Eyehategod – Page 6 – Wonderbox Metal

Wormwood – Wormwood (Review)

This is the début album of Wormwood who are a Sludge band from the US.

Wormwood play abraisive and caustic Sludge that eats away like acid and is every bit as disfiguring.

The songs aren’t long but they don’t need much exposure to be proven toxic.

Heavy and covered in contagious filth, Wormwood are like the bastard offspring of Today is the Day, Rabies Caste, Khanate and Eyehategod.

It’s ugly, crushing music that’s no good for your health and yet is strangely addictive regardless. The songs infect with their virulent strand of aural disease and you find yourself thinking of them when you least expect, usually when the night is in full swing and the negative thoughts are swirling. Wormwood is the soundtrack to hopelessness and woe.

The songs are surprisingly catchy and their relatively simplistic approach of groove-based, heavy Sludge is tried and tested yet by no means less effective because of it. Eyehategod may have originally wrote the book but bands like Wormwood keep adding pages.

Wormwood lack Eyehategod’s Southern tinge of course, and theirs is a sound that shares aspects of Today is the Day and Rabies Caste in particular, as mentioned above.

A warm, yet musty, analogue sound coats all of the songs like a soft, ripe, fleshy exterior. It sounds good.

At only 18 minutes in length this is a release that doesn’t outstay its welcome; one to definitely keep returning to.

Highly recommended.

Fistula – Vermin Prolificus (Review)

Fistula are from the US and play Sludge Metal. This is their sixth album.

Oh Mother Sludge! You have such sights to show us don’t you? Fistula are firm adherents to the cause and push Mother Sludge’s agenda as if their lives depended on it. And maybe they do, as Mother Sludge is fickle with her favours.

Fistula are a very prolific, (heh), band and it’s always a pleasure to hear Sludge played with passion and feeling like we have here. Sludge is such a rich sub-genre of Metal that it’s easy to make it your own but it’s also easy to fall by the wayside into sloppy Eyehategod worship.

Of course, all Sludge bands by the very nature of the style have some Eyehategod in their sound; as this is the basic template of Sludge what matters is what the band does with it. Do they follow the template strictly or do they make it their own?

Fistula have embraced their fuzz-soaked, feedback-drenched Southern roots but like all great purveyors of the style they have mutated and warped it to their own vicious desires. As such, Vermin Prolificus is an album that bears the weight of history on its hulking shoulders without even noticing it’s even there and the resulting noise-fest is a grim testimony to the love of all things filthy, dirty and downright heavy.

On Vermin Prolificus the band leave no fungus-covered stone unturned in their quest to uncover all of Mother Sludge’s mysteries. Slow, fast, heavy, ever-so-slightly-less-heavy…the band play it all with relish and pull all of it off very well indeed.

The songs have the instant appeal of a rotten landscape and the hidden depths of a foetid swamp. This is music to get buried in.

I love this kind of album especially when delivered by the desperate hands of true believers like Fistula. If you have even a passing interest in the Sludge style then this is a must.

Get down, get dirty and get Fistula.

Colombian Necktie – Twilight Upon Us (Review)

Colombian Necktie are from the US and this is their début album.

The band have a basis in Hardcore but build elements of Sludge and Metal on top of this to create something heavy, raw and nasty. I’ve been watching this band’s development over the last few splits and EPs that they have released and it seems that with this album they’ve taken everything they’ve learned and ramped it up to the maximum.

A suitably crushing sound heralds the start of the album and it immediately draws you in. The recording is arid, focused and everything sounds both tight and loose at the same time.

Colombian Necktie have a relatively varied sound that employs bits from many different Metal subgenres and puts them to work creating this monument to Hardcore Sludge. Sludgecore, if you will. And I’m glad they did as it sounds just great.

This belongs to the same stable of bands such as Charger, Eyehategod, Enabler, Mistress, Serpent Eater, Ilsa, etc. – bands that are doing their own thing by their own rules and make a virtue out of the heavy, filthy and unclean.

For the most part Colombian Necktie’s songs are tightly compressed balls of rage. Hardcore and Sludge sensibilities combine along with the odd Stoner Rock moment to create an album with a vicious swagger and an attitude that just won’t quit. Add to this the odd synth effect, some other interesting ideas and the emotional closing track Kevin’s Song, (which is by far the longest track here), and you have an engaging and diverse album.

