Take As Needed for Pain (Reissue)

Every Eyehategod album shares a few main ingredients in common: the slow, sludgy guitars, the indecipherable ranting of vocalist Michael Williams, the moaning feedback that introduces nearly every song, and the relentlessly bitter, broken-down mood. Take as Needed for Pain has all of that, but it is also the first to really bring out the Southern blues-rock and Black Sabbath influences in full force. Compared to the rougher In the Name of Suffering, the guitars here are warmer and thicker-sounding, while the actual riffs are much more distinguished and in some cases even catchy. There are also moments when they break into a swinging, midtempo Southern rock groove, which helps offset the slow pounding that otherwise predominates. Not counting the couple of looped spoken word collages, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish the tracks from one another. By the time it ends, the album just blurs into a big mound of corrosive, swampy doom metal riffage. But they sure do it well, and their conviction is hard to deny. [This edition features six bonus tracks.]