EYEHATEGOD - Dopesick

This is the front of the shirt which is further described below.

This is the back of the shirt which is further described below.

Physical Description: Simply a red strip that establishes the length of the design on the front of the shirt. The red forms a little border around which clear black is kept inside. Inside of this blackness in red in a block font is "EYEHATEGOD." A pseudo-Celtic border is begun underneath the sea of red. The corners have a leaf. The leaf in the corner has vines come from both sides. The vines run into borderlines. Oh yes, they do. Repeat this four times and the border is complete. Inside of the border is a picture of a person who apparently experienced some pain. A guess would be that it is the girl from the back of the shirt. There is gauze wrap around their head outside of their face. Their eyelids are very dark and have some needle type things near them. There is a pair of hands, presumably someone else's, that speak of examination.

EYEHATEGOD have made some of the best music that I have listened to. I genuinely like all sorts of music.

Truly more so then the common man who listens to the radio and thinks that the radio is good. If I sound elitist about this, it is probably because I guess I am at times. I have to be when I wear this shirt, because people will look at it and dismiss me for wearing it. Apparently, it is alright to reinforce the real American religion of capitalism by displaying shirts of businesses, but it is not OK to wear a shirt that has hate and god so close together. These people refuse to look beyond the surface level. They take a look at someone wearing a shirt that tells a little joke about their god and automatically assume that I am either stupid or bad for wearing the shirt. Father, forgive me for also agreeing with the norm of wearing clothing in public.

Even though I may write about my own clothing quite a bit, I do not express myself through the clothing at all. I know a lot of other people do. Sadly, not as many people can make their own clothing, whereas I can express myself with words about clothing. All of these people who are expressing themselves through their clothing, that think I do are being deceived by their own assumption. Their assumption is that they are serving their god. Haha.

Perhaps it is because they do not understand that a group from New Orleans, Louisiana made quite an elaborate rubber chicken of a wonderful noise. EYEHATEGOD are the end-all of metal that truly made me interested in searching out other musical territory. They took their influences and made a stew done so well that I had to decide whether or not to find a new hobby, or open my mind to new musics. Eyehategod could be oversimplified to say that they smashed 3 parts Melvins, 4 parts Sabbath, and 2 parts punk to make their own slow, abrasive sound. What would be more accurate is that Eyehategod loudly made a good sound. The band played slow enough to provide a very heavy sound. The drumming was there, but most of the sound comes from the tuned to C guitars and bass played slow. Although the indecipherable and random lyrics and spirited drumming also creates the mood.

The visual aspect of the band fits with the sound, as much as I hate bring such a mention into music. The art was always collage from medical books, religious pamphlets, etc. that gives off a really dark vibe at distance, but a more "what the hell?" vibe up-close. Sadly, this particular free shirt does not express this as well as their other artwork.

Dopesick is a pretty good album. For me, "Peace thru War (thru War and Peace)" is the best song on the album. It is actually a fast song, which is rare in the Eyehategod catalog. The production on this album makes it sound slightly different from the rest of their work. In a crispier way is how I would put it. The whole album feels like the label put money into this, but not any of the other albums. I still prefer Take As Needed For Pain for best Eyehategod album, though. The aforementioned production values of most Eyehategod is slightly lower, which goes to the overall sound and feel. Take As Needed For Pain also has a neat groove to it that I enjoy.

Do I, myself, hate god? No. I am not going to hate something that does not exist. Now, the good religious folk are going to thump their beliefs as if their beliefs are truths. I realize that neither side has the ample proof. So the question then is what is my cosmology? Frankly, I do not really have one. I doubt such an answer would even be understandable by us humans. I would rather spend my time and thought upon ethical, political, and aesthetic concerns tempered by epistemological theories. I am not going to let an ancient debate detract from a free shirt, either.

For all of this religious talk, it should be mentioned that Brian ended up giving me what is really a holey shirt. Upon his submission to me of this shirt, I counted no less then three holes. One was underneath the left armpit, while the other two are splitting on the arms.

So I finally saw EYEHATEGOD live in May 2005. After nine years of listening to the albums, I was psyched to finally hear and feel a sound I grew up on. They did not disappoint at all. In fact, the band was tighter then I expected. One of the best I have ever seen.

Along those lines, Ashley is bar none the coolest person who has ever stood next to me at a show, even over some of my best friends and the free shirt archive's greatest donors. She knows how to have a good time. I was saddened to not see her the next year when she had said she was going to be back. Oh well, how do you say goodbye to someone whose still in your memory?