Noothgrush - Failing Early, Failing Often

Falling Early, Falling Often is a lesson in pure, unfiltered USA sludge mania. Channeling that Eyehategod school of combining time-warped Sabbath groove with downtuned desperation, Noothgrush's dirty sound shines like a revealing black light through the dry, crisp and restrained production job which dominates most of the tracks on this collection. (Why is a lot of doom produced this way, is it to cram *all* of that riff in when recorded at what I can only assume is an obscene volume?)

The icing on the cake for me is the inclusion of Star Wars themed tracks. I mean, a sludge track called fucking "Sith" is just monolithic in title alone (thankfully the sound backs it up!), and the dirged-out version of "Imperial March / Alderaan" is pure bliss for any nerdy metalhead. What I also like about this record is that the tracks don't drone on for too long, which seems to be a staple with the slower end of metal. I get it, obviously, but I won't say it isn't refreshing to encounter a slightly more brisk pace on this kind of album. More Noothgrush please! 

Kilslug - Sin, Tricks And Lies

Kilslug are a sludgy band from the USA fronted by the mysterious Larry Lifeless, who initially comes across as a mix between Eyehategod's Mike Williams, Scott Walker and err, Crank Sturgeon or something like that. Kilslug have been around for yeeears, and the Limited Appeal (what a label!) pressing of Sin, Tricks and Lies is so awesome it makes me want to start collecting vinyl again. I mean, just mosy on over to Discogs and look at that cover, and it plays from the inside out, for fuck's sake!

I get an almost Christian Death vibe here (run through a thousand fuzz filters, of course!). The opening croons of "Your God is not real!" sets the bar for the type of journey that we are going on. Imagine if Lou Reed fronted Black Sabbath, just for a second. Really, the comparisons can go on and on, but you should really just listen to this thing, especially now that it is in Spotify. Stand out tracks for me are the opener "Hangman's List", and the spoopy "March Of The Skeletons". 

Salt Bath - Uncomfortable Choices

Salt Bath are a new band from the Newport area of South Wales, playing an abrasive form of back-to-basics noisemongery distilled through the blunt force weapons of choice - bass guitar and drums (with Venom Prison sticksman Sheehy on the skins). Uncomfortable Choices boasts an impressively all-encompassing production sound, courtesy of One Louder Studios, again in Newport. Imagine Big Black meets Melvins or if you want to go all out; Death From Above 1979 meets early Mr. Bungle.

The meat and bones of the record is a series of under-two-minuters that really compliment the chaotic bass and drums combination (I might be biased here...), although there is a smattering of longer tracks too, which not only help to break up the chaos and offer something a bit more profound, but contribute an intense layer of atmosphere, which considering the mediums chosen for expressing such sounds, is no small feat. Case in point would be "Love Song"; a lurching - almost swaggering - minimalistic crawl that just gathers in tension as it clamours together its seven minutes.

What a beauty!

Phyllomedusa - Fijian Holiday

Phyllomedusa has been sneaking doom metal tracks into his (?) gory repertoire for quite some time now, but Fijian Holiday marks the point where the stark lines of contrast have blurred so much that the multitude of perplexing styles this project perpetuates have finally come crashing together into one big sticky disgusting bog of beautiful, nauseating mess. Almost sounding like slam in parts; this record crawls and grooves with absolute menace. Phyllomedusa can do no wrong in my eyes. Strongly recommended!

Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer

Ahh, Burning Witch - what a terrifying band. Crippled Lucifer was one of those albums I got when I was younger simply because I thought the cover art was fucking mint. It therefore coincidentally opened up the drab underbelly of doom metal for me; not only was it slow, the absence of groove and most melody made it a painful first listen. I had no idea that doom could be so twisted, evil and harrowing. Granted, there are slower bands, and yes, there are heavier bands, but Burning Witch turned me onto a world that I probably wouldn't ever have touched otherwise, due to being generally consumed by endless grindcore.

