THE GODS - DEMO (1997)

Back in the good old days of the mid-90's in Humboldt County, a young scumbag like myself had a shitload of bands to worship. Punk bands were everywhere, along with a handful of artsy/trippy groups, Metal bands, and even the occasional joke/rap side project. There were plenty of all-ages venues for some reason, giving us high school kids our pick of clubs to invade on the weekends, sneaking in cans of beer or bottles of hooch to enhance our experiences.
One of the best bands around Eureka and Arcata in the mid-90's was The Gods, a sloppy, drunken hardcore band that wrote rad songs about smoking crack, diahrrea, and going to war. The Gods were a side project of Mike J and Roshawn from Sake, who were by far my favorite group around in those days. Some guy named Mike Klosoff (from Nuns With Guns) played drums, with Greg and Avery rounding out The Gods' lineup on guitar and vocals, respectively. The Gods KILLED it live (usually), earning them a decent following (even in the faraway lands of the Bay Area) with their chaotic brand of dirty thrash.
Well, The Gods eventually came to an end, as all good things do, with Greg and Roshawn splitting off to start The Hitch, Avery moving up to Portland to collect guns and be creepy, Mike J joining the absolutely amazing Metal band Hideous (he now plays rhythm guitar in the psychedelic fuzz-rock band Howlin' Rain), and Mike K moving to SF and playing with a plethora of awesome bands including The Scurvy Dogs, The Phantom Limbs, Abrupt and Cretaceous (actually, he's my roommate, too).
But we're here to talk about The Gods. This demo KICKS ASS, from the orchestral vocals on "Symphony of the Gods" to the blast-beat freakouts on "Defecreation" to the biting social commentary of "2nd Street". The production on the original tape is actually pretty decent, but some quality has been lost in the transfer (I ProTools-ed it myself to mp3, so no mastering process, sorry).
If you dig obscure demos, harsh, grinding punk, or hardcore-flavored proto-Metal, you should definitely check out The Gods, a slimy little chunk of Humboldt County music history. They OWN you.

Below: A crappy scan of the original cassette insert, with an awesome picture of two people smoking crack on the cover.



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