DON’T BUY Hank III’s “Take As Needed For Pain”

hank-williams-iii-take-as-needed-for-painAs first reported by Saving Country music in November of 2014, Curb Records is back at it, regurgitating previously-released material from Hank Williams III and trying to pass it off to consumers as new music. As many labels are announcing many of the titles from their spring catalogs, Curb this week has released the cover art and track list for Take As Needed For Pain, and made the album scheduled to be released on April 14th available for pre-order.

As with now multiple post-contract releases from Curb Records with “Hank Williams III” stamped on the front, the music for the album comes from previous works. Furthermore, country fans who may see the Hank Williams name and hope they’re buying a country record will be disappointed when they hear these are mostly heavy metal songs.

The song “Take As Needed For Pain” is a cover song from the metal band Eyehategod that Hank3 turned into a 10-minute epic for the tribute album For The Sick: A Tribute to Eyehategod released in 2007 and recorded under the name “The Unholy 3”³ which is the name of one of Hank3’s side projects. Hank3 also recorded another Eyehategod song for the tribute called “Torn Between Suicide and Breakfast” that also appears on the upcoming Curb album. Many of the tracks on the new album are cover songs from tribute records.

Hank3’s usual response to his fans on these post-contract Curb releases is to “Burn it, and give it away.”

Here’s a breakdown of the track list, and where the material has appeared before.

1. Get Outta My Life (w/Rebel Meets Rebel & David Allan Coe)

–Released on Rebel Meets Rebel—a collaboration between David Allan Coe and Pantera from 2006. Hank3 appears on the track.

2. Ruby, Get Back To The Hills

–From the 2006 AntiSeen tribute Everybody Loves AntiSeen.

3. Torn Between Suicide & Breakfast

–Previously appeared on For The Sick: A Tribute to Eyehategod released in 2007.

4. No Values

–From the 2002 album Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three.

5. Gotta Buy Paw A Truck

–An alternative version to the song “Redneck Ride” which appears on the 2009 record Assjack. The song also appeared on Bootleg #3 released by Hank3 independently in 2002.

6. Take As Needed For Pain

–Previously appeared on For The Sick: A Tribute to Eyehategod released in 2007.

7. White Trash

–Likely a version of “White Trash Pt. 1”—a song Hank3 has been playing live for years.

8. King Cartel

???

As with other post-contract Curb releases, the packaging will likely not warn people they’re purchasing non-country, previously-released material, ultimately resulting in angry consumers.

Hank Williams III, the grandson of Hank Williams and son of Hank Williams Jr., now goes by the “Hank3” moniker instead of the “Hank III” name he used during the Curb era to distinguish his music.

Hank3 entered into a six album contract with Curb in the late 90”²s. The Nashville-based label was able to stretch Hank3”²s album count to seven by releasing Hillbilly Joker in 2011; a “hellbilly” album Curb initially rejected, but released after Hank3 had fulfilled his contract at the end of 2010. Then Curb released an outtakes album in 2012 called Lone Gone Daddy that brought the total of Curb releases on Hank3”²s six-album contract to eight. Ramblin’ Man released in April of this year another album of previously-released material cobbled together made it nine. Hank3 also had agreed to the release of one heavy metal album as part of his Curb deal. Take As Needed For Pain would now bring that count to two.

As for when fans can expect a new, legitimate Hank3 release, the 3rd generation performers says officially, “As it stands right now, we need to break-even on the distribution costs of the last two album releases before we are able to release anything else.”

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