Crippled Lucifer is actually a compilation record of sorts, coupling both of the band's records - Rift.Canyon.Dreams and Towers - into one package. It is responsible for bringing Burning Witch to an entire new worldwide audience, where they once wallowed in a fair amount of obscurity. Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley played the guitar here, and released this on Southern Lord.

The one thing that really puts this above a lot of other stuff in the (now very over-saturated) doom metal genre is the insane vocal performances. Straight from the off they are a combination of throat-scraping, tormented wails and puzzling sung passages.

Words can only say so much. Have a goosey.

The Body - No One Deserves Happiness

(words by Le Manifico Doomfindaaaah Jenerales)

Before anything else, can you just take a second to appreciate how amazing that artwork and album title is.... 

The Body are a two piece sludge band from somewhere in America. Well I say sludge, but they don't sound anything like Eyehategod et al, but they are slow, heavy and unpleasant, so it's close enough.

The album opens up pleasantly (if not miserably) enough with "Wanderings" which has just a simple drum beat and some nice female vocals telling you repeatedly to "go it alone" for about 2 minutes until some of the best high pitched harsh vocals join in. The second song keeps the same sort of feeling, adding layers of distorted heavy slow guitar but with the female vocals being used solely for the chorus this time. Just as you think you have the measure of the album though, "For You" pummels you into submission with a barrage of noise, drums and screams. "The Fall and the Guilt" strips back everything to pretty much just piano and lovely vocals, but with a creepy, constant crackly hum underpinning it. The last track, "The Myth Arc" manages to do this same sort of thing but better, with the vocals almost being drowned out in a sea of horrible noise. 

All in all the whole thing is just wonderful. Well, horrible. But you get the idea.

Check out the full album on The Body's official Bandcamp page:

Or if you've got Spotify... 

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Arc

(Words by Gumpy, Doomfinder General)

Agoraphobic Nosebleed return faster than ever, this time managing to squeeze 27 songs into only 3 minutes.... Wait a second, there's only 3 songs and one of them is 12 minutes long? It's a sludge album? What the hell is going on?

Shit talking aside there is a very good reason for this drastic change in direction; instead of just making another album, Agoraphobic Nosebleed decided to make 4 because... why not? Each one is being written by a different member of the band, and the first of these - Arc - is Katherine Katz's one. However how does it hold up? Agoraphobic Nosebleed may have dabbled with slow in the past but they are predominantly a fast-as-absolute-fuck band.

It's amazing, of course it's amazing. Agoraphobic Nosebleed could make a power metal album and it would still kick the shit out of every other power metal album (that's not a challenge by the way).  Kat's vocals, which if I'm being honest I thought were a bit off on Agorapocalypse, are perfect here. The slower pace gives them a bit more room to breathe and they sound better for it. There are massive riffs flying about everywhere, and the programmed drums sound meaty and must have some sludge drummers worried about their jobs. It might not be Agoraphobic Nosebleed as we know it, but when the music is this good who cares? (I still want more weird ultra fast grind, though.)

Conjurer - I

I asked to review this recently; jumping at the chance to do so (frankly, I'm just so happy to finally hear studio material by Conjurer). I can be quite wary of being asked to review things, or of bands that "farm out" reviews, because usually, if you have to ask for something to be written about, then it's going to be shite, but this is something incredibly special.  

Conjurer have been gigging maniacally for a while now, and I think it's safe to say this debut is hotly anticipated. We (Judas Cradle) shared a bill with these guys for our second ever gig, but we had to leave because some piece of shit power metal band were trying to fight us over broken equipment (the venue actually broke it, not us. Safe to say we never received an apology). Luckily the same tour came to my "local" a few days later, sans tubbo power metal, so I was able to actually watch these guys, and I still stand by the statement that Conjurer are the best band to have ever played that venue. Ever. They totally blew me away, and every other band off the bill (no offence intended, of course).

