Band:	Eyehategod
Album:	In The Name Of Suffering
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	1992
Guest review by:	X-Ray Rod

01. Depress
02. Man Is Too Ignorant To Exist
03. Shinobi
04. Pigs
05. Run It Into The Ground
06. Godsong
07. Children Of God
08. Left To Starve
09. Hostility Dose
10. Hit A Girl
11. Left To Starve [demo][re-issue bonus]
12. Hit A Girl [demo][re-issue bonus]
13. Depress [demo][re-issue bonus]
14. Children Of God [demo][re-issue bonus]

One of my favorite child memories is from when I was 7 years old. I didn't want to sleep so I just watched TV. I saw a sex scene, it was kind of hot but the best part was when Jason came out of nowhere and pierced the lovers with some sort of spear, now that was hot...
That's the first thing I thought when I listened to Eyehategod's debut, In The Name Of Suffering. To understand what I'm saying you just need to listen to the song "Depress": The bass is fat, sexy yet very morbid. I can feel the naughty sexiness of that amateur scene but at the same time get the great feeling of the killing... The nice ol' killing.

Eyehategod formed back in the late 80's, in Louisiana and is one of the most respected bands in the sludge scene. After two demos the band released their debut and started plundering the streets with their raw, energetic and uncompromising sound.

The music is quite simple: Lots of feedback, squeals and "fat" bass lines. The guitars are fuzzy and distorted, playing some slow and catchy riffs that go well with the bass. Even though most of the music is quite slow and linear there are still some fast moments that will get your blood pumping. This is when the band sounds most brutal and shows influences outside the metal scene with short and punky riffs, the drummer blasting in a simple yet effective way and the vocalist just screaming with a hardcore-like voice showing that he needs a doctor or more drugs... The production is of course very raw and sounds like the cd was recorded in someone's basement (That might be true). It even hurts when the guitarist produces those squealy noises. And although the vocals are very low in the mix at times, the production works fine, it helps with the rotten atmosphere.

In The Name Of Suffering doesn't have perfect songwriting but it has guts... And this guys sure have guts. While some of their companions like Acid Bath were deeper when it comes to songwriting, lyrics and overall image, Eyehategod were more straight forward with their message. In The Name Of Suffering breaths pure anger and hatred, but not like the immature frustration that you'd get from a teenager. No, this hatred is based on the fact that no matter how you look at it, the world sucks big time and this guys don't need fancy music or lyrics to show you that this is for real. This debut shows how "some kids who wanted to play aggressive stuff" ended up to be among the classic bands with their good mix of Hardcore/punk with Doom metal. The band still had to fix some things but they showed right from the start that they had the talent and balls.

Last but not least: If you have the opportunity to get the 2006 reissue with bonus tracks (or the digipack version of the reissue limited to 3000 copies for the "true" ones), then buy it. It has the entire second demo as bonus tracks, the sound quality is even rawer and more painful but that's the beauty of it. Here you have it, my friends: A good dose of hostility. Now get out of your cave, get drunk, hit a girl or leave a hobo to starve. Who gives a damn anyways?