I’ve been on a Bongzilla kick of late, and If you are unfortunate enough to be my friend on Facebook, you will know I recently asked for some recommendations similar to Bongzilla. I was craving more fuzzed out , nasty sludge with harsh vocals.  The recommendations were solid with Dopethrone, Eyehategod and Demonic Death Judge being the […]

For fans of the slower, doomier side of metal, the debut album from Italy’s Blood Red Water should be right up their alley. Sporting a more straightforward approach than that of doom/death legends Celtic Frost and with a less sonic, much less alluring style than Type O Negative, Tales of Addiction and Despair is apparently […]

“Into the dark night of the soul: emotional balance restored” This first line lead singer Bryan Funck screams in “The Unnamed Path” exemplifies one of Thou’s main goals: to dwell in and utilize the power of suffocating sounds and emotions to come away feeling hopeful and empowered. For 24 minutes, Thou’s brand of sludge/drone/doom barely […]

Blacks Skies’ stock-in-trade is a blend of early Pentagram-style proto-doom and stoner rock. Their vibe and sound is more rough and tumble rock n’ roll than crushingly heavy. Driving riffs are the theme here, not obliterating heaviness, and the band rumbles forth convincingly, if unexceptionally, on their third full length release. The intro and main […]

Israel’s Total Rust Music has carved out a nice little niche for themselves on the black/doom/sludge genre with a number of quality releases from the likes of Highgate, Lords of Bukkake, Pyramido, Funeralium and such. 2012 looks to be of to a similarly high quality start with a trio of releases by Spain’s Tort, French black […]

I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? It really does seem quite fitting in the context of another release by NE Ohio sludge merchants Fistula. Is it possible that this is a harsher Fistula? Eh, probably not, but it’s pretty damn harsh. Even better is that the Loser EP is available in […]

  I’m sorry, SerpentCult.  I tried to like you; I really did.  I played Raised by Wolves in a variety of settings: in the car while driving, in the car while not driving, in the car idling and half asleep and staring mindlessly out the window, at home doing laundry, at home drinking a beer […]

Another day, another sludge band returning from an extended absence. Rue is back from the depths for their sophomore release, Thorns, a schizophrenic slab of sonic catharsis. Pummeling sludge grooves are coated with a layer of Rust Belt decay and filtered through Midwest hardcore and old fashioned rock and roll. It’s a solid blend that […]

The 7” EP was both a blessing and a curse in the 90’s. They were cheap to produce and sell, which meant small labels could produce them easily and that you could walk away from a show with new music even if you only had 2 or 3 bucks to spare. Of course, the rub […]

I really wanted to like the debut from this doom sludge act from Portland more, but despite a sickly hue and oozing pallor, I can’t bring myself to be as impressed as I am by other like minded acts (Cough, Thou, Highgate, Coffinworm). It starts out well enough with a throbbing patient lope and fuzzed, […]

They took their sweet time, but Brainoil have finally unleashed the follow up to their 2002 debut. Their self titled debut was an intelligent mix of Eyehategod’s southern rock grooves, Buzzov*en’s coked up outbursts of speed and the Melvins off kilter riff structure and the result was a concise, straightforward album of pummeling grooves. Death […]

Here’s some of that sweet hot fire I glimpsed while reviewing Highgate’s sophomore album Shrines to the Warhead. This collection of demo and live tracks compiles the band’s 2005 and 2006 demos along with an unreleased track and two live recordings. Normally this type of material dump is only interesting to established fans but Black […]

After nine years of splits and EPs, Southern sludge stalwarts Sourvein have returned with their third full-length album Black Fangs. T-Roy and his revolving door cadre of dirt merchants have been one of the most consistent outfits in sludge and this release is exactly what fans have come to expect; tar-like riffs, subsonic bass, plodding drums […]

Pyramido’s 2009 debut Sand was a decent, if repetitive, exercise in heavy rock sludge. Salt, their sophomore release, improves on Sand in nearly every way, featuring a wider array of influences and more variety. There’s still a problem of running riffs a little too long and the throaty, hoarse roaring vocals are at times overbearing […]

I was listening Leechmilk’s Starvation of Locusts a few months back and thought to myself “Whatever happened to these guys?” A quick trip to Metal Archives and, lo and behold, Dan Caycedo of Leechmilk infamy is in a new band called Sons of Tonatiuh and they just released their first record. While I initially hoped […]

Highgate’s follow up to their 2008 debut is like a really interesting movie you end up feeling ambivalent about. A picture projecting sickly foreboding, a sense of dread and imminent mental and physical collapse but the plot meanders and at the end you’re left intrigued with no desire to watch it again. You’re left searching […]