I is no different. 

Short version: Conjurer are fucking class. 

Long version: I simply floors the competition, and as far as decent debuts go, this is off the fucking chart. Conjurer have their own sound so it's hard to break them down into a string of dropped names to fill out a review (a staple of my writing style hahaha) but if I had to (and I will!) try and piece a picture together outta existing artists I'd say they are like some mad-scientist mix between Converge, Gojira and Neurosis, with a very Anathema-esque over-arching melodic edge; weeping guitar leads meeting crushing heaviness and droning doomery. Raspy, tortured back up vocals act as a foil to the gravel-throated roars of frontman Dan Nightingale.

Favourite track: The closing number, "Frail". All four tracks are beyond strong, but the way this brooding epic culminates never fails to rip my head off; those blasts just coming from fucking nowhere, and the riff is just perfect. It feels like all the misery and torment from every second of each tune previous to this has been building up to this final explosion. 

Listen and love! (FYI There are some awesome Conjurer t-shirt designs on the go at the moment, and this fucker just dropped on CD and vinyl thanks to Holy Roar.)

Bloodlung - Roach

Bloodlung were a sludge band from South Wales who called it a day a year or so ago. As a result, free copies of their Roach album filtered out and I got given one at band practice when Judas Cradle used to rehearse at One Louder studios in Newport. I don’t usually listen to metal stuff in the car on the way home because a.) I’m usually sick of hearing guitars by that point and b.) I’m deaf as fuck too, half the time. I’m glad I threw this on the car stereo though, although it did make me feel a bit awful that I’d been so ignorant to this band existing in the first place.

Doom is literally everywhere now but there’s no-one really repping sludge in South Wales except Hogslayer (not to my knowledge – but then again, I am an idiot) so Bloodlung are a welcome change. It's gutting that these guys broke up as this album is pretty fucking ace and it's a shame to see talent disappear but what can you do? At least they dropped this before they fucked off ;)

Give it a whirl, it's class as fuck. 

Cult of Occult - Five Degrees Of Insanity

(Words by Doomfinder General)

It's a word that gets thrown around a lot these days but fuck, Cult Of Occult are heavy. From the crushing guitar to the viscous vocals and the pounding drums it's almost too much at times but it never stops being amazing albeit in a thoroughly unpleasant way.

Five Degrees Of Insanity (as can you see from the album cover) is about a man slowly losing his mind - which is a pretty good description of the music. The album starts off with a slow feedback build up for about a minute - lulling you into a false sense of security - then kicks in and you are almost instantly drowning in a river of pain, anguish and misery that pretty music doesn't let up for 70 minutes. "Misanthropic" offers a brief respite from the constant misery with an almost black metal-like intro and a slow, psych-outro, but still has a solid 10 minutes of good old horrible sludgy misery.

If you are in any into sludge or generally unpleasant music this is well worth a listen.

Lazarus Blackstar - Revelations

(Words by Richard Lewis, our new in-house Doomfinder General)

Lazarus Blackstar are a sludge band from England, formed in 2004 out of the ashes of the not-so-slow Khang. Now, being from the UK, you don't get the feeling that at any point the music is going to fall to shit and band members are going to die like you get from American sludge bands but Lazarus Blackstar even that out with consistent misery and slowness, which can only be a good thing.

The album kicks off with "Revelation I: Day Of Reckoning", which sets the tone for everything that is to follow; a quiet drum bit and sample gives way to one of the best bass sounds you'll ever hear (the bass duties are performed by the guitarist for crust punk legends Doom, surprisingly enough). The guitars are sludgy as fuck and then the vocals kick in... such wonderful vocals. Paul Catten probably pulls off tortured screams better than anyone else around and he's at his best here.

The next 40 or so minutes are just a barrage of sludgy, dirgy goodness which never even comes close to wearing out its welcome. It's even got a Saint Vitus cover at the end. What more could you ask for?

