Sludge – Page 62 – Wonderbox Metal

Kade Storm – Beyond Blood & Ashes (Review)

Kade Storm is a solo artist from the UK. This is his début album of Blackened Doom Metal.

The album features a grim, heavy sound that is pleasingly murky.

The vocals remind me of the singer of Cathedral if he had a rawer, Blackened edge to his voice.

Apocalyptic mid-paced riffs form the bulk of the music, relentlessly stomping onwards in a fit of dark vision. The music has a Doom/Sludge feel to it, enhanced by a Blackened twinge and some Classic Metal elements on occasion, especially in the included guitar solos.

The guitars chug and groove in a restrained and bleak way, giving the songs a curious feeling like they’re somehow stuck between styles. This is not necessarily to their detriment, but it is somewhat of an acquired taste. Or, I suppose more accurately; it depends if you’re in the mood for it or not.

The music is consistently similar throughout, giving it a drone-like hypnotic quality in some ways. Individual songs work perfectly well, but taken as a whole the album describes a full movement of crawling, ugly Doom with occult atmospheres and dark designs.

Check it out.

Electricjezus – The Foundation Pit (Котлован)

This is the second album from this Russian Doom/Sludge band.

This is gritty, earthy Sludge that has a bedrock of down-tuned riffage and harsh vocals, providing the listener with plenty of opportunity to engage with the negativity and also have a darn good groove to the music as well.

The music is largely mid-paced with slower sections appearing as necessary to drive the tar-like feeling of Sludge home.

Vocally we get Blackened screams that seethe with energetic disgust and bile. They frequently take second place to the rest of the music and are only used when there needs to be an added violent emphasis to the songs’ downbeat messages.

This is only a two-piece band but they make more than enough noise to make you think otherwise. The beefy, bass-enhanced riffs become hypnotic by their repetition and, as any Sludge/Doom fan knows, it’s easy to become entranced by this kind of relentless, churning heaviness.

The band have an ear for a good riff and this is the kind of Sludge that it’s easy to fall for. Heavy, emotive and crackling with hate; Electricjezus spend 41 minutes flattening the opposition with waves of distortion.

Oh, and there’s a magnificent Sludge cover of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, too. Top work!

Make sure you check out Electricjezus.

Behold! The Monolith – Architects of the Void (Review)

This is the third album from US Doom Metallers Behold! The Monolith.

The band play Doom mixed with Sludge, producing an album that sits outside of the normal template for both sub-genres and is all the better for it.

In addition to the usual Doom staples, there’s also an anger here. This is manifest in the aggressive vocals and the more upbeat aspects of the songs.

The tracks are a combination of Doom, Sludge and even a bit of Classic Metal and Post-Metal on occasion. This is an interesting and less-travelled path for a band to tread, and in this way Behold! The Monolith remind me of the equally compelling Khemmis.

Architects of the Void is a heavy and dark album, full of slow, agonising crawls through a landscape littered with broken dreams and dying hopes. That’s not to say it’s a completely nihilistic and bleak album like some Doom; this is actually more of a well-rounded release than that, with brighter parts, epic feelings and groovier sections included too. Overall though, it’s heavy, dark and very engaging.

The songs sound introverted and personal, albeit through the lens of a public-facing band. This sounds more like music played for the sake of musical catharsis and outlet than for the need to simply rock out or any such thing. There’s a lot of feeling here, sometimes bubbling beneath the surface and sometimes right in your face.

Due to the mixing of the sub-styles, (Doom/Sludge/Metal), this is quite a varied release and each song has its own personality. The album works well holistically and there’s a lot of depth, nuance and longevity to be had on this release.

Like the tastiest of Metal feasts, Architects of the Void will leave you feeling satisfied and satiated.

Very highly recommended.

Captain Cleanoff – Rising Terror (Review)

This is the second album from Australian Grindcore band Captain Cleanoff.

Here we have 16 tracks in a brief and violent 21 minutes. Napalm Death and Terrorizer are your instant points of reference for Rising Terror and it lives up to these lofty expectations by demolishing everything in front of it in a tidal wave of raw savagery.

The songs are fast and furious, with everything dedicated to the Grindcore assault, although it frequently stops short of becoming a complete blastfest.

These short and nasty tracks are all brutality and teeth, snarling and gnashing their way through the seconds like a hungry predator. The main exception to this high-speed delivery is the final track Threads, which is more of an atmospheric track; slower and Sludgy, (and at just under 5 minutes long it’s pretty much 25% of the album).

There’s a lot of d-beats involved on Rising Terror, as well as it having a Hardcore energy. Good groves and riffs are used and Captain Cleanoff have a clear understanding of dynamics within the Grindcore template.