The singer is impressively rabid the whole time and sounds like he would be great live, which of course can be extended to the entire band.

Considering their past releases I was hoping this would be a good album but they have more than exceeded my expectations in this. I knew it would be of a certain quality but wasn’t expecting an album of this depth and nuance.

A highly recommended listen for all connoisseurs of heaviness.

Vermin Womb – Permanence (Review)

Vermin Womb are from the US and this is their début EP.

Made up of members with an impressive Extreme Metal pedigree, (Primitive Man, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire), this releases takes that collective knowledge and experience and funnels it into a veritable natural disaster’s worth of extremity and violence given form.

This is a combination of Sludge, Grind, Death Metal and pissed off Hardcore. It’s not for the faint-hearted and sounds like the end of the world is coming. It’s brutal, nasty, and very, very heavy.

The songs here combine the ferocity and general disdain of Hardcore/Grindcore with the murky evil of Sludge and the brutality of Death Metal. There’s even a Blackened edge.

Take Eyehategod, Brutal Truth and Anaal Nathrakh, mash them all up, put the remains in a blender, force feed the resultant slop into a few hapless victims and the resulting screams of pain and agony will sound a bit like Vermin Womb.

The singer is probably one of these unfortunates as it sounds like he’s been gargling liquid nightmares and is now vomiting forth the worst of his experiences.

This is impressively ugly and it takes real determination and talent to create Metal this heavy and grotesque.

Absolutely horrible music that you can’t afford to miss out on.

Secret Cutter – Self-Titled (Review)

Secret Cutter are from the US and this is their début album. They play Sludge Metal with an added side of Hardcore/Punk.

The Secret Cutter sound is one of pure unbridled filth, fury and fucking heaviness. This is aggressive and nasty in only the way that Sludge and really pissed off Hardcore can be, and when combined like this it just sounds gloriously horrible!

Think of bands like Eyehategod, Serpent Eater, Ilsa, Corrupt Moral Altar, Wolvhammer, Enabler and the like; distil what makes these bands so interesting, nasty and individual and you’ll have a good idea of the murky swamp of urban decay that Secret Cutter dwell in.

I love albums like this – no messing around, just undiluted heaviness and aggression, whether that’s done at speed or slowly. It’s rough, raw and genuine.

The Sludge is strong and works well with the added Hardcore/Punk influence that the band have.

The songs have a good degree of variety in them for a short album, (only 26 minutes), and within the style they play. Each song is readily identifiable also, (no mean feat for any band), and show a creative force at the top of their game.

They have some great riffs on this release and the songs are surprisingly catchy for this type of band. Although catchy probably isn’t the right term. Infectious, maybe?

Special mention should go to the singer, who absolutely rages and tears his way through the songs as if it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do. His high pitched screams are the very incarnation of savagery.

This really is a top quality release that has so many plus points it’s silly. In many ways this is the best of heavy, nasty music, and this is one I’ll be listening to over and over again.

Play it loud and get it now.

Bastard of the Skies/Grimpen Mire – Split (Review)

Bastard of the Skies are from the UK and play Sludge, and they have teamed up with fellow UK Doomsters Grimpen Mire for this split.

And what a very nice cover they have for this split.

Bastard of the Skies are the first up, and they contribute 4 tracks to this release.

Their half of the split consists of Earthy sounding Sludge with a distinct inhuman quality to the vocals. Some good melodies make appearances and add depth.

The tracks are heavy lumps of solid matter and rumble along nicely. The band display some really good songwriting and this small collection of tracks are top notch.

Taking their cues from the usual suspects of Sludge; Bastard of the Skies entertain with their half of the split and obviously have a good ear for what fans of this kind of music want to hear.

Following on from that, the second half of the release is by Grimpen Mire who offer us 3 tracks.

They’re not wildly dissimilar from Bastard of the Skies, although whereas Bastard of the Skies sound quite coherent and solid, Grimpen Mire have more of a loose, dangerous feel to them.

Their contribution has more of an Eyehategod influence and successfully manages to sound scuzzed up, dirty and raging. The inclusion of some cleaner vocals is unexpected, however, but these work well.

At 40 minutes in length this is a longer-than-average split and one worth taking the time to explore.

Senior Fellows – Ecclesiastical Servitude (Review)

Senior Fellows are from the US and play Sludge Metal.

Slow, heavy and very, very nasty; Senior Fellows impress from the outset with their crushing nature.

