Sonic sludge Messiahs, Jimmy Bower and Brian Patton, waste no time building EYEHATEGOD’s wall of noise along with the crowd’s intensity for the inevitable crash . . . WHAM! Bower slams into the opening riff of the new single “New Orleans is the New Vietnam” -- it’s quintessential EHG. Sick SABBATH/BLACK FLAG influenced swamp-ass riffs set the tone and pace.
The off kilter, acid flashback rhythms from drummer Joe LaCaze and bass monster Gary Mader have their own agenda, but somehow keep this ship anchored . . . Mike Williams explodes with his beautiful vitriol of piss and razorblades, and the crowd surges . . . Let’s do this! Williams squelches “Uptown Mess, Downtown Wreck, Frostbite Sweat Your Guilt on Fire!” The crowd’s manic, fighting to get closer to the monolith of sound emanating from the stage . . . The deep down-tuned NOLA groove is pulsing, swirling, hypnotizing. . .Burning into my soul!. . . Who better to conduct a sickened sludge symphony?! After 24 years of musical destruction, EYEHATEGOD are just as visceral and vital . . . But more relevant!
On stage, Michael D. Williams comes off as a delightfully deranged mixture of OZZY/SYD BARRETT. His gutter savant poetry slithers and spits venom from the mouth of someone who’s been to the bottom, rolled in it, and fights daily to keep his chin above the mud!
Arlo White / Hypnotic Turtle