Sludge – Page 72 – Wonderbox Metal

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.

Culted – Oblique To All Paths (Review)

Culted comprise of members in both Sweden and Canada, (who apparently have never met), and this is their second album of Blackened Doom Metal.

This is an hour of haunting depression and wandering desolation.

This album combines aspects of Doom, Black Metal and Sludge to create a bleak atmosphere and feeling of slow decay. An aural description akin to a gradual slipping away into who knows where; a place of fear to never return from.

You know a band means business when a 19 minute monolith of a song, (Brooding Hex), is their opener. It also works as an abstract for the album as a whole as it surmises all areas that the full album travels to within its forbidding boundaries.

There is no clinical, sterile recording on this release; instead we have a dark and foetid sound, full of shadows that hold spawning grounds for unspeakable strains of mutant bacteria and other unpleasantness.

The rasping vocals are rooted in Black Metal, and they sail the seas of Blackness on the good ship Doom. Continuing the nautical theme, (for no good reason really), this is music to drown to.

The wide range of sounds and instruments used on this album means that this is a diverse and experimental release. It’s an interesting path that the disparate band members have collectively chosen to tread, one which carries great risk but which promises great reward in turn. I heartily invite you to sample the dark delights on offer here. But be warned – there’s a danger you might not come back.

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.

Godhunter – City Of Dust (Review)

Godhunter are a Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal band from the US, and this is their début full-length City Of Dust.

The album starts out slow and brooding, with the guitars sweeping in low and catching you almost unaware before pulling the feet out from under you in a flurry of desert dust and snake venom.

This is an album comprised of strong riffs and strong songs, but above all enjoyable. There is plenty of meat to the guitars and they have a great big satisfying sound; clear and organic. In fact the production in general manages to sound both professional and raw, taking the best aspects of both extremes to make sure that you know you’re listening to a real living band and not a computer-enhanced version of one.

Godhunter also make use of subtle atmospherics in some of the tracks that enhances the songs by adding more depth and shading. This is done especially effectively in Snake Oil Dealer.

The vocals rage and spit like an extremely angry pit-bull; all belligerence and defiance. He sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to cross for fear of ending up in a lonely, forgotten hole somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It’s not all shouting and anger though as Shooting Down The Sun shows.

Check out Godhunter and see what you think. Like Black Sabbath if they came from the desert and had a singer who angrily grunted and shouted at everyone in the vicinity; there’s plenty of Sludged up groove for everyone.

https://soundcloud.com/earsplit/03-brushfires

Eryn Non Dae – Meliora (Review)

French band Eryn Non Dae are really upping the ante in terms of quality with this their second full-length.

Eryn Non Dae are a difficult band to pigeon-hole in some ways. I’m going to go with Progressive Metal, (simply because that covers a multitude of sins), but there are also elements of Sludge, Post-Metal, Doom, Ambient, etc. on this artful album.

As a useful reference point think a band like Tool at their most expansive, only make it heavier and add harsher vocals. Prog gone Sludge? Or Post-Metal with the emphasis on the Metal? Tool crossed with Year Of No Light and Rosetta? Maybe.

A sprawling multi-faceted album that requires a guide to fully map out the terrain explored; there is both depth and breadth here, providing the listener with a complete aural experience.

Meliora is darkly atmospheric and bleakly absorbing. The songs have light and shade and never suffer from losing interest. One of the wonderful things about Eryn Non Dae is that they know how to create these various emotions and moods without following the usual Post-Metal template; although there is a good amount of variety on this album it is essentially all centred around aggression and heaviness. This being true, the fact that they have created such landscapes of hardened sound is very telling of their talented nature.

The songs are heavily involving and speak to the listener in private terms, whispering secrets that are hidden in plain sight, wrapped in an enigma of monolithic guitars and towering vocals.

This is an excellent album that I can’t believe has only just come to my attention. Released in 2012 that’s two entire years it has been missing from my life! Definitely a keeper and in it for the long haul. Get this while you can as it will make your life better.

Legions of Crows – Stab Me (Review)

UK band Legions of Crows play Sludge Metal with a Blackened outer layer.

This brand of Blackened atmospheric Sludge is greatly enhanced by the presence of keyboards and other effects, which add a layer of depth to the already thick torrent of misery peddled by Legions of Crows.

They also have an ear for a good riff, the effect of which is never to be underestimated. Second track Fellating the Lamb is a great example of this; it crawls along for the most part sounding really sinister and malevolent, with Black Metal shrieks burning over the top of it. Unexpectedly it then rises above the fog into a mid-song gallop with a guitar solo, before inevitably waning, slowing down and falling back into the murk with dying wails. Great stuff.