The vocals alternate high-pitched acid-drenched vocals with deeper growls. The latter sound rough and angry while the former sound insanely psychotic.

This is an enjoyable 20 minutes from a band with a solid sound and style who know how to get down to business and get the job done.

Recommended.

Funerary – Starless Aeon (Review)

This is the début album from US Doom band Funerary.

This is dark, misery-drenched Doom that has a harsh Sludge edge, giving the band a nasty bite.

One of the first things that strikes me about Funerary are the jaw-dropping, ultra-intense vocals. They’re mainly high pitched screams or deep growls, although that description doesn’t do them justice. The screams sound rabid and the growls sound inhuman. Either way, they make a big impression.

This is 34 minutes of mind-numbing despair and utter misery. The songs are heavy, slow and full of depressed fury. This last point is an important one; for all of the Doom and gloom on this record, Funerary have a very angry side that lends their songs an aggressive dominance over all they survey.

Funerary also know how to do subtle though. It’s a downtrodden, malicious subtle and their version of light and shade is multiple shades of black, but subtlety is still within their arsenal. As such, there’s also a side of Atmospheric Sludge to their assault, which is always a welcome addition to any band and further enhances Funerary’s sound, giving them an added depth.

Throughout the release the feeling is one of a filthy, worthless existence, one that has no merits or positive sides just different types of pain and anguish. In itself this obviously doesn’t sound very appealing at all, however, when translated into Funerary’s scorn-filled hate-sludge, it suddenly becomes very appealing indeed.

It’s a relatively varied release, taking in aspects of the main sub-genres mentioned previously, as well as elements of Drone, Post-Black Metal and Experimental Doom. Largely though, it’s an impressive mixture of Doom, Atmospheric Sludge and feedback-laden nihilism, like a cross between Primitive Man, Esoteric and Khanate.

I strongly suggest you get a dose of Starless Aeon.

Fell Ruin – Devices (Review)

Fell Ruin are from the US and play Black Metal. This is their début EP.

This is Black Metal of the raw and underground variety that’s been dragged wilfully through a dark, dank swamp and picked up all manner of Sludge and Doom accoutrements along the way.

It’s essentially an odd, distressing Blackened dirge that combines ferocity of vision with otherworldly vibes to create something that feels both wrong and strange, albeit in a disconcertingly agreeable manner.

If Mayhem and Electric Wizard were to do some form of collaboration, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to imagine something like Devices being the end result.

The standard Blackened guitars are supplemented with riffs that are odd, unusual and atmospheric in a claustrophobic, unsettling kind of way. This is a subtle malevolence though, rather than the crushing horror of someone like Ævangelist. Devices gets under your skin.

These tracks are extremely well-written, with subtlety, shading and emotive darkness all featuring heavily in their sound. I really like discovering a band like this as Fell Ruin aren’t your typical Black Metal proposition. On Devices they’re attempting to imprint a well-worn genre with their own style and personality and it works really well.

Oh, there’s some deep fucking oddness here! Not in an ostentatious, extravagant, “look at me” kind of way where some bands feel they need to go to great lengths to show how “wacky” and “weird” they are. No, this is an under-the-radar, “hmm, there’s something not quite right here” kind of way, just before the daemon erupts from someone’s brain and starts slaughtering everyone…

A dark revelation of uncomfortable truths.

Don’t miss it.

Old Witch/Keeper – Split (Review)

Old Witch are from Canada and Keeper are from the US. Both play Doom. This is their split, containing 58 minutes of crawling, evil music.

Old Witch start us off with their half of the split. Their take on Doom is dirty, nasty and filled with malevolent hatred.

Taking the template as laid down by Khanate, Old Witch proceed to bury this in the soil for a thousand years before digging it up and slowly flaying it alive.

The slow, thoughtful assault of their earthy-sounding Doom combines at once an unforced naturalism and a feeling of urban decay and darkness. The minimalistic Khanate-style approach is enhanced with eerie melodies and textured nihilism that has shades of Funeral Doom.

Other apt comparisons would be the murky Sludge of Culted, only without the Blackened elements, or the marathon of filth that is Venowl, only with more of an emotive presence.

At any rate, this is my first encounter with Old Witch and they have turned out to be an extremely gratify proposition. Their name held a lot of promise as it pretty much evoked images right from the off that gave me high expectations of their sound. I have not been disappointed.

After the grim majesty of Old Witch, many bands would be found wanting. Thankfully, Keeper are not just any old band. Unlike Old Witch I’m already a firm fan of Keeper’s crushing Doom from their recent split with Sea Bastard and their EP The Space Between Your Teeth.

Keeper are heavier than Old Witch and sound like an avalanche of Sludge Metal descending from a great height to destroy anything it lands on.

