November is Doom - Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean : "Sisyphean Cruelty"

 

Not our first dance with these guys. We love the fact they are so insanely heavy. This is demonstrated again on their new album it feels like it is hitting for a more sludge direction on the first song.  The croak of the more death-drenched vocals works really well. Things pick up to a more grooving pound for "Unfit For Human Life". The vocals are spewed with convincing anger. "Solitude Illusion" either finds itself droning on a repetitive riff or blasting with the vocals in a feral scream. Not the album's strongest moment. But they set the bar pretty high for themselves on the first two songs. To their credit the bulk of the songs are compactly arranged and only the last song ventures over the six-minute mark. 

"Deconstruction of the Great Immovable" is darker and slower, allowing the guitar to ring out with more of an eerie throb, though the vocals are less purposeful and scream out from pain with little thought to what they are adding to the flow of the song. The riff shifts into a more determined stomp, as it chugs forward. Midway into the song you begin to speculate how much further are they going to drag this, and the answer is slower. They use feedback to make this more abrasive. You have to go into this making sure you are in the mood to have your ears hammered. "Crawl off and Die" finds Tremolo picking at the wheel when the song opens. Then it drops down into a dragged-out riff, that alternates in the blackness it buzzes with. I can appreciate how nasty the overall mood is here. 

"Barely Any Reason to Be Alive" is more despairing in the doomy mood it rumbles toward you with. It locks into a steady syncopation and grooves a little more. The bad vibes they are trying to spread are past the point of head-banging and taking what Eyehategod once did in an even more extreme direction. The title track is more uptempo and carries a more death metal-like menace to the riff driving it. It is one of the album's strongest tracks. The last song drags a little more and the vocals are going berserk rather than trying to guide the song.  I will however give this album 8.5, as it is effective at being mind-numbingly heavy with it's raw in-your-face feedback-laden production. 

pst569

the Top 10 Sludge Albums of 2023

 

Let's face it this might be the last top ten list for this genre I get to make as the world could end at any moment these days. These are the bands that best celebrated the coming apocalypse as Sludge should. After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. 2023. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Sludge albums of 2023.

10- No Spill Blood - "Eye of Night" 

This Irish band's second album finds them taking and very hard-driving form of sludge and marrying it to synth-driven rock. The more analogue synth soundsslowly drips into their atmosphere. A throaty bark is the narrative. This instills the anger of sludge into the proceedings. Their strength is touching on the sonic space atmosphere is embraced and is at the heart of their heaviness rather than just trying to beat this sound into your ears.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/01/no-spill-blood-eye-of-night.html

9- the Moth - "Frost" 

 The new album from this German trio is an interesting blend of fuzzed-out dark sounds. The vocals are layered, and the guitars drive things in a sludge direction. This is their first album for Exile on Mainstream and is a good snapshot of who this band is. There is a punk simplicity, but a rich layering of vocal melodies thanks to the voice of Cecile Ash. She manages to be equally commanding and despondent.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-moth-frost.html

8- Cinema Cinema - " Mjölnir"

This band has Thor Harris from Swans playing with them, along with Sonic Youth's producer on the board. They also have a hammering anger that gets released in a dynamic fashion with punk tendencies.  Brooding sonic shadows shading their musings, in a manner not unlike bands such as Liars or Xiu Xiu, who both took ample inspiration from Swans with  vocals are a charismatic ranting about hard social truths amid there otherwise explosive nature. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/07/cinema-cinema-mjolnir.html

  7-Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "Obsession Destruction"

 Compared to their 2020 album "The Vestige"  the vocals have more of a scathing of a scream. The retain the plodding element of doom but this time it flows more like a indie rock or shoegaze in the manner it shimmers toward the bleak abyss of sound they draw from. This album finds the band taking chances outside their mission statement of just being heavy as all hell which they also achieve. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/05/chained-to-bottom-of-ocean-obsession.html

6-Moor-"Heavy Heart" 

This German band adds more melodic colors to the sludge formula with  less howled almost sung vocals, and post-rock atmosphere, that can only further Neurosis comparisons but at the same time allows the band to find themselves amidst this. They are very effective at painting the picture they set out to convey with their instruments and it's a fun listen .

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/11/november-is-doom-moor-heavy-heart.html

 

5-Obelyskkh -" Ultimate Grace of God" 

This German metal band marries the lumbering crunch of sludged-out doom with crusty punk attitude.This album was teased as early as 2019 so it has been at least 4 years in the making now. Some of the angular twists and turns the riffs make show their more dexterity-induced sense of adventure. The production of this album  is very natural in how the sounds are captured. They have a prog-like sense of wonderment when the songs sprawl out. Their fifth album took five years to bring to fruition, so every note is well thought out.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2022/12/obelyskkh-ultimate-grace-of-god.html

4-Ugly-"Autograph"

In the 90s sludge was more crazed and less composed than the sludge of today. It owed more to crust and punk, than it does today, and this band remembers that. There are certainly metallic moments when every thing converges upon a riff to crush you. I like the darker sonic that include the use of samples. The vocals take a little bit to get use to as they are very raw, with barely any effects on them just crazed man screaming into a mic. Krysta Curry from Landmine Marathon also share vocal duties while helping out with synths, samples, and percussion.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/03/ugly-autograph.html

