Sludge – Page 66 – Wonderbox Metal

Astrakhan – A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin (Review)

Astrakhan are from Canada and play Progressive Metal. This is their latest EP.

This is powerful music with plenty of dynamics and personality.

Think Progressive Metal with a modern edge; kind of in the vein of what Mastodon do but without really sounding like them too much. Couple this with elements of bands as diverse as Alice in Chains, High on Fire and Metallica…

Hard Rock mixes with a Sludge feel and strong clean vocals dominate everything. Stoner simplicity and technical complexity merge together. They are at once cohesive and divisive; multiple influences congeal into a coherent whole and result in four very impressive songs.

The sheer force of charisma generated by the singer is draw-dropping. To further muddy the waters of genre-definition, he sometimes sounds like he could easily front an Avant-Garde band like Arcturus or Manes with ease.

The distortion feels alive and the riffs have a vitality to them. Each of the songs flexes its musical muscles and exudes feelings that are both epic and emotive.

Their music is textured and rich with riffs that propel the songs onward with real passion and vigour.

Top quality. If they can translate their obvious talent into a full length album they’ll be on to a real winner.

Trigger – Start Our Revenge (Review)

Trigger are from Germany and this is their début album. They play Grindcore.

Immediately it’s a wall of hard noise that hits you with the first track. Trigger don’t mess around. This is 24 minutes of aural abuse and nasty Grindcore that’s for true fans only.

Violent Grind is the name of the game here. The Punk/Hardcore influences of the genre are not as blatant as some bands as Trigger go for a harsher sound and delivery than most.

The high screamed vocals sound utterly maniacal and unhinged. I’m sure the singer is a nice, normal, well-adjusted person in real life, but he sounds like a lunatic on this.

Did I mention there’s no guitars? No? Well there isn’t. Who needs guitars when you have bass, drums and enough bile and venom to kill an elephant. The riffs are fuzzed-up bundles of hatred and the drums are as relentless as decay.

The lack of guitar gives them a Sludge feeling in places, despite the near-constant high-velocity nature of the tracks. This feeling is reinforced on the odd occasion that they do slow down and it’s a welcome additional facet to their sound.

This is strangely compelling and oddly refreshing. Pull the Trigger and watch them explode.

Old Thunder – Slings & Arrows (Review)

This is Atmospheric Doom/Sludge from the US. It’s the début release from this solo project.

The intro track Our Fields Are Burning is slow and meandering, and reminds me of Abandon. The singer barks over the first part of it and I like his voice; aggressive, legible and passionate.

June 2, 1910 is the first song proper and also the longest at just under 10 minutes. I’m once again reminded of Abandon, and their combination of Doom and Sludge with a dose of Crust is a path that Old Thunder also adhere to.

Having said that, Old Thunder also have faster sections that put me more in mind of a band like Rorcal with their Blackened Sludge delivery.

The first half of Sinking sounds like it’s stalking prey through a dark wilderness and once more I feel the need to comment on his barking voice; it’s very expressive and sounds really, really good. Nice work that man.

Rainroom has a strong despondent melodic streak running through it that focuses more on the Atmospheric Doom side of the equation, as well as some My Dying Bride/Katatonia influences.

The final track Serpent Sovereign is all about the dirrrggggeeeee.

My favourite parts of this release are the bits where the music slows, the guitars lock into a Doomy repetitive riff and the down-beat melodics come into play.

There’s also the odd moment of Post-Metal thrown into the mix, and even some clean vocals added in to spice things up.

This is a surprisingly diverse mix of Doom-esque sub-genres. All performed well and all, for the most part, sounding naturally mixed and not just cut and pasted together.

Slings & Arrows falls short of being absolutely phenomenal only very marginally. The first reason is the recording; there’s nothing wrong with it as such but I can’t help but feel the songs would benefit from a slightly fuller, warmer sound. The second is the songwriting; although very accomplished, especially for a first release, I feel it could be tightened up a little bit here and there.