The acerbic vocals always provide a wonderfully acidic focal point that the guitars seem to congregate around as if feeding off them.

Maybe it’s keeping company with Old Witch, but Keeper sound blacker and darker on this release. The shining, contemplative Post-Metal side of their style is still present and correct, but even this sounds more villainous than usual.

These two songs are just as impressive as I’ve come to expect from Keeper and the entire split, almost an hour of Doom, is a fantastic release that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Definitely one to get.

Bearstorm – Americanus (Review)

Bearstorm are from the US and play Progressive Black Metal. This is their second album.

Bearstorm. Say it again, slowly. Bearstorm. Fantastic name. I was expecting something utterly ferocious with a name like that, but Bearstom are nothing if not surprising. They do have a ferocious element, but for the most part there’s a whole lot of other stuff going on here.

The music is a curious mix of Progressive wanderings, Blackened bite, Technical Death Metal Jazz-wizardry, Post-Metal experimentalism and Southern Sludge.

Their sound is pleasingly hard to pigeon-hole actually. The Progressive Metal influence is apparent from the start and infuses everything else at a deep level. The Black/Death/Sludge/Post-Metal influences in their sound take their cues from this and the band have interesting music at the very core of their being.

I suppose…Mastodon meets Enslaved meets Opeth meets Inter Arma meets Ephel Duath meets Pyrrhon…

The songs are varied and individual affairs. There’s a lot of ideas on display and Bearstorm never shy away from being different or going their own direction. It’s to their credit, as too many bands simply ape what has gone before them, so when a band like this comes along it’s a real pleasure to see them doing something different form the norm and attempting to forge their own sound.

Vocally the singer has a largely Blackened scream that’s supplemented with pitch-black growls on occasion. In many ways the guitars are the focal point of Americanus and the vocals provide an undercurrent to these. They’re done well though so there’s no real complaints from me on this score.

Clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into Americanus, to the point that the band have re-recorded the entire album for maximum effect; this is a re-recorded and re-issued version of their 2013 album. Having never heard the original version all I can say is that this version sounds pretty damn good.

An interesting, exciting and fresh-sounding record; Americanus is more than deserving of your attention.

Favourite Track: Glacial Relic II. An epic that’s Progressively atmospheric and even contains a Country influence. Amazing.

Moanaa – Descent (Review)

Moanaa are an Atmospheric Sludge Metal band from Poland and this is their début album.

This is an interesting and multi-faceted release that combines elements of Sludge, Post-Metal and Progressive Metal together into an overarching framework of Atmospheric Sludge lasting just under 60 minutes.

Soft acoustics and Post-Metal melodies clash with harsh Sludge and Progressive workouts. Heavy riffs and ethereal melodies create soundscapes that merge the best of both. This is a richly textured and layered album and the songs have a lot of depth and dark energy. Even when the tempo drops there’s a brooding undercurrent of repressed power and understated grandeur.

The vocals snarl and gnash their way through the songs. Ugly, vicious and essentially Death Metal in style, they’re juxtaposed against cleaner vocals nicely, in the same way that the music trades brutality with transcendence, darkness with light. There’s a lot of shading here though and the vocals pretty much run the whole spectrum from ethereal cleans to deep growls and everything in the middle.

The playing is tight and the recording perfectly judged. The album sounds great in every way.

I love albums like this. Quality songwriting and flawless execution combine to result in an album that’s an engaging journey and a real treat for anyone into atmospheric music, be that Sludge, Doom or Post-Metal.

Loved it.

Khemmis – Absolution (Review)

Khemmis are a US Doom Metal band and this is their début album.

Now this is an interesting release. The album cover might lead you to believe that Khemmis are a Traditional Doom Metal band, and although this is certainly a big part of their sound there’s also more going on here than that.

Khemmis combine Traditional Doom Metal with Sludge Metal. This is not a common thing to do and it works much better than you might think.

What does this mean in real terms? Well, it means the ancient Traditional Doom approach is melded together with a heavier, Sludgier sound that’s partially one and partially the other. Imagine a cross between 40 Watt Sun and a cleaner version of Primitive Man.

The vocals also display this duality of Doom purpose; dreamy, traditional clean vocals are occasionally supplemented with deeper growls that seem like they’re about to tear the Earth apart with their ferocity.

I love the way the band manage to take the clean Doom Metal sound, mix it with the dirty Sludge style and come up with a winning combination of the two. This is usually within the same song too. Southern-inspired riffs share space with heavenly cleans, (the singer has a top quality voice), before descending into the pit once more and the Deathgrowls rule the roost for a while.

This is an album that cries out for repeated spins, and repeated spins it gets. In addition to its obvious charms there’s a lot of hidden gold on Absolution.

Extremely highly recommended.