the Top 10 Sludge Albums of 2022

It's that time of year again. In 2022 we continued to need sludge as we marched further towards an apocalyptic future, here are the best of the current crop. When I am done sorting through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I will then compile the top 10 albums of the year. I know many of you are ready for another year to be over with. Hate to break it to you but nothing is getting better next year.  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. Sure, you can bitch and complain about your favorite band not being on the list. However, I listen to five new albums a day so yes, I heard your favorite album and was not impressed. No, I do not care what you think about it. I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Sludge albums of 2022

10 -Abraham- ""Debris de Mondes Perdus"

 This Swiss band blends the raw attack of noise rock with the heavy oppressive weight of sludge. The punk roots are always known. The throaty yells of the vocals that open the album and the rest of the music gathers around it in a very dark and discordant fashion. The second listen through this album finds it all making a bit more sense though the first listen I was still pretty impressed

Abysmal Hymns: Abraham : "Debris de Mondes Perdus"

9-Gloson-' the Rift" 

This band from Sweden churns out a dark bellowing brand sludge from the more Neurosis school of sonics. It lumbers and the vocals bellow, so they have the basics covered. What I am listening for is what are these guys doing that I have not already heard before. There are also sung vocals buried against the layers of guitar. Not what you expect to come out of Sweden

Abysmal Hymns: Gloson : "the Rift"

8-Druids - "Shadow Work"

This American Sludge band rides the line between droning post- rock landscapes and a more Mastodon like progginess. Armed with sung vocals rather than just throat bellows, they have a leg up when it comes to songwriting. T The vocals are commanding yet sung, think more in the zip code of Baroness here. There is a bong tinted sheen of stoner vibes coasting over the groove. The song takes you on a journey which is more than most bands these days deliver

Abysmal Hymns: Druids : "Shadow Work"

 

7-Helms Alee - "Keep This Be the Way" 

This band continues to take chances, right from the start with the storming drive of the electronic pump the album kicks off with. They might be even more experimental this time around. The vocals are not the vehicle for melody all the time, though they lock into a more aggressive sludge attack by the time we get halfway into the second song. This anchors there songwriting more and gives the needed dynamic to make for a more compelling listen.

Abysmal Hymns: Helms Alee : "Keep This Be the Way"

6-Woorms- "Fatalismo" 

This band from Louisiana got Steve Austin of Today is the Day fame to really dial things in for them on their third album. It mixes the definition of sludge from the 90s with a Clutch style blues drenched swamp rock . The have pocket tight grooves, but do not forget to use atmosphere even amid their most banging angular barrages.

Abysmal Hymns: Woorms : " Fatalismo"

5-Conan-"Evidence of Immortality" 

The 5th album by this British band, carries all the thundering thump that you might expect, though when compared to their earlier work resonates with more sonic heaviness. It opens with a ten-minute pounder. The vocals howl with more conviction. Things are not always at a doomy plod; in fact they are pretty aggressive tempo wise, that aggression is what earned their place here. 

Abysmal Hymns: Conan : "Evidence of Immortality"

 

4-Absent in Body - Plague God" 

In some ways this is the album I wished Amenra had released last year instead to the overly atmospheric one we got instead. This album not only features members of Amera, but drummer Igor Cavelera of Sepultura fame and Neurosis' Scott Kelly. The massive apocalypse of sound they churn up is quite impressive with the industrial strength of its crushing throb

Abysmal Hymns: Absent in Body : "Plague God"

 

3-Crowbar- "Zero and Below" 

Kirk Windstein is back. One of the 90s most enduring metal bands churns with the swampy grooves that put them on the map. These guys have grown on me over the years and the more time I take with this band the more I appreciate them; Windstein is the only original member with Soylent Green drummer Tommy Buckley as the next in line as the closest thing to an original member. There songwriting feels like at times they are taking the torch from Panterra/

Abysmal Hymns: Crowbar : Zero and Below"

2- Fucked Up - "Oberon" 

What is fucked up is how they have decided to just go ahead and become a metal band. These guys have always been weird, so while it is a strange progression from the burlier angular noise rock they were making, this is an absurd leap into the unexpected. I am more surprised by how they are doing it; this sounds like the second coming of Cathedral. With the vocals serving as the main culprit, yes there is also a good dose of Celtic Frost mixed in with other weirdness like synth sounding effects.

Abysmal Hymns: Fucked Up : 'Oberon"

 

1-(16) - "Into Dust"  

After 2020's "Dream Squasher" proved to be a slab of sonic devastation I am still listening to 2 years later, the bar could not be higher for this California band. The continued to bring it with this album firing from all cylinders with their foot to the gas of this tank. The weighty sludge rolls over you, but with a bit of swing and hook.  There is more rock n roll flowing through their veins this time around. It is most commonly bled out on the frets of the guitars. Catchy song writing does not mean they are any less in your face or forceful in their intentions.

Abysmal Hymns: November is Doom- (16) : " Into Dust"

Gloson : "the Rift"

Heard a fair amount of praise for this album from some of my peers so checking out the hype. This band from Sweden churns out a dark bellowing brand sludge from the more Neurosis school of sonics. It lumbers and the vocals bellow, so they have the basics covered. What I am listening for is what are these guys doing that I have not already heard before. There are also sung vocals buried against the layers of guitar. Not what I expect bands from Sweden to sound like but then again Opeth is from Sweden.  Yes, there are some catchy riffs, but the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make.  I like the darker turn that "Windbearer" takes. It is more of an instrumental, the vocals are just a roar mixed into the background and never feel like they are an active part of the song.  Instead of feeling like a missed opportunity to do more with the mood it does flow well. 

"Impetus" has more of a droning throb to it. Midway into the song some big chugging riffs come in a grab your attention amid the haze the song has cast over your ears that found it fading more into background music as I typed. This album is well produced in terms of how the sounds are captured and mixed. "Tirsas Vassals" lives and dies off of its huge pounding riff that rolls over you with a tank like groove. Yes, it is heavy and the vocals are even more sinister in their scowl, but as a song it works off the one theme. What plays to this band's strength is a song like "Cerebus IV" where the focus becomes their ability to sculpt sounds that capture an oppressive gloom. They saved the two longest songs for last, so the question becomes , but can they make sound sculpting interesting enough to carry over eleven minutes of it? For the first two and half minutes of it they drone on the riff, before breaking it all the way down to a creepy low whispered vocal. They play the old expand and contract that Neurosis has been doing since the 90s. 

The band ends things on their highest note with the shimmering expanse of sound that is the very melodic "Ultraviolet" that owes more to say Jesu than Neurosis. I understand why this album was written the way it was as the establishing of heavy for the audience, but I think where they go here is the best thing even if it is not heavy but focuses more on sonic dynamics. This is not going to be the best metal album of the year or even the best sludge album of the year, yet it is very solid and deserves to be recognized, I will give it a 9, though not sure how much I will listen to so it is more perhaps rounding it up for those of you who ask less from sludge, though the band has plenty to give .