That’s one of the most enjoyable things about this album – they have plenty of variety and a grasp of mood and songs to envy.

The combination of Gothic keyboards/Black Metal influences and filthy Sludge may not appeal to everyone. Most bands who combine Black Metal and Doom usually do so from the point of view of the harsher, dirtier side of both genres, making the melding of sounds easier as there is less distance to traverse. Legions of Crows however choose the path less travelled and combine the filthy, dirty side of Sludge with the more Gothic side of Black Metal. The overall result of course is bound to still sound on the grim side, but the keyboards have largely avoided the corruption and the juxtaposition of both is a pleasant surprise and largely works in the album’s favour.

Interestingly Paul Di’Anno also makes an appearance on the album, which in keeping with a lot of Stab Me is an unexpected turn of events, but a good one.

The recording is functional and does the job, and I’ve certainly heard worse, but I would prefer the drum sound to be slightly more hard-hitting next time. This is only a minor quibble though, as the sound serves the album well enough.

A very interesting release with plenty of individuality and character. I’ll certainly be listening to this quite a bit more and watching what they do next.

Pyramido – Saga (Review)

Swedish Sludge/Doom band Pyramido return with their third full-length Saga.

Slow, heavy and crushing is the way of Saga. Hulking great walls of guitar noise crash around you as tortured shouts assault your senses, topped off with lonesome melodies that seem at the same time both disconnected and essential to the music.

Haunting passages and gargantuan riffs share space in the songs and all the time the sense of utter Doom and despair is all-pervading. At least it would be all-pervading if it wasn’t for the quasi-hopeful melodic streak that adorns the album like a partially obscured crown, making appearances here and there to spread optimism only to be torn asunder again and again like the darkness eating the light.

Even the album cover draws you in; a promise of a hot fire on a cold night – sanctuary from the dark. All the time the frigid, gloomy woods creep ever closer and creatures stir within, hidden from sight.

This is a release that grows on you like an infection, revealing its next bleak gift with every repeated visit. Each listen brings you closer to damnation while promising redemption. It’s insidious.

Get lost in this album if you dare. You may not return, but what sweet release awaits?

The Lion’s Daughter & Indian Blanket – A Black Sea (Review)

I’ve been following The Lion’s Daughter for a while now and enjoyed their previous outings into the world of Blackened Sludge, so when I found out they were collaborating on an album with Folk group Indian Blanket I was intrigued.

I wasn’t sure what to expect upon pressing play, but it wasn’t this. I though it might be good, but this? This is a jaw-droppingly stunning album. In much the same way that Panopticon successfully incorporated bluegrass into Black Metal on their album Kentucky; The Lion’s Daughter and Indian Blanket, against all odds, have managed to successfully incorporate Folk into Sludge. The results are as astounding as they are fantastic.

If only I had heard and reviewed this at the end of 2013 it would probably have topped my end-of-year list I can tell you that now.

The album combines heaviness and softness in equal measure, using the best tools for the job depending on the needs of the song. Regardless of style it’s always dark, always emotionally charged and always tinged with melancholy.

Sludge Metal and acoustic passages; blast beats and strings; raw-throat shouts and delicate crooning; it’s all here. Taking the very, very best bits of bands like Neurosis, Isis, Year Of No Light, Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room then combining them with haunting Folk-inspired orchestration and Dax Riggs-style acoustics and vocals; this is a masterpiece of music awaiting discovery by any Metal fan looking for the best in unconventional heavy music.

To the cynical reader this may all smack of hyperbole, but the simple fact is that I absolutely love this album and it really is just that good. Do yourself a favour and get it immediately.

Absolutely brilliant.

Kongh – Counting Heartbeats (Review)

Swedish band Kongh play a captivating type of Doom/Sludge Metal that is exhilarating and apocalyptic at the same time.

Originally released in 2007; this is Kongh’s début album that’s been recently reissued with a bonus disc featuring their 2006 Demo and their split with Ocean Chief; that’s 2 hours and 15 minutes of music guaranteed to satiate your Sludge hunger.

Taking their cues from the best parts of bands like Neurosis and Isis while also injecting some crusty Metal into this formula, Kongh have produced a corker of an album that is a 100% Grade A prime Sludge classic.

Doom, Stoner, Sludge, Post-Metal, Crust – all these elements and more collide to create Counting Heartbeats and it really is something special. The build up and release; the dynamics employed; the crushing apocalyptic Doom. Songs to get lost in.

As if the original album wasn’t good enough, the inclusion of their demo and split just sweetens the pot of this sumptuous aural feast. The 25 minute Drifting on Waves is especially good.

If you only get one Sludge album in the near future get this one.