Sludge – Page 71 – Wonderbox Metal

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.

Black Tar Prophet – Deafen (Review)

Black Tar Prophet are an instrumental Sludge/Doom band from the US. This is their second album.

This is heavy. This is slow. This is DOOM! This is good.

The band live up to their name, with Sludgy, bass-heavy riffs leading the way in a tsunami of sound designed to crush the senses and render the mind inert. Sonic sensory overload.

Destructively slow riffs meet with, (sometimes), up-tempo sections and pummelling drum rhythms to create forceful and energetic songs that soak up the raw essence of what it means to be Sludge, even when only playing for a short time; Judgement Whore is only 1:40 in length for example, but is pure filthy Doom greatness.

Imagine a mix of Eyehategod, Bismuth, Ghold and Khanate; now remove the vocals, remove the guitars and distil the essence into, (mostly), short songs. Black Tar Prophet are here. All hail.

North – Metanoia (Review)

North are from the US and play Post-Metal.

Whether it’s build and release or tense and relax; having light and dark or beauty and brutality; these are some of the staples of Post-Metal, that most varied of beasts, and North provide an exemplar of how to do this while layering the entire thing in raw, Sludgy vocals.

Picture a band playing their favourite parts of Isis and Year Of No Light and condensing these resulting compositions into shorter songs than typically either of those bands; this will give you a good idea of the ground that North tread.

The vocals are rough semi-cleans that provide an interesting counterpoint to the clear music. They are expressive and emotive in all of the right ways. The same can be said of the songs themselves. Taken together these tracks explore the emotional depths and heights of whatever the subject matter is. As someone once said of Radiohead – I don’t know what he’s singing about but I can tell he means it, (or something along those lines).

Each of these four tracks is a mastercrafted example of Post-Metal at its best, especially as it doesn’t aim to simply mimic Neurosis/Cult of Luna as a lot of Post-Metal ends up doing to some extent. Here we have a band travelling their own path to the beat of their heroes but with a singular intent all of their own.

I had never heard North before this EP, and I quickly come to the conclusion that this is a crying shame as the quality and effect of these songs is undeniable.

Expand your horizons, and make sure you travel North.

Helmsplitter – Enraptured by Suffering (Review)

Helmsplitter are from the US and play a filthy blend of Black and Death Metal.

Boasting a powerful sound the band waste no time in attacking everything around them with fierce blasting and razor sharp Blackened riffs.

The band’s songs combine many different aspects of Metal; predominantly Black and Death, but also elements of Sludge, Thrash and Crust. This means that we end up with a very dark, dank album that has the darkness of Black Metal, the brutality of Death Metal and the songsmithing of classic Metal.

There are catches and hooks aplenty in these songs, all delivered wrapped in barbed wire and with snarling vocals. The band know how to write an enjoyable song and vary tempos, styles and delivery to suit their nefarious needs.

There are stand-out moments in pretty much every song. Some examples; Panzram is the shortest song on the album and has blasting and belligerence written into its DNA; Aura of Suicide has a Hellishly good groove-based Darkthrone-esque riff that’s enough to blow away all-comers; The Ground Bleeds Sorrow piledrives along before splitting off into rumbling psudo-Southern groove; the list could esily be expanded to all 11 tracks here.

44 minutes of quality, well-written Metal; enraptured by Helmsplitter.

Nux Vomica – Nux Vomica (Review)

Nux Vomica are from the US and play Sludge/Doom.

The songs are long and the guitars are heavy and raging, for the most part at least.

There is a healthy Crust influence to the Metallic Sludge that the band play, which gives them an extra vitality to their sound. The recording is clear and warm with a solid sound that lets everything come through the speakers just right.

The vocalist is savagery incarnate and seemingly a very angry man. He screams bloody hatred over the electrifying Metallic storm that is raging around him.

Nux Vomica certainly have anger and hatred in spades, but they also have the ability to play more restrained and considered sections, which makes the dynamics of the songs so much better than if they were just pure aggression.

This has the anger and brutality of Metallic Hardcore/Crust tempered with the epic soundscapes of the Post-Metal elite. The result is a tour de force of exciting music that should appeal to any Extreme Metal fan.

This is superlative stuff.

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.

Cauldron Black Ram – Stalagmire (Review)

This is the third album from Australian Death Metal band Cauldron Black Ram.

The band have a very striking sound that instantly forces you to sit up and pay attention. Sort of like Six Feet Under crossed with Venom and Celtic Frost.

There is an air of Sludge to the songs; a foetid whiff of mouldy corpses long sealed in a basement. Add to this a decent Black Metal influence on occasion, and you have a bumpy ride over the screaming bodies of countless poor passers by as this Metal juggernaut rolls into town.

They have a very fluid sound in the sense that the songs can morph into different shades of Metal quite quickly, with different riffs, vocals and drumming patterns all asserting themselves dominantly depending on the song. All of this happens within the Death/Black/Sludge Metal framework of course, but it does mean that there’s never any chance to get bored when the band have so many tools to club their way into your attention.

Although I wouldn’t call them Old-School per se, there is a definite Old-School streak to them and they even have some prime Heavy Metal, almost Iron Maiden-type moments now and again.

This is an interesting and gratifying Metal album. All the more so for the fact that it’s a little different from the norm. A lot of talent and effort has gone into these songs, and it shows.

Get your fix of Cauldron Black Ram today.

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!

Dirge – Hyperion (Review)

Dirge are a veteran French band and Hyperion is their sixth album.

The band play atmospheric Post-Metal Sludge with an electronic/Industrial influence.

I should also note at this juncture that although it’s irrelevant to the music and I have no idea what it’s depicting, I love the album artwork.

The music is mysterious and enticing. There is also a strong feeling of grandeur running through the tracks, especially when the singer goes all semi-clean-shouting, (a technical term…); it almost makes the hairs stand up with goosebumps.

The vocals have a lot of variety and the singer uses his voice to best accentuate the music and the feelings they wish their songs to evoke. The added female vocals used in Venus Claws are a master stroke of judgement and elevate an already well-crafted song to the next level.

Each of the long songs shows an excellent knowledge of dynamics and composition, with light and shade used expertly. The tracks have a droning, near-hypnotic quality yet don’t sound bleak or unforgiving; rather the feeling is cautiously optimistic. Melancholia and uncertainty play a role but ultimately it’s a feeling of uplift-through-awe that the band project; a sense of ascension to be attained.

A near-flawless album and an abject lesson in the mastery of the aural arts. Essential.

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.