Sludge metal – Page 32 – Wonderbox Metal

Servants of the Mist – Gross Knowledge of Genital Mutilation (Review)

This is the latest EP from US Sludge/Doom Metal band Servants of the Mist.

The EP is 25 minutesin length and after the perfunctory intro we’re into the feedback-drenched first song Undeserving, which at just under 12 minutes serves as the centrepiece of the release.

The music is crushing, monolithic Doom with a corrupted, rotten Sludge veneer and a core of pure hatred.

We get bowel-loosening deep vocals and piercing high-pitched ones, both sound great and complement the music perfectly.

A deep aura of misery pervades these tracks and the band do all they can to punish and obliterate the listener with their steady, slow assault.

This is a really enjoyable form of dank Doom that just won’t give up; the strongly oppressive feeling of the tracks makes for a compelling release that sticks in the mind long after the last foetid chord has faded.

The band have enough talent that whether they are playing agonisingly slow Doom or slightly-more-upbeat Sludge they do it with obvious passion and with riffs to die for.

Negatively emotive and bleakly enticing; Servants of the Mist really know how to write a good Doom tune.

I mean, honestly; if you’re at all into this kind of music what’s not to like here?

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.

Tombs – Savage Gold (Review)

Tombs are a Metal band from the US and this is their third album.

They play a style of underground Metal that mixes Classic Metal riffs with influences from Death Metal, Hardcore and Sludge. The result is Tombs.

Another way of looking at it is to imagine a band like Doomriders only have them violated by Death Metal and covered by Sludge Metal; a rocking sensibility that’s as heavy and nasty as can be. Again, the result is Tombs.

Not many bands are playing this mix of styles; apart from Tombs there are only a handful of others, including the great Serpent Eater.

The band open with Thanatos; it has a curious sound mixing Doom-laden Post-Metal riffage with prime blast beats and throat-straining vocals. The rest of the album is equally impressive and takes aspects of these differing genre styles in lesser or greater extents to create a varied, interesting and very satisfying release.

The sound is immense and as heavy as Hell. All of the instruments are clear and identifiable and the entire recording is as sharp as a knife.

A real sense of horror and evil pervades the roots of this album; this manifests itself in the actual songs sometimes as blatant misanthropy and hatred, and others as a more nuanced disgust.

There’s a lot of longevity in this album. Start your descent into the Tombs now.

Lord Mantis – Death Mask (Review)

Lord Mantis are from the US and play Blackened Sludge Metal.

This is torturous, nihilistic Sludge with Blackened overtones and a deep, deep desire to do harm. They arm themselves with all kinds of sharp implements to rabidly experiment with in the search for the ultimate frenzied stab wound pattern. This manifests itself as 47 minutes of Blackened Sludge Metal with some noise components thrown in for good measure.

The songs are the aural equivalent of darkness made solid, with lurking dangers and scything evil hidden within and somehow free to move around in the impenetrable solidity of a corporeal inky black night.

Sounding like a more savage-than-normal Sludge band, Lord Mantis take vitriol to new heights and display a callous disregard for standard genre rules. Unlike some Sludge bands they also include blast beats and noise assaults in their armoury of nasty delights, and wield them with wanton brutality.

If you can handle the acerbic nature of the music then this is top of the league stuff. Depraved, vile, sinful and warped; this may be one of the best records of the year so far.

Stoneburner – Life Drawing (Review)

Stoneburner are a Sludge/Doom band from the US and Life Drawing is their second album.

The band combine aggressive Sludge with minimal Doom in a pleasing and refreshing way, taking elements of the masters such as Eyehategod and Neurosis and combing them with an eclectic mix of bands like Electric Wizard, Warhorse and even a splash of Isis on occasion.

They have a punchy, buoyant sound for a group of this type, with the guitars seemingly larger than life and ready to pop out of the speakers at a moment’s notice. For all this vibrancy however theirs is a filthy sound, mired in dirt and caked in sin.

The vocals are low-in-the-mix rumbles that sound as if something lurking just underneath the surface is threatening to break through and wreak havoc, yet is restrained by the thick, syrupy music.

The songs are free form expressions of the darker side of life where not everything works out in the end. The album cover is quite evocative and one can imagine this album chronicling the life and times of the figure in the painting. Which is possibly why the album sounds so bleak, yet with moments of uplift; even in a drab life there are moments of colour. Of course the actual lyrics are probably about something completely different, but this is my impression and it seems to fit the mood of the album.

At over 66 minutes in length this is a long and rewarding journey through a damaged life that culminates in the final, epic track The Pheonix. A moment of hope as the final curtain falls? Maybe.

Music to captivate and absorb.

Disenchanter – On Through Portals (Review)

Disenchanter are a US band who play slow and monolithic Doom.

There may be only three tracks on this EP but at 31 minutes in length it has plenty of substance.

The riffs meander and roll in true Stoner fashion and the psychedelic guitars cruise over a bedrock of bass with the drums bashing alongside.