3- Predatory Void - "the Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being" 

Combining members of Amenra with the vocalist from Russian Black Metal band Cross Bringer, there is something dark and powerful being created here. While Lina's vocal mainly focus on more brutal harshness, she does sing some passages in a more ethereal alto . The heaviness is a like a crashing wave , it hit and then recedes with a throb. These guys are more sludge than any other genre as the sonic heaviness approaches the shadows rather than bathing in them.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/04/predatory-void-seven-keys-to-discomfort.html

2- Fange- "Privation" 

This French band still connects the dots to hard core, but now have a more industrial influence creeping in. The vocals are still driven by a mean roar. This album finds them getting even darker, so they . It should be said that they come to this sonic intersection without hopping on the Code Orange band wagon. Sometimes the more crushing aspects of the riffing put them in a similar stylistic zip code, but they get there in a very organic fashion, making me suspect they know who they are while doing this. They are actually heavier than Code Orange typically gets with a more metallic intent a more hammering brand of sludge.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/08/fange-privation.html

 

1-the Lion's Daughter -"Bath House" 

There is a great deal going on with this album. The synths are very present in the mix going into the otherwise hammering open song. Throaty vocals are aggressive but howled more than growled. Sung vocals often emote over what is a  more brooding turn for the band. There is an ominous feel to counterbalance the more grandiose feel. I really enjoyed this one it's an improvement over what they did on "Skin Show" This album grew on me, and carries great depth.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-lions-daughter-bath-house.html

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean : 'Obsession Destruction"

 It's been a minute since I have listened to this Boston band. Their 2020 album "The Vestige" was the last time I listened to them, I do not remember the vocals having this scathing of a scream, and felt they were more on the doom side of sludge. While there is a plodding element, it flows at times more like a indie rock or shoegaze in the manner it shimmers toward the bleak abyss of sound they draw from. "Hole in My Head" ambles on with almost a stomping groove. The vocals serve more purpose on this song, rather than just a tortured human element to the sound that is obligatory. The guitars are a dense crunch, they are more dialed in a organic with each passing album. 

The lock into a more traditional metal riff with "The Gates Have Closed and they Will Never Open" . This does not stop them from going off onto an exploration of atmosphere, which creates a nice dynamic shift. These guys under stand the value of being heavy, but they also understand the dynamics of writing songs and the contrasts required to execute this. "the Chalice' goes in a more black metal direction, though with the weighted attitude of sludge shoveling the distortion out. The vocal approach was already half way there , they really just need to the guitar to dig in , in order to get hateful enough to veer into that shade of evil. The twelve minutes of "Ten Thousand Years of Unending Failure" could have benefited from the first two minute of the song to have been cut back. I am fine with building tension , but they bathe in excess. When the song kicks in their is enough groove to almost balance the budget. 

There is an odd angular touch to "Every Day a Weeping Curse".  It causes the song to sway against the unbridled screaming that is the abrasive coat of throat noise, to a similar effect of what the Body does, but less unnerving. The last song is another mammoth 12-minute sprawl, but they waste little time getting to the face-ripping riffs part of the equation that is their strength. It lumbers with a uniform chug that they milk for as long as it bleeds. After minutes they ride the tension with the drums pounding out a more droning pattern. They go from this into a third movement which is another chug they ride out with more metallic intent. I will give this album a 9 . It is very solid and finds the band taking chances outside their mission statement of just being heavy as all hell which they also achieve. 

November is Doom - Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean : " the Vestige"

 

This album is heavy as fuck and should go on the record as being one of this year's most crushing albums. How does this fare in terms of song writing well lets find out. It opens some where between sludge and doom, with the vocals saying it over toward the sludge side. There are some Eyehategod vibes to this. I like the chugged attack to "Four Cubits and a Span" . There is more of a doom tempo and mood to " the Dead Who Climb up to the Sky" .  Even this some gains some traction and is not content to sit still. Speeding up into a blast beat for a couple of bars. The black metal influence is pretty mild. The song moves in a very interesting direction almost kinda indie rock. 

"Hollow Feeds the Emptying Death" has more of a traditional stoner doom swagger to it. Not overtly blues , but in the Sabbath rumbling direction. Yes they do hit you wit ha very heavy pounding on " Escape! Harmony is Disclosure" , that doesn't get interesting until it finds more of a palm muted groove. Of the two covers they do The Death Cab For Cutie is superior to the Devo song. Granted I am also more familiar with the Death Cab song. 

They cover a great deal of ground on "With Every Wrist Outstretched" . It goes from angular sludge to more of a death metal blast beat, though the vocals stay the same. There is dissonance and darkness so I am happy with the song. A little dynamics and melody and I am good to go. This one is not big on any melody , but it is interesting enough for me to compromise. "With Every Sword Unsheathed " has more of a stoner metal feel to it. When the clean vocals come in toward the end of "Out Brief Candle" I am not surprised even though they sound kind emo, because they covered Death Cab so that only makes sense. The album ends with a more dirge like take on sludge. Over all this album was fun, I will give it a 9.