Really though, these are very minor quibbles as this is a top quality début. On the basis of Slings & Arrows I fully expect that the next release from Old Thunder will be totally jaw-dropping.

Be sure to check this out.

Fortress – Unto the Nothing (Review)

Fortress are from the US and play Doom Metal. This is their début album.

This is Doom Metal with plenty of heaviness and bite.

Slow, colossal riffs ring out from the speakers, slowly trying to drag you into oblivion. I do like a band that knows how to play at a glacial pace.

The growled vocals sound like a howling daemon rising from the pit to swallow you whole, whilst the marginally less-deep vocals remind of the singer of Cathedral with a rougher voice mixed with the singer of The Meads of Asphodel.

This is Doom with an undercurrent of Sludge running through the waste pipes. There’s a wildness to Fortress that doesn’t need taming; it’s part of their innate appeal.

Feedback-laden, dirty and unkempt; Fortress remind of Grief, only with longer songs, mixed with a band like Conan.

Chunky, heavy riffs power the songs and some of the guitar parts have a Stoner Metal vibe to them. Everything is played at a snail’s pace though, so both Stoner and Sludge influences ultimately get poured into the same drain that’s filled to the brim with DOOOOM!

For quality Doom that’s crushingly heavy and a vibe of total despair and loss, look no further than Fortess.

Favourite Track: Either Lies & Fears; Slow. Heavy. Miserable. Compelling; or The Nothing, with subtle, ethereal female cleans in the background. Haunting.

Piss Vortex – Piss Vortex (Review)

Piss Vortex are a Grindcore band from Denmark. This is their début album.

Piss Vortex play the kind of monstrous, visceral Grind that’s just such a pleasure to listen to. Their brand of mayhem is infused with a healthy wedge of Sludge and the two influences have conspired to create a caustic blend of hatred and venom.

The short, violent tracks on this release are a testament to a band who clearly want to rip out your insides and equally clearly don’t care how they do this.

Blasting, atonal and dissonant Grind is mixed with Sludge’s harsh churn to create tracks that don’t always go the direction you might expect, although every one of them is lethal.

Inventive and interesting riffs are backed up by inhuman drumming and vocals that are aggressive enough to carry a health warning.

Piss Vortex have an impressive amount of ways to kill and maim. Some Grind can fall into the trap of just repeating itself, but Piss Vortex manage to sound fresh, enticing and relatively varied for a band that are essentially harnessing pure anger and rage.

Absolute class. For connoisseurs of violent music.

Process of Guilt/Rorcal – Split (Review)

This is a split between Portugal’s Process of Guilt and Switzerland’s Rorcal.

Rorcal’s contribution to the split is 15 minutes of anguished, Blackened chaos.

On their previous album Vilagvege they had a Blackened element to their sound, with dark atmospheres and Black Metal-laced blasting appearing in places; on this split they appear to have embraced this bitingly harsh side of their sound to a greater deal and these three songs have a much stronger Black Metal influence. Having sampled the whirlwind Rorcal seem to have liked their taste of the darkness.

The Sludge is still here though. Blast beats there may be but they also slow things down to let the listener really feel the despair. At least for a short while.

I like Rorcal a lot and think that no matter whether they play fast or slow they have a talent for sounding both evil and agonised at the same time.

The first half of the split is a triumph then.

Having never encountered Process of Guilt before – what of the second half?

Process of Guilt’s contribution to the split is three tracks of Atmospheric Doom Sludge lasting 17 minutes.

They start with harsh screams that seem to escape from the void of negativity that the band shroud themselves with. They have a good sound that veritably screams for the apocalypse to happen and the hammering guitars combined with the very emotive and atmospheric aura of misery that they perpetuate is a treat to listen to.

Deeper, grimmer vocals share stage with these otherworldly shrieks to create a well rounded vocal package that complements the professional delivery of the band. This is Sludge to fall in love with.

Process of Guilt combine the abrasive, twisting parts of Neurosis, the relentless heaviness of Celeste and the dark, gritty atmospheres of Burning Witch to create 17 minutes of feedback-drenched Hell that any Sludge/Doom fan couldn’t help but fall for.

