Tag: Sludge

Interview with Downfall of Gaia

Downfall of Gaia Logo

You know that feeling when you listen to a band’s album and you just know that you’re going to be enjoying and exploring it for years to come? Downfall of Gaia’s latest release Atrophy is exactly one such release. I’m listening to it again as I write this, and it makes me quite excited to think that years from now I’ll still be listening to it, only I’ll know it even better than I do at the moment.

With a desire to find out some more about the band behind this superlative album, how else to get to know Downfall of Gaia even better than to reach out to the vocalist/guitarist of the band, Dominik Goncalves dos Reis, for a chat…?

What are your influences?

We are influenced by a lot of things. Musically I would break it down to black metal, doom and sludge as the main influence. Continue reading “Interview with Downfall of Gaia”

Cowards – Still (Review)

CowardsCowards are a blackened hardcore band from France and this is their latest EP.

I do so very much enjoy the work of Cowards. Their last album, 2015’s Rise to Infamy, was a tight ball of violent blackened extremity filled with hardcore’s passion and sludge’s ugly heaviness. Still continues this theme, boasting three new tracks and two covers. This is 19 minutes of music guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and then hit you around the head. Continue reading “Cowards – Still (Review)”

Obake – Draugr (Review)

ObakeObake are an Italian experimental sludge metal band and this is their third album.

Obake are an unusual band, as you may have surmised from the oddly unsettling album cover. They essentially take a sludge metal base and use this to launch an experimental foray into avant-garde waters, usually quite defying the listener in their expectations. Continue reading “Obake – Draugr (Review)”

Bearstorm – Biophobia (Review)

BearstormBearstorm are a progressive black metal band from the US and this is their latest EP.

Bearstorm play progressive black metal, but if you haven’t heard them before I can all but guarantee that they don’t sound as you’d expect them to.

Their previous album Americanus was an unusual record. A very good one, but a very individual one that was probably too much of an acquired taste for most. A shame, but their loss, (whoever they are), is our gain. Continue reading “Bearstorm – Biophobia (Review)”

Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)

granslandetGränslandet are a hardcore band from Sweden. This is their debut album.

This is 41 minutes of filthy hardcore that combines d-beat, crust and sludge together into a grime-covered mass of aural pollution.

The band have the kind of production that sounds as if they’ve been dragged out of the swamp, kicking and clawing into the sunlight. Raw, underground and filthy doesn’t quite cover it in many ways. Continue reading “Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)”

11Paranoias – Reliquary for a Dreamed of World (Review)

11 ParanoiasThis is the third album from 11Paranoias, a UK sludge/doom band.

The album cover alone makes me feel paranoid, not to mention confused and slightly panicked, and this is before I’ve even pressed play. Continue reading “11Paranoias – Reliquary for a Dreamed of World (Review)”

Black Tomb – Black Tomb (Review)

Black TombBlack Tomb are a sludge/doom band from the US. This is their debut album.

Black Tomb appear to have congealed out of some dank, dark tar pit with the express purpose of creating bleak, filthy doom metal.

Think of Electric Wizard if they were a Continue reading “Black Tomb – Black Tomb (Review)”

Vermin Womb – Decline (Review)

Vermin WombVermin Womb are a blackened sludge/grind band form the US. This is their debut album.

Due to my love of their first EP Permanence, as well as all things Primitive Man and Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, (who they share members with), this release has been highly anticipated by yours truly.

On Permanence Vermin Womb channelled the destructive essence Continue reading “Vermin Womb – Decline (Review)”

Headless Kross – Projections 1 (Review)

Headless KrossHeadless Kross are a doom band from the UK.

Headless Kross don’t play nice music. They do, however, play heavy music, and this is what we like.

The vocals are unhinged screams. They seem Continue reading “Headless Kross – Projections 1 (Review)”