Divine Retribution

Eyehategod’s Mike Williams talks about being down and out

By Alex Distefano

Since 1988, New Orleans-based cult “sludge” metal band Eyehategod has been creating some of the slowest, heaviest, darkest music known to man. Taking influences from Black Flag, Black Sabbath and The Melvins, Eyehategod has managed to create a unique sound of their own, a sound many in the underground metal scene regularly attempt to replicate. The band spent years on the underground local New Orleans clubs circuit, and has recently seen success as national touring act, playing to thousands of longhaired fans of stoner rock and doom metal both in the U.S and abroad.

Eyehategod creates songs centered on heavy, slow riffs, a monstrous rhythm and section and the tortured, caustic vocals of Mike Williams. The band (also featuring guitarists Brian Patton and Jimmy Bower, drummer Joey LaCaze and bassist Gary Mader) creates songs that are groove-inflected and emit a misanthropic, nihilistic vibe. Suffering, pain, cannabis and opiates all appear in the band’s themes and lyrics. Williams recently took time to speak to CULTURE about the Eyehategod’s recent European tour and how years of partying and playing brutal music can wear out the body.

You guys have been known to tour a lot in the past few years, and recently just toured Europe. Tell us what it was like to play in Greece  considering the recent turmoil and violent riots they are seeing in Athens.

That was one of the highlights of my life, really. We had a blast at our show, but it was crazy over there. We saw a revolution taking place on the streets, lots of demonstrators, but no riots. But we did hear a few explosions in the distance. The citizens there are so angry and fed up—rightfully so. There are so many poor people, and they are trying to overthrow the government. There was a parliament building down the road from our show, and driving in we saw tons homeless people squatting there like they took it over. It was amazing to see something like that. We played in the middle of this little anarchist part of town, where we really felt the sense of urgency. It was one of the tensest shows we’ve ever played, the crowd was amazing. The people of Greece are into intense music, they love it out there. They said we were the soundtrack to the revolution.

Does playing brutal, intense, heavy music live night after night eventually wear down your body physically?

Yeah, it does. Add on top of that drinking and partying, drugs and all that, not enough sleep, traveling in a bus all the time, flying around everywhere. When an Eyehategod tour is finished we are wiped beyond belief. We need lots of time to recuperate in between tours, and all of us are in, like, 10 other bands as well so it can be tough at times, but we all love the music that much.

You’ve been the singer for Eyehategod all these years, but you also did some music writing and editing for some magazines. Tell us how you got into journalism?

Well, aside from being a singer, I’m also a big fan of many bands. I love music, and always looking for cool old-school bands and rarities from bands I’m into. I’m a music collector. As far as writing goes, in my head I’m always reviewing stuff; when I was a teenager I sent reviews to Flipside Magazine, and Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll. They would publish some of my stories here and there. Then, in ’93 a friend of mine worked at Metal Maniacs Magazine in New York—[where] I [had] just moved to—so I got a job writing and proofreading. I did interviews with bands. It was fun, I had a great time doing it.

What is your personal favorite Eyehategod album and why?

My favorite record is Take as Needed For Pain, and I also really love the last one we put out, Confederacy of Ruined Lives. Our first album, In the Name of Suffering, was weird and we were still trying to find where we were going, and since then, of course, we’ve gotten much tighter as a band.

Tell us about the New Orleans, Louisiana music scene that led up to Eyehategod and what bands you were into growing up.

Well, we were all into the hardcore punk bands, especially Discharge, Black Flag and Bad Brains. We’re all still huge fans of those bands. But when I was younger, it was very much about both the punk and metal scenes. Back when we were kids of course, we were into Kiss—which also lead to the Sex Pistol, [The] Ramones and eventually more underground metal and punk bands, and in New Orleans there were literally hundreds from the forgotten old-school punk bands [like] the Normals, and Graveyard Rodeo to Crowbar, Acid Bath, Soilent Green, Exhorder and tons more forgotten, unrecognized bands.

Tell us about appearing with the band Pentagram at L.A.’s Power of the Riff festival and other shows you have coming up.

There are going to be a lot of cool bands there, tons of underground metal bands. It’s going to be an all day fest, and we’re honored to share the stage with Pentagram. We’re also playing in Oakland which is always killer, and we have a hometown show in New Orleans in October and a few shows in Texas in November, which we’re always excited about since Texas is always good to us.

What are your thoughts about the extreme metal band AxCx and its singer Seth Putnam who recently died? I know Eyehategod were good friends with that band.

We were friends. Eyehategod toured with AxCx, we were very close. Seth was guy with very extreme thinking; he went out of his way to insult people and was always looking to take everything to the next level. I don’t agree with any racist or sexist shit he said, but for those of us who knew him as a person, it was all an act. Unfortunately, now it’s what he will be known for—all those offensive lyrics and song titles. But as far as metal [goes], he changed the face of extreme music.

How are these current shows different from the early shows you first played?

When we first started, people hated it and we really thrived off of the hatred. Back in the day we would open for Exhorder or Soilent Green and make everyone miserable. People would throw shit at us and only two people would be into us. And then gradually over the years we got tighter and better as a band. We wrote better songs and people just started to gravitate towards us, and now it’s been over 20 years. We sell shows out—which is a great feeling!

How do you feel about marijuana?

Well, people often call us a stoner band—which we don’t claim to be—but it’s cool. I can understand the affinity towards weed and pot smoke. We definitely support it all; there is no reason for the government to say that a plant is illegal.

eyehategod.ee.

OH LORD

An Eyehategod song (“Serving Time in the Middle of Nowhere”) was also featured in the 1997 film Gummo—one of the way CULTURE discovered the band. Frontman Mike Williams discusses the film: “I love that movie. It’s great, it’s dark and disturbing—hopefully that is what our music is. We hadn’t seen it before we submitted the song for the movie, I know the director, and he is a fan of ours. And we think the film is a good visualization of what our music is.”