Eyehategod - Eyehategod

Another long-awaiting comeback that paid off by the truckload! Eyehategod have been brewing their self-titled return for nearly 14 years, so it was understandable that fans were getting a bit itchy. But, like I said, the wait paid off. This album is absolutely fucking incredible. You've got the classic Eyehategod vibes as if they never went away, but they've given them a cleaner, modern spin. You could argue that the mud and sludge surrounding Eyehategod's music is what gives it most of it's charm, and previous to hearing the new self-titled I would have completely agreed with you, but the sound on this record is just too damn good to worry about the lack of dirgy production.

For the first time, Eyehategod has the clarity to reach a wider metal audience, for better or worse. I think it'll do them a world of good, as this thing is absolute riff machine. There are no bad tracks per se but "Trying To Crack The Hard Dollar" and "Nobody Told Me" are absolutely glorious. Those riffs, though! Those riffs! Daaaaaaaaayum.

This is the last Eyehategod release to include contributions from drummer Joey LaCraze who sadly passed away before this album was released. I've seen this band live countless times, and they were always crazy heavy and super tight even though they always seemed to play whilst absolutely fucking wasted. R.I.P. Joey! At least this record is a fitting epitaph.

Fistula - Vermin Prolificus

I’ve really been jamming the guts out of this album for the last few weeks. Fistula mix sludgy, messy doom a la Eyehategod with elements of crust and hardcore punk. I personally think that any genre of metal can be vastly improved by adding musical elements of (or just the spirit of) crust punk (Darkthrone’s The Cult Is Alive being a prime example; a vicious bastard of an album that followed a long string of tired recordings, ironically containing zero amounts of crust punk).

Fistula resembles the haunting downtuned bogscapes of Lines In Wax favourites Dragged Into Sunlight with their repetitive, sinister riffs accompanying long, eery passages of sampled vocal monologue usually revolving around drugs, drug abuse and the problem with cops (boy, can’t we all relate to that one). If I had to sum up sludge in one song to an ‘outsider’, opening track “Smoke Cat Hair and Toe Nails” couldn’t go far wrong as a perfect example. The opening riff just melts my face every single time – it’s just so nasty.

“Pig Funeral” is probably the highlight of the record for me; a seething upbeat hate anthem towards the powers that be, that slows down to a chug for more horrendous sampling to unfold. I’m digging this template – fast songs and nasty slow passages accompanied by samples. Bonza! “Interlude” takes this sampling-feast to the very edges of sanity; droning on and on and on before “Goat Brothel” caps off the entire thing like a shotgun blast to the forehead; effectively putting you out of your sludgy misery with a dose of punk attack.

Brilliant.

Fukpig / Kroh - Split 10"

Fukpig bring their haunted crusty d-beat mind-melt to this 10" with Kroh; a confusing clean vocals 'n' super heavy doom combo act. I believe both bands share the same guitarist, but I could be wrong. The guitar tone is really similar by both bands though, even if musically they are completely different. Fukpig bring us three tracks of blackened punk madness, my favourite of which must be "The Prisoner", although opening track "Docile Subjects" brings all the synth creeping in the universe. Kroh lament us through two sludgy hymns of stonery goodness, my favourite of which has to be "Retribution", that although with a softer vocal has a bit more punch to it all round. 

I believe that this is quite a collectable now; not that many of these 10"s were made and like all Fukpig vinyl (this is no exception), it has a habit of disappearing very quickly. Self-released under Devizes Records - also home to both bands. 

Total Abuse - Total Abuse

Total Abuse play messy, vicious hardcore with a downtuned, sludgy twist. Tracks range from the short 'n' fast machine gun cannon to more plodding, progressive numbers, and to the downright weird and unusual. This self-titled record is noisy as fuck, and probably has some roots in the harsh noise or avant garde. 

