Soilent Green

Long considered one of the very heaviest and technically complicated groups to emerge from the muck of the New Orleans sludge metal/doom/grindcore scene, Soilent Green have made a name for themselves despite offering precious few releases (four full-lengths) for a band that's been together since 1988. Due in part to founding guitarist Brian Patton's longtime side gig playing guitar beside Jimmy Bower in Eyehategod, Soilent Green has seen enough hard times to dismantle 90% of the other bands on earth. Two van accidents, the murder in 2004 of bassist Scott Williams by his deranged roommate and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina would be enough to deep-six almost anybody, but Soilent Green has continued to record (albeit at their usual pace) and in 2007 moved from Relapse Records to Metal Blade. Jamming elements of hardcore and death metal up against slowed-down Southern rock riffs and torpid Sabbath doom, then putting it all to some weird time signature, Soilent Green's records can be an education in metal -- if you can get past Ben Falgoust's truly hateful lyrics and consistently disturbing vocal schizophrenia.