Not gonna lie, this was my most-anticipated album of the year. And it’s certainly been a long time coming—the last time we heard from EyeHateGod was the odds-and-ends comp Preaching the End-Time Message waaaaaay back in ’05. They did put out a live DVD a couple years back (fun fact: I missed being in it by a day!), but in terms of new material, all we’ve had are a couple singles—one being a limited-edition Decibel mag promo—in nearly nine years. So yeah, I think we’re long past due.
Of course, in the interim, the band lost Joey LaCaze, its only drummer of record… but this thing’s been in the can so long that he played on every track. The band gets right into it with “Agitation! Propaganda!,” a two-minute tune that’s much more Black Flag than Black Sabbath. “Trying to Track the Hard Dollar” brings things back to their signature sludge style, equal parts punishing and caustic, meaty doom riffs laced with feedback. “Parish Motel Sickness” seems like one to scream along to, Mike IX’s vocals being considerably less unintelligible this time around… That is, if the massive Bower-Patton riffs don’t knock the wind outta ya!
“Quitter’s Offensive” contains that old-school sludge swing beat that LaCaze had down pat, if somewhat loosely. Yuuup, I can already picture the mosh pits breaking out to this one, despite its stop-start sections. On the other hand, the gritty grooves of “Nobody Told Me” come off like Fu Manchu on bathtub crank, and are just as addictive. (Just ask Rob Ford!) “Worthless Rescue” has a slightly cleaner sound than its predecessor, which is kinda like saying it’s the classiest crackwhore on the block. Mike IX’s vocals on this tune are vintage venom, mind you!
Might as well just do a track-by-track review at this point, since it’s all killer, no filler. “Framed to the Wall” picks up the pace, EHG out-HOFing High On Fire in the process, before nodding off to Sleep halfway through. Pre-release single “Robitussin and Rejection” continues in the vein of equally-awesomely titled tunes like “Dixie Whiskey” and “Self Medication Blues.” Nuff said.
The longest song on here, seven-minute “Flags and Cities Bound,” starts off heavy on the spoken-word… then gets into the heavy riffs, alternating between the two, but leaning more heavily on the latter. Y’know, kinda like something off of that Corrections House record… if it was written by Eyehategod. 😉
“Medicine Noose” tightens its grip with a rough three minutes of caustic, speedy sludge à la “Methamphetamine,” before “The Age of Bootcamp” takes us out with some more NOLA-style vitriol. Put it this way, if you don’t like this album, then… EyeHateYou!
RATING: 10 (and I definitely don’t give these out every day!)