I originally mistook this as a full length album but it's classed as an EP, which is unusual because y'know, records just shy of half hour usually get counted as albums in these circles. Not that it particularly matters. It still sounds amazing. I'm not really into hardcore punk that much so it's always fuckin' great when I hear something that I can really enjoy jamming. It's probably Total Abuse's noisy tendancies that help them fall into my comfort zone. Some of the slower songs actually sound a bit like Big Black, for example, "Banned In Austin" sees layers of screeching dissonant guitars fighting over a plodding bassline.

Check it out!

Mistress - In Disgust We Trust

This album should be called In Disgust We Crust! I’ve never been into Mistress really; I always got my superfast metal fix in Anaal Nathrakh and my crusty d-beat headbangery fix in Fukpig, both projects relating to members of this band. For these reasons I always tended to look over Mistress’ existence – that was until I caught their farewell show at Damnation Festival a few years ago, and bloody shitting heck, son – that was a mad one! Mistress’ fervent blend of grindy blasting and sludgy doomery really blew me away.

And that’s exactly what’s on this disc of crusty bludgeoning anthems. Take away the muddy live sound and filter the excess roughness through a decent studio production job and voila – the crème de la crème of sludgy grindy, er, music. In Disgust We Trust starts off with faster, more blastbeat orientated tracks and slowly works it’s way (but not too slowly) towards a meandering groovy conclusion with latter tracks possessing astronomically heavy riffage. As always, Dave Hunt’s vocal carnage is a welcome bonus to literally any music on the planet (except maybe hip hop? Ha!).

Weedeater - Sixteen Tons

Weedeater's Sixteen Tons is a beer and whiskey soaked southern-tinged romp in sludgey doom metal. The guitar tone is literally the audible equivalent of a Louisiana swamp; a thick bog of rumbling riffs and plodding rhythms. I first got into Weedeater when I saw them at Hellfest nearly five years ago (bloody heck) and they were so heavy that I fell asleep. Granted, it was probably the monumental amount of people within the tent who were blazing up on that sunny afternoon that helped push me into festival lethargy, but Weedeater were one hell of a band to be lulling me into sleep.

And I've been a fan ever since. I've always preferred the later stuff (God Luck & Good Speed, Jason...The Dragon) but you can't fault this earlier album either. The one before it isn't so heavy but the thick sludgey tunes really come into their own on Sixteen Tons. I suspect that if Electric Wizard came from New Orleans it wouldn't sound much different to this. Another lovely little thing about Weedeater is when they throw in the odd instrumental that isn't as heavy or sludgey as the other songs (album closer "Kira May" as an example), which really helps break up the endless mud.

I believe that all Weedeater recordings are now classics of the doom and sludge genres. It doesn't get much better than this. 

Archagathus / No Thought - Split 7"

I’ve never encountered No Thought before, but I really enjoyed their mix of styles. Many bands do the whole doom-into-grind thing, but No Thought seem to pull it off rather seamlessly here, which is fuckin’ great. The production is thick and crunchy (mmmmm yummy) and based more in the low-end of the spectrum, and reminds me rather poetically of Rotten Sound mixed with early Brutal Truth. Well worth a listen, I’d wager, if you’re into both the fast and slow aspects of heavy music.

 

Archagathus seem to have a bigger line up here than usual? The over-all sound is much more polished as well, which is a first for me. I need to check the dates on these 7”s that I have; perhaps most of the Archagathus stuff I’ve heard is the older material, as this sounds fairly different to what I’ve gotten used to. Things are most definitely much tighter around the edges, and the production is not as harsh. The super-growly vokills are still evident, as is the group’s punky playing style, but everything seems to have been tidied up a bit. Still sounds fuckin’ cool though!

 

This 7” was released by the Uranium Overdose label.