Like the vast majority of Sludge bands in existence you can hear some Eyehategod in their sound, but thankfully Senior Fellows are no mere tribute/copycat band and more than stand on their own merits. The riffs do deviate from the usual Eyehategod template, for example, to create their own atmospheres of hopelessness and societal judgement and condemnation.

The songs are short but devastatingly heavy. They crawl along slowly and inevitably, destroying everything in their path. Some of the riffs are good enough that they could easily be stretched out into songs twice the length of what we are given here, but it seems that Senior fellows are all for economy of action and are keen to avoid ever outstaying their welcome. Well there’s no danger of that.

The vocals are tortured and inhumane; I really feel for the poor sap they’ve demoralised and broken enough to produce the sounds their singer emits. What foul deprecations and torment has he suffered and gone through in order to be reduced to this savage wreck of humanity we find here? It’s impressively brutal.

A thoroughly enjoyable début that could easily be longer to my mind. A tar-covered trip through filthied up Doom that showcases the best of what Sludge Metal is all about.

A recommended listen.

Lockersludge – Drawing Lessons (Review)

Lockersludge are from the UK and play Metal with Hardcore/Sludge influences.

This is an interesting merger of some different styles, all wrapped up in a Metal package.

Combining the rawkus nature of Old-School Hardcore with a Sludge influence the band do well in not instantly sounding like anyone else.

The tracks bound along with this unusual melding of styles and remind of 90’s Century Media acts like My Own Victim and Gurd with a bit of a non-Southern Eyehategod feel to some of the riffs. It’s quite a nostalgic feeling that Lockersludge give me and I find myself liking this band a great deal.

The vocals are belligerent and melodic at the same time. Again there is a curious mixing of styles; essentially based in Hardcore-land, they nonetheless display melodic sensibilities as well as hints at a more Sludge background.

Lockersludge are bravely and wisely forging their own path through today’s over-saturated musical waters and I’ve found this release highly competent and highly enjoyable.

Oh, and they also have a song called The Beard of Doom. Win.

Check them out.

Fange – Poisse (Review)

Fange are from France and play Sludge Metal. This is their first release.

Ooooohhhh this is has got one Hell of a sexy, filthy, fuzzbastard sound! This is the kind of dirty Sludge I like!

Big beats and harsh, swampy riffs combined with feedback and desolate Doom atmospheres means the songs are like trawling though a mire, (Fange = mire in French). You are struggling for air as the boggy grime seeps into your pores and gets under your skin and into every orifice. Doesn’t sound very nice? It isn’t, but then Sludge should never be nice.

There are some great, bouncy riffs here in addition to the slower onslaughts. Cloches Fendues is a great example as it alternates between a dirty Stoner-esque riff and apocalyptic Doom. Top stuff.

The vocals are low in the mix like something just under the surface. Shrieking, snarling, chanting, beseeching, shouting, spitting, vomiting; who knows what they’re actually doing but suffice to say that the singer’s clearly into it.

Hidden behind the miasma of unclean riffing the band actually have a firm grasp of atmosphere. Ammoniac displays a masterful use of subtle tension to greatly enhance the feeling of danger that the song already gives off.

A good amount of variety, violent playfulness and content sees this release firmly in the winner’s category; 29 minutes of Sludge Metal that takes the standard Eyehategod template, covers it in a tonne of sewage and plays with the remains.

For fans of ugly music done right.

Favourite Track: Suaire. Sludge-tastic.

Hashed Out – Hashed Out (Review)

Hashed Out are from Canada and play angry Hardcore.

This is violent music that’s noisy and Crusty. A hint of Grind, a smattering of Metallic fury, a good Hardcore base and even a touch of Sludge here and there – Hashed Out play music that’s full of rage and bile.

The singer shouts and spews vitriol across the 6 tracks and keeps the intensity up for the full 15 minutes playing time.

The songs may be short and furious but they have some hooks in them that keep you coming back for more. This reminds me of a more extreme version of some of the 90’s Metallic Hardcore bands like My Own Victim; the sense of songwriting that’s heavy but still catchy is similar, only with added Crust, filth and blasting.

Think of a Punk band swallowed by Eyehategod and powered by Grinding Crust. The songs stick around and the singer in particular is very memorable. In a sea of mediocrity Hashed Out stand tall.

This is an EP worth getting hold of.