A 32 minutes split featuring quality bands and songs. What’s stopping you from getting this right now?

Algoma – Reclaimed by the Forest (Review)

Algoma are a Sludge/Doom band from Canada and this is their début album.

Algoma play the kind of filthy, grim Sludge akin to the likes of Eyehategod, Fistula, Buzzov.en, etc.

The riffs are heavy and large and have the relentless inevitability of a slow-moving avalanche. Reclaimed by the Forest seems to be powered by these monstrous guitars, as if they have an energy all to themselves; self-generating and powerful enough to make everything else follow suite.

Vocally the singer has a voice that’s somewhere between a shout and a bark.

The band’s sound is murky and dense, as one would expect from a Sludge Metal group, but there’s a healthy amount of Doom to their style meaning they go slower than some similar bands.

At almost 42 minutes in length it doesn’t outstay its welcome and the infectious nature of the Sludgy guitars mean that it’s a good album to zone out to and become encased in the heaviness.

Each song is a smorgasbord of heaviness, crunchy guitars and bile.

It’s time to let the forest take you.

Trysth – Soulchambers (Review)

Trysth are from Bulgaria and play Atmospheric Doom/Post-Metal. This is their début.

At 51 minutes in length this album takes in all that’s slow, contemplative, expressive and heavy. The band delve into Doom, Sludge and Post-Metal in an attempt to nail down their core sound.

It’s played well, sounds great and the songs themselves are mature compositions simultaneously satisfying fans of the immediate and heavy alongside the slower, brooding nature of this kind of music.

Soulchambers sounds quite apocalyptic and harrowing in places. The slow build/release mechanics that form the core of Post-Metal rub shoulders with the simpler miseries of Doom and the grim edginess of Sludge. The end result is an album of pits and troughs, lows and highs, ebbs and flows; an album that reaches for more whilst strengthening and safeguarding its central identity of desolate and bleak landscapes populated by oases of life and vitality.

The band know their art well and the album is a studied dissection of atmospheric Doom that is remarkable in its completeness. This is especially impressive as it’s the début of the band; such a strong album usually denotes more experienced hands. However, Trysth also share a member with the excellent Blackened Doom band Upyr, so it should come as no surprise really that Trysth should share similar levels of quality.

The vocals are tortured shouts that stop just short of descending into growling territory. These are accentuated by semi-cleans and cleans that are used for added effect and emotive appeal. The singer suits the heaviness of the music and the vocals are used sparingly.

The album cover is a very fitting choice as it visually represents the band’s sound extremely well.

For fans of Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Isis and the rest. Basically, for fans of thoughtful, heavy music. If you like this style then this is a must.

What an album!

The Dead – Deathsteps to Oblivion (Review)

The Dead are an Australian Death/Sludge Metal band and this is their third album.

The Dead are not your typical Death Metal band. This is Death Metal with an added Sludge Metal aspect. This means the songs are longer than normal, (the shortest here is 6:06), very heavy and full of mountainous Sludge riffs that could crush the life from the unwary.

The unholy marriage of Death Metal and Sludge is so complete that it’s truly hard to know how to categorise them – are they Death Metal with a lot of Sludge, or are they Sludge Metal with a lot of Death? It doesn’t really matter of course as ultimately they’re their own beast and one that has created a joyfully miserable album of filthy heaviness.

Glacial riffs and heavy guitars pour out of the speakers whilst pitch-black growls tear through all defences, deep enough to make your ribcage wobble.

It’s not all death and destruction though. The Sludge aspect of their sound means that they get to explore other musical climates that not many normal Death Metal bands get to explore. Here we’re talking about lighter moments, where the band get to ease off the distortion and add more subtlety into proceedings.

This is slow, ponderous music yet strangely carries great nuance with it. These are complex songs in the sense that emotionally they carry great weight in addition to the heaviosity of the more obvious aspects of their sound.

This is a terrifyingly unique blend of Death and Sludge Metal that should be on any Heavy music fan’s to-get list.

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.