Doomed, I say.........DOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!

It was another slightly abbreviated Metal Night, but no less soul crushing in it's implications. We listened to a couple Sabbath worshiping stoner metal bands, and drank some cheap ass beer, and shot heroin into each others eyeballs with dirty needles.

Chris had a gig Monday, so we only had time to listen one album, which was "Heavier Than Thou", an awesome SST compilation of the primeval doom metal band St. Vitus. You've got to hand it to SST, home of Black Flag, The Minutemen, and early Husker Du, to sign a metal band to their label back in the day. But SST were always a very eclectic punk label. Not the typical Maximum RnR style punk fundamentalists, SST was run by a bunch of hippies who were into many types of alternatives musics.

Perhaps part of the reason was due to the stripped down, incredibly basic sound these guys were putting forth. St. Vitus were the first stoner metal band, man. When they formed in the late 70's, Black Sabbath had put out Technical Extasy amd Never Say Die, which were departures from their previous style, so you could imagine these guys were smoking weed and drinking beers in an alley somewhere in LA at the time, and were like, "Dude, I wish Sabbath didn't suck right now." "OH, fuck yeah, man! We should form a band!"

But but they didn't just clone Black Sabbath, they twisted it, mutated the sound, and stripped it down to it's bare essentials. Gone is the noodling and in it's place is an ambiance of howling despair, and thick, wah-wah enhanced tones. Their songs are odes to desperation, fear, alienation, and drugs. Check out the lyrics to 'Clear Windowpane':

"I see colours everywhere
I have things living in my hair
In the dark, I see lights
My brain is working overtime
On clear windowpane

In my house, all things glow
My walls are a living light show
Purple dragons, smoke with me
I have friends only I can see
On clear windowpane

I can't handle coming down
'Cause I can't take the human crowd
I can't face reality
So I fly back to where I am free
On clear windowpane"

As good as Heavier Than Thou is, it's nowhere near as desperate and jarring as the album we heard the next day, Eyehategod's classic slab 'o sludge "Take As Needed For Pain". That album is a mother...errrr....sisterfucker. Largely regarded as the greatest sludge album ever made, it is nearly 50 minutes of pure hate and drug induced agony, like a heroin withdrawl session gone awry. If you don't know what sludge is exactly, take 'grunge', and add more screaming and dirty needles. Occasionally, the riffs will sound like Soundgarden's heavier moments, but these cretins are not trying to rock out as much as lull you into an evil stupor. And the riffs are just classic; oozing, smoldering, and Sabbath drenched. This was one of my favorite albums to torture passengers with when I drove taxi. Chris was converted to this album on this holy Metal Night, having heard it before, and now just appreciating it's sick grooves. And that makes it the winner.And check out these lyrics from 'Sisterfucker (Part 1). Vocalist and sick fuck Mike Williams is a published poet:

"Screw mommy; mommy screwed
Lick golden sky like rain
My sight sees stormweather
Weathered like wood

Peer into glass yellowed
Curtains stained with smoke
Meloncholy crush
In love with hurt the rust

Burn her
Burn her
Burn her

Rape

This ink is dripping
A certain somebody
Whatever these words
Stood for I've gottten over
We live down the road
Things were at their worst"



See you next week, fuckos.