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.
Wonderbox Metal 