The Eagles of Death Metal may be the most misleading bandname since 10,000 Maniacs: On their debut album, Peace Love Death Metal, the band sound like neither The Eagles (a relief) nor death metal. Instead, the record's churning guitars and hook-driven choruses suggest a bizarro-world version of Queens of the Stone Age, specifically the Nuggets-inflected "Another Love Song" from Songs for the Deaf or their cover of "Who'll Be the Next in Line?" from the Kinks tribute This Is Where I Belong. Which makes sense: Queens frontman Josh Homme is listed as producer on Peace Love Death Metal.
But who are the Eagles of Death Metal? The liner notes credit J. Devil Huge on guitar/vocals and Carlo Von Sexron (nickname: Baby Duck) on drums/backing vocals. Huge is apparently the stage name for J. Everett Hughes, a friend of Homme's from Palm Desert, CA, while Von Sexron is an alias for both Josh Homme and (as the nickname's initials hint) Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle. While the connection between Hughes and Homme goes way back, the band's fraudulent nomenclature and misleading identities-- along with the general one-off vibe of the album-- suggest that Peace Love Death Metal is really the sonic manifestation of an elaborate inside joke, in this case possibly fueled by either "nicotinevaliumvicadanmarijuannaecstasyalcoholc-c-c-cocaine" or just an appreciation of cartoonish rock clichés.
Adopting a bluesy loverman persona that at times, intentionally or not, recalls Jon Spencer, Hughes sings most of the songs in a jokey falsetto that would be unbearable if he didn't occasionally dip into a Elvis-channeling low-end grumble. On the lead-off track, "I Only Want You", he lays out his dishonorable intentions: "I'm not really interested in what's in your heart/ I don't want you to fall in love with me so don't start." Elsewhere, Hughes promises that his good lovin' will leave you babbling in religious ecstasy on "Speaking in Tongues", and even offers an articulate demonstration as he sings, "Muh-muh-muh-muh-oooh-da-galing-ling-ling-ling-da-da" over the bridge.
Backing up this self-conscious braggadocio are bundles of bandsaw riffs that add enough edgy swagger to skirt outright garage-rock parody. The stripped-down instrumentation and live-in-the-studio recording occasionally sound thin, as if you could turn the volume all the way up to 11 and it still wouldn't be loud enough. The trade-off, however, is a spontaneity and resourcefulness that adds honky-tonk piano to "Wastin' My Time", beat-keeping finger snaps to "San Berdoo Sunburn", and four false starts to "English Girl".
Peace Love Death Metal is at its best when the inside joke is buried deep in the music, but whenever the deathtongue is planted squarely in the deathcheek, the songs turn not just silly, but lumbering and self-indulgent, overburdened by the overriding concept. "Kiss the Devil" and "Midnight Creeper" are nudge-nudge exercises in rock Satanism, and "Whorehoppin'" seems to exist solely for its over-the-top chorus of, "Shit! Goddamn! I'm a man!" Similarly, the cover of Steelers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You" doesn't add anything to the original that Reservoir Dogs didn't at least suggest; most likely, it's only here to provide the easy pun of retitling the song "Stuck in the Metal". Nothing rocks like a bad pun.
In another post-Songs for the Deaf death metal side project, some-time QOTSA drummer Dave Grohl recreated real head-banging metal with a revolving line-up of singers and no trace of irony. Eagles of Death Metal, on the other hand, try so hard not to sound like death metal that sometimes all you get is irony. They're not resurrecting a fallen-from-grace genre or even attempting to subvert any of the rock clichés they indulge in; their only agenda is to have a good time, dude. Still, while it sounds disingenuous compared to Probot, and the whole concept wears thin over 15 tracks, it's hard not to get caught up in the jovial fuck-all spirit of Peace Love Death Metal's best cuts. It may be an inside joke, but Homme and his cohorts, whoever the hell they are, seem to want us all to get it.
