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

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 works well and 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. The vocals are more sung than just yelled. Thought that changes on the more abrasive and aggressive title track. Things get crazy as far as where the song goes. Not what I would expect from a German band. 

"Black Mother" finds the rough sonic crust edged on their brand of stomping sludge. Sludge has always been doom for punks and this album is another example of this. They are capable of summoning some creepy sounds, but it is just one color these songs are painted with. "Afterlife" takes three and a half minutes of atmosphere to build up into the metal driving the song. It rumbles in a pretty straightforward fashion. Even these more meat and potatoes moments of burly excess, as bookended with enough sonic emotion to balance it out. The riff going into "Universal Mother" has a darker doom like mood. It converges into a more head bang inducing groove. It feels more like "Souls at Zero" era Neurosis, with the creepy moodiness making it one of the album's best songs.  The flowing arrangement to this one has a superb sense of dynamics.  

The surreal dissonant blend of sounds that has proved to be this band's strength is further built upon with "Dog Headed God" even though it is more straight forward doomy rock. There is a 70s psyche rock feel to this. The strummed clean guitar used to create tension is very effective.     While some of these occult flavor desert rock sounds are familiar, they are given a unique spin into the shadows of this album. After the first two minutes of noisey ambiance the song actually kicks in. There is a proggy King Crimson like cadence to the verse that leads into the song, with the vocals chanting more. It evolves into a more doom like drone with the mood almost like goth rock with the funeral feel of the organs in the background, Artfully capturing sound but less captivating in terms of song structure.  I will give this album a 9.5, and see how it grows on, but it captures a unique mood to be sludge. This album is being dropped on Exile on Mainstream January 27th. 

OBELYSKKH : "the Providence"

Germany is doing it again. Fuzzed out sludge ridden doom seems to fit my mood this afternoon. Right off the bat with the title track that opens the album, I like the really hollow baritone vocals that almost have more of a post-punk feel. This builds into harsher roared vocal and then switches back on the following verse. There are familiar sounds, but it's clear by their fourth album these guys have found a sound that works for them. I am not sure why this song is not two songs as it seems like we could have had a clean break around the five and a half minute mark. The riff gets more sinewy. There is more of a "Children of the Grave" feel to "the Raving Ones" which doesn't feel as fresh as the opener. I can hear where they are more evenly matched with peers like Electric Wizard. I am more than half way through "Northern Lights" when I realize it's not the previous song. So the big lumbering guitar tone can give things a very uniform feel at times.

The next sprawling epic is "Nyx". The varied vocals styles lean more towards a mean sneer. The riff is powerful, but not re-inventing the wheel.  I am about five minutes in before I look up and check where I am at in this song, so that is a good sign. Though I have not been focused on it 100 percent and at times it begins to drift into background music. I check back in for the creepier passage around the seven minute mark. When the song begins to fade out into feedback and a linger snare beat I wonder why they are keeping it going. This is never answered. They employ a clean guitar tone at the beginning of "Aeons of Iconoclasm" , it stays with in the range of Neurosis zip code and closer to sludge than doom. There is more of a creepy atmosphere to the sonic swell of "Marzanna" I had to listen to this song a few times before it sank in. I like the dark throb of the verse riff and how it steers them away from your typical over blown doom. The effected vocals are layered to create a more trippy delivery than just being roared at you. Not that they don't roar as it builds.

While the first song really took me by storm, getting me excited enough to want this on my iPod , once it settles into the meat of the album we begin to hear somethings are more familiar than they are not. For what this is I think this album is well done and hits the mark where they wanted it. I'll give it an 8.5 as certainly puts them solidly on my radar and apart of the masses.