The first track Journey To Abydos – Moon Maid puts in an impressive 8 minutes or so of work before the vocals even kick in, and when they do it’s like a shot of adrenaline into the system. Prior to this the relentless guitars, seemingly coming on in waves, pushes you into a semi-trance-like hypnotic haze of psychedelic bliss, and when the singer’s powerful vocals slash through your reverie like a hot razor blade, it’s somewhat of a wake up call.

And oh what a good voice she has. Powerful and strong yet still with a feminine and gentle edge. Like a crystal clear diamond sailing through a sea of roughened musical waters.

After this rather impressive first track the remaining songs Invoke and Into Darkness do not disappoint either.

Invoke has a more sedated start like a light breeze but quickly building up into a fully-fledged storm before spending itself early. After this it starts to build momentum once more, only gradually this time. The song is an exercise is build and release, build and release, before peaking at the end. Sexy stuff.

Into Darkness is a lumbering Doom colossus with the singer’s flawless vocals soaring over the top of gargantuan riffs.

This should be eagerly snapped up by all Doom connoisseurs everywhere. A big thumbs up!

Cleanteeth – Pushing Rope (Review)

Hailing from the US, Cleanteeth specialise in Sludgy Post-Metal Doom.

The band play their music ultra-heavy and with added effects and noise to truly force their point home.

Sometimes the vocals are tortured and hoarse, screaming their angst at an uncaring world who are forced to pay attention by the sheer wall of distortion aimed in their general direction; other times they are cleaner and more melodic, but only relatively speaking as they are still chock full of a soul-searching uneasiness and feelings of malaise.

Amidst the walls of guitars though there is time for reflection and calmness; time to take stock of what’s been gained or lost before the next sound-tsunami roars forth.

The songs are shorter than is the norm for bands of this ilk. They do not end prematurely however, they are exactly the length they need to be to deliver their payload.

Cleanteeth write their songs catchy and memorable, even with the churning chaos and noise considered. This is what Mastodon would sound like if they went a heavier, Sludgier route from their inception. The band they most remind me of though in many ways is Will Haven, and not so much as they directly sound like them. Although they share various sonic parameters it’s more the fact that they write such crushingly heavy down-beat music while retaining an accessibility and hook-laden delivery that’s at odds with just how harsh they can be.

Bands like this don’t come along that often, and when they do you have to sit up and pay attention. So sit up and pay attention as Cleanteeth are something special.

Indian – From All Purity (Review)

Indian are from the US and play Sludge Metal with added Noise; this is their fifth album.

This is Sludge of the most vicious, harshest variety. These six tracks assault the listener with guitars as heavy as icebergs and enough dissonant noises to floor a bear.

The crawling, abrasive sound leeches all of the warmth from the air as the feeling of cold, impersonal, urban bleakness saturates the sound waves.

The onward march of the devastating riffs is relentless and disturbing. Had the band limited itself to this it would be a monumental attack, but with all of the feedback, squeals, pops, crackles and noises that accompany the songs at just the right level of intrusiveness they are transformed into even more unapproachable entities than they would be without these additions.

The vocals match the intensity of the music, coming across as the bastard mutated offspring of a twisted three-way between the singers of At The Gates, Khanate and Iron Monkey. As impressive as it is harsh; the vocals are as unrelenting as the music they screech over.

If you’re tough enough to survive this aural onslaught then there’s no reason not to return to this again and again and again. Crushing.

Agrimonia – Rites of Separation (Review)

Agrimonia play a magnificent and fairly unique mix of Sludge, Post-Metal and Crust all crushed up in a darkened Metal palette ready for the artist to use in the creation of something astounding.

The band are adept at channelling this proverbial artist and therefore know how to expertly build up a song into a complete soundscape full of sights and wonders. At the end of the album each of the sprawling tracks has left an impression like a different country visited. Experience and sense are everything in Agrimonia’s world of visceral sound.

This is intelligent Metal crafted with a loving hand and filled with emotive passages and feeling aplenty. Many of the riffs are alive with pulsating energy and the album almost has its own heartbeat.

The singer has a blood-curdling voice and her vocals add a level of harshness and intensity to the blackened beauty of the music. She puts in a performance to be commended and is the icing on the musical cake.

Rites of Separation is ambitious and bold, and succeeds in creating a masterpiece of shading and involvement. This is an album that everyone should have.

Drawers – Drawers (Review)

French Sludge/Stoner Metallers Drawers release their self-titled second album, and as soon as you press play it’s party time at the dive bar for everyone!

Coming across as a mix of Crowbar, Baroness and Mastodon, this is an enjoyable romp through France’s underbelly of Southern-tinged bars. Moving from scrape to scrape all night long and out into the crisp morning dawn to reflect on what’s been lost; the songs are largely high-energy but have a forlorn air of lost-innocence which is somehow endearing.

It’s this aura of fragility coating the otherwise burly riffing and coarse vocals that adds a layer of depth to the band; that lets you know there’s more to this drunken bruiser than meets the eye. The riffs may be heavy and scuzzy but the melodies hidden underneath the obvious give the band a secret ingredient; the same could be said of the vocals also.

Drawers have an undefined edge to their sound that is as apparent as it is hard to grasp. A wonderful combination.

If you enjoy rocked-out Metal of this variety but are also looking for something a little different with it’s own individuality then I’d suggest this album be on your list of wants.