Anal Cunt - Top 40 Hits

According to the ever-reliable source for information that is the internet, Top 40 Hits is considered a bit of a disappointment in the worldwide circles of AxCx fans (or at least it was upon it’s initial release date back in 1996). But, you know me, I don’t give a fuck about what the internet says (lawls, hardcore) because for me, Top 40 Hits shows AxCx at their messiest, blurriest best. Granted, this record is missing the offensive content that the band would become so well-known for (well, if you discount the fact that the band is called Anal Cunt, that is), but this is still a stone cold noisecore classic.

The first few times I heard this in my teens I wasn’t too sure what to make of the whole thing. Seth had it up for free download (possibly against Earache’s permission?) off his old website, back before AxCx reformed for a final time and Seth replaced his personal webpage with that of Wicked Sick Records. The first few songs are mixed so low that the first thing the record will have you doing is reaching for the volume control with a confused expression on your face. I have come to learn that these tracks were mixed this way in order to rumble the living fuck out of speaker cones, and maybe even damage them in the process. Cheers, Anal Cunt!

Despite the mushy, low-fi blur tracks that carried over from the previous LP (only on a much lower frequency, ha ha), we see the first budding AxCx jokey tracks. Tracks such as “Art Fag” and “Shut Up Mike” are a nod to what type of stuff was to dominate on future AxCx records. The best thing about Top 40 Hits however, is the full and amazing production that the band finally dedicated to their small selection of sludgey, doom-metal paced tracks. Some of the best Anal Cunt tracks are their slow, Eyehategod-esque sludge epics. Seth Putnam is a fantastic vocalist, and to confine listening of his talents to just Anal Cunt is definitely a waste; the guy was an absolute legend, there is no doubt.

So all in all, Top 40 Hits does seem like a bit of a jumbled up mix of styles that don’t really go together; it doesn’t help that it seems that the sludge songs, jokey songs and blurry, old school noisecore songs all seem to have come from different recording sessions, which totally annihilates any chance this album had at attaining a flow. I think maybe that this is what put a lot of people off when it first come out; that AxCx had literally just thrown out a whole bunch of shit on one CD and called it a new album. But once you get over the flow issues, you can appreciate each parts for what they really are; fucking amazing! Ha ha! This was released on Earache back in 1996. 

I dunno why this vid has the old artwork for the Fuckin' A album attached to it - perhaps the uploader is a cretinous swine ;)

Zonderhoof - Hakken!

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself of the growing pool of talent in my local area. Zonderhoof were another local band that I’d somehow spent my entire life avoiding; that was until Terrorizer magazine gave their album away for free with an issue of their magazine, and at their stall in Damnation Festival 2011 (which is where I kindly received my copy). Even then, I only gave it a quick listen, and I wasn’t turned on to the band again until they supported Conan in a Cardiff show last year.

My first - and somewhat harsh - thought about this album is that Zonderhoof sound like a poor man’s Bongripper. Y’know one of those silly half-opinions you form after listening to something for the first time, like no matter how much you convince yourself otherwise, you really still haven’t got your head around it? Well, it was one of those. See, that’s why I can never understand “professional” reviews where a writer is given an album to write about*; I’ve found that you always need to let a record unfold for you over time. First impressions are just that; first impressions.

And with time I have come to appreciate Zonderhoof as an instrumental wonder of the metal world, playing a nice, almost progressive brand of lyric-free metal goodness. This CD is a long ‘un, which is really great considering it was given away for free (just think of the recording and production costs; sheesh!). My favourite tracks are probably opener “Smoking Ears Screaming Teeth” and the groovy “Hogslayer”, although the last couple of tracks are awesome as well. Well worth a listen, in my somewhat skewed opinion.

*a brilliant, recurring example of this is the writers that Kerrang! employ(ed). When a big band dropped a new album they’d always give it either an arse-kissing five Ks or a controversial licking, and within months go back on their own fucking word almost every single time, like clockwork. Mind you, Kerrang! is a heap of shit and probably a bad example, but there you go.