ENTERTAINMENT Louisiana metal band Eyehategod performs at Chelsea’s Live

BY NYX CROOKS @voiceofnyx1

Chelsea’s Live was filled with metal fans across multiple generations Friday, Feb. 3 as Louisiana metal legends Eyehategod were joined by newcomers Brat and Capra.

Older metalheads with graying hair joined young fans shoulder-to-shoulder. The show reinforced one of the most important parts of Louisiana’s metal scene: community.

Capra was the first band to take the stage. The band formed in 2016 in Lafayette, but its members have been playing in the local Lafayette scene for decades.

The band’s music has been described as “crazy weird metallic hardcore,” according to guitarist Tyler Harper.

“I normally just say rock ‘n’ roll. It’s kind of just fast, loud, chaotic, crunchy, party,” Harper said. “There’s some dancing that goes on.”

“It’s definitely metallic hardcore with a lot of southern influence. That’s why we work with bands like Eyehategod,” bass player Trevor Alleman added.

This is the band’s first show since it took a break to work on its second album, which will be released within the next year.

Brat formed in New Orleans in 2021 and creates a unique blend of pop samples and metal that provides a fresh take on the metal genre. The band starts every song off with a pop song sample which leads into a crushing metal intro. For the metal component, Brat incorporates multiple genres and styles.

“There’s thrash riffs, death metal riffs, the hardcore riffs, the breakdowns,” drummer Dustin Eagan said.

The band has a unique aesthetic to go with its unique music; its Instagram describes it as “barbiegrind bimboviolence.”

“We thought it would be funny and fun. That was kind of the extent, then we built a brand around that,” lead singer Liz Selfish said about the pop samples.

Lastly, Eyehategod, which formed in 1988 in New Orleans, took the stage. Eyehategod takes on a lot of different influences and was a foundational band in establishing the New Orleans metal sound.

“It’s hardcore blues. We are modern blues, but obviously it’s noisy and it’s loud and it’s heavy,” lead singer Mike IX said.

Its music has since become but I don’t mind the sludge thing, you know, people use that and that’s fine. I just don’t personally.” known as sludge metal, which is characterized by the New Orleans heavy metal sound. It was popularized in the 1980s and 1990s by bands such as Crowbar, Acid Bath and Eyehategod.

Many may be wondering about the seemingly blasphemous name. The original singer for Eyehategod had a mental breakdown where he wrote “the Eyehategod” and was then taken to a hospital, where he eventually became a born-again Christian and distanced himself from the metal scene.

The name itself was interpreted by the band as the eye that sees God which represents vices such as drugs or addiction. Mike IX denies that the band is satanic.

“People call us sludge, and I have to say, I hate that,” Mike IX said. “It just sounds silly to me,

“It’s kinda silly if you look at it one way, but it’s deeper,” Mike IX said. “It’s a really bizarre name to me, and I don’t really know what it means, but we stuck with it and it’s got us this far.”

Eyehategod has become a legend in the Louisiana scene. Now, as it continues to perform 35 years after forming, the next generation of metal in Louisiana performs with the band and forms a tight knit community of metal enthusiasts.