Biography
A Louisiana five-piece called Soilent Green stands out within the American metal underground through its fusion of grindcore, death metal, black metal, hardcore, and blues-infused, groove-driven Southern rock. Together with Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Acid Bath, the quintet has raised Louisiana’s visibility on the metal landscape and reinforced the state’s association with especially viscous and anguished sounds. Soilent Green certainly embodies those traits yet also overlaps with an array of other acts, ranging from intricate, rage-driven hardcore outfits such as Coalesce and Dillinger Escape Plan to pure grindcore forces like Brutal Truth and Napalm Death and, in subtler ways, stylistic shape-shifters Mr. Bungle and Naked City.
The group first assembled in 1988 with guitarists Brian Patton and Donovan Punch plus drummer Tommy Buckley, though several years passed before the roster stabilized. Patton’s early-nineties commitment to Eyehategod further delayed Soilent Green’s recorded output. Bassist Scott Williams entered in 1992, and vocalist Louis Benjamin Falgoust II arrived the following year. This configuration issued the debut album Pussysoul on Dwell Records in 1995. Subsequent road work placed the band alongside Pantera, Extreme Noise Terror, and A.C.
The next outing brought a move to Relapse Records and the 1998 mini-CD A String of Lies. That same year the label also released the second full-length Sewn Mouth Secrets, which represented an even clearer advance in refinement than A String of Lies, particularly in the greater authority of Falgoust’s vocal phrasing. Around this period the group was cited among the “ten most important hard and heavy bands right now.” After the Sewn Mouth Secrets tour cycle, Patton resumed activity with Eyehategod while Falgoust recorded an album with the black metal band Goatwhore.
In 1999 guitarist Punch abruptly stepped away from music, prompting the addition of Ben Stout, another Goatwhore alumnus, on guitar. With the revised lineup in place, the successor to Sewn Mouth Secrets, titled A Deleted Symphony for the Beaten Down, was tracked in 2000 and slated for release the next year.
The group first assembled in 1988 with guitarists Brian Patton and Donovan Punch plus drummer Tommy Buckley, though several years passed before the roster stabilized. Patton’s early-nineties commitment to Eyehategod further delayed Soilent Green’s recorded output. Bassist Scott Williams entered in 1992, and vocalist Louis Benjamin Falgoust II arrived the following year. This configuration issued the debut album Pussysoul on Dwell Records in 1995. Subsequent road work placed the band alongside Pantera, Extreme Noise Terror, and A.C.
The next outing brought a move to Relapse Records and the 1998 mini-CD A String of Lies. That same year the label also released the second full-length Sewn Mouth Secrets, which represented an even clearer advance in refinement than A String of Lies, particularly in the greater authority of Falgoust’s vocal phrasing. Around this period the group was cited among the “ten most important hard and heavy bands right now.” After the Sewn Mouth Secrets tour cycle, Patton resumed activity with Eyehategod while Falgoust recorded an album with the black metal band Goatwhore.
In 1999 guitarist Punch abruptly stepped away from music, prompting the addition of Ben Stout, another Goatwhore alumnus, on guitar. With the revised lineup in place, the successor to Sewn Mouth Secrets, titled A Deleted Symphony for the Beaten Down, was tracked in 2000 and slated for release the next year.
Albums
