to New Orleans sludge heroes Eyehategod
“It’s definitely been a better year since the last time I talked to you guys,” says a cheerful Mike Williams from the small town of Folsom, LA. After all the trouble the Eyehategod frontman had to deal with in 2005 (which Williams described in great detail to Decibel over a year ago), from Hurricane Katrina to his apartment burning down and his incarceration, there was nowhere to go but up, and indeed, he and his bandmates’ lives, like the city itself, are slowly starting to get back to normal again. “I’ve been doing great. It’s been hectic, with a lot of court dates getting postponed, a lot of bullshit, a lot of waiting. I don’t want to say exactly what happened, but everything turned out for the best. I don’t have to serve any time. I’m on probation, but besides that, everything’s cool. I just gotta keep up with that and stay out of trouble.”
Not only have Eyehategod been playing numerous well-attended shows in the New Orleans area for the past year, in addition to working on their many side projects, but the sludge metal progenitors find themselves on the receiving end of a big group hug from the underground community thanks to For the Sick (Emetic), a whopping two-disc tribute album featuring no fewer than 35 adoring bands performing their favorite EHG tracks. Arguably one of the finest tribute discs to come out in years, it features a wide variety of artists, from the recently-reformed Brutal Truth to veterans Alabama Thunderpussy and Cable, eccentrics like Hank Williams III and younger buzz bands like Kylesa and Minsk, all of whom put their own stamp on some of the nastiest, darkest songs the South has ever produced.
“It’s flattering, man; it’s crazy, really, that so many people were influenced by Eyehategod,” says Williams. “It’s definitely a positive thing that makes us all feel good about what we’ve done.”
The brainchild of former tour manager Chris Johnson and Emetic Records, the album is a long-overdue homage to one of the most influential American bands of the last 15 years. According to Johnson, he was flooded with requests to participate, and even had a few notable names reluctantly pull out. “3 Inches of Blood picked a song and recorded it, but Roadrunner didn’t think it was in their best interest to be a part of our project,” he says. “Mastodon wanted to be a part of the project, but their breakneck schedule just didn’t allow the time to record it. Rwake wanted to be part of it as well, but they had just signed with Relapse and were very busy writing material for their first release. Not to say anything bad at all about Relapse; the staff over there really helped with a lot of the bands.”
The influence of Eyehategod is not lost on Williams, but he does admit the sheer volume of young bands deriving their styles from such seminal records as Take as Needed for Pain and Dopesick is often overwhelming. “There are a lot of bands on [For the Sick] that I’ve kept up with on the internet and got their demos or CDs,” he continues, marveling, “and then all of a sudden you find out they’re into Eyehategod, which I had no clue. At least we get that credit. It would suck if people never mentioned us and just said this is some new type of music, but we are getting the credit, and it’s really good. You don’t really feel it directly until you see things like [For the Sick].”
Williams is flattered by the added attention the tribute album has given him and the band, but he’s also thoroughly enjoying the final product just like anyone else. “It’s funny, because bands were writing me and asking for lyrics,” he laughs. “There are lyrics, and the lyrics change from time to time, but a lot of [bands] got it pretty on the nose, too. I like the Brutal Truth song [“Sister Fucker”], I like they way they did it. I like the band Bloody Panda [“Anxiety Hangover”], Byzantine did a good version of [“Shop Lift”]. I like the bands that kind of changed it up and did their own version of it, but I like it all, because it’s definitely cool that they’re influenced by us. I hope I can get in touch with each and every person on the record eventually, and they can buy me something for being so great.”
One of the more positive side effects of so many acts being influenced by EHG is that a new generation is quickly discovering the band, which Williams has noticed at recent shows. It’s something he relishes. “We’ve been playing a lot of shows around New Orleans and the suburbs, and we always see different people, which is strange,” he muses. “Usually down here you’ll see the same people at the shows. Now we get people telling us they drove from Chicago or New York. It’s definitely a younger crowd. It’s not like the old Sabbath hippies; in the beginning it would be older punk rockers and headbanger guys, and now it’s definitely a whole other group that’s opened up to this type of music.”
In a situation like this, it’s always best for a band like Eyehategod to strike while the iron’s hot, but according to Williams, right now that’s easier said than done. “There’s no doubt about that, we should have a new album out,” he concurs. “This Katrina thing set us back a while, my court situation, our drummer’s court situation, all this stuff has set us back a ways. I’ve been doing those other two bands [Outlaw Order and Arson Anthem], Gary [Mader, bassist] has been doing Hawg Jaw and Outlaw Order, Jimmy [Bower, guitarist] is doing Down, Brian [Patton, guitarist] is in Soilent Green, but eventually we’ll do something, we will put one out. I mainly want to tour, but we need an album to tour with. We definitely will put out another album; we just don’t know when it’ll be. But the sooner, the better.”
It might take a while, but fans shouldn’t worry. Eyehategod might be a very busy bunch of fellas, but Williams assures us they ain’t goin’ nowhere. “Eyehategod’s always been this band that’s existed on a tightrope; I’ve had people come to see us and say, ‘We drove from so-and-so to see you because we don’t know if you’re going to overdose or break up, so we just want to catch you guys one last time.’ But for the most part, we’re going to stay together forever. I think this is something you can’t really kill. We’re like a bad foot fungus; we just keep coming back.”
