Top 10 Sludge Albums of 2024

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. 2024. 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 2024

10-Ufomammut- " Hidden" 

 Italian psych-progsters are back with a renewed thunder. This is their tenth album so they know what they are doing. It moves in a manner that is not the doom they self-identify as until it does slow into a more sludged-out trudge. The commanding vocals are more sung than howled, though often splitting the difference between the two. The band continues to excel. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/ufomammut-hidden.html

9-Swamp Coffin -"Drowning Glory" 

This band from England approaches sludge with almost hard-core-like aggression as they stomp into the riffs, which is a great deal different from how the Southern-fired sludge of America, takes a more bong-broiled attitude towards it. Sludge is really what happens when punks try to play Doom. This theory is further nuanced when considering the differences between when it's tackled by crust punks vs hard-core kids who grew out of the scene. The hard-core leanings are more noticed when the pace picks up and it becomes sludge in guitar tone only. Even then there are a few riffs with more of a lumbering groove. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/swamp-coffin-drowning-glory.html

8-Autolith - "Artificial  Heaven" 

This Memphis-based band excels at creating a deliberate atmosphere they trudge with authority. Their strength as a band is the ability to recognize they can only effectively crush you by giving you the chance to catch your breath, rather than just a single-minded assault on your ear drums. The album washes you in their beautiful darkness. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-is-doom-autolith-artificial.html

7-Canopy - "Empty Light' 

 One of Atlanta's best-kept secrets has just unleashed a new EP that will elevate its status in the metal community. These guys are going above and beyond, as what kept me listening was not the screamed vocals or punchy sludge accents, but the way the chords rang out to create a sense of melancholy. Just being heavy for the sake of being heavy is an easy task, but pouring your pain and depression. These guys are solidly on the side of sludge, there is a penchant for post-rock guitar wandering to balance out their monolithic crunch with the breathing room needed to create a dynamic juxtaposition 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/07/canopy-empty-light.html

6-Oldspeak- "s/t" 

Sludge fans should find themselves pretty content when this album roars to life. It takes you back to the early 2000s when bands like Isis were the newest most exciting force in metal. The hype around sludge has ebbed to the point bands are not self-identifying as that much these days. No matter what this band from Ohio tells you, they are not post-doom or doom gaze they are sludge. They should be proud as they are doing a fine job of it and bring a convincing level of atmosphere to these songs, that keeps them from sounding like the raw pound of cavemen. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/oldspeak-st.html

5-Couch Slut -"You Can Do It Tonight" 

This New York band plays a beautifully depraved sludged-out style of noise rock, that is dark and burly. The darkness comes from the honest lyrics that provide a commentary on human filth in the big city. The sonic equivalent to drinking booze out of an ashtray.  "Goo " era  Sonic Youth influences clash against a more metallic tendency. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/couch-slut-you-could-do-it-tonight.html

              

4-Inerth -"Hybris" 

Meeting somewhere in the bleak wasted land where sludge intersects with death metal, this band from Spain pulls from a wider range of influences including post-punk and crust. There is a very natural feel to the production of this album that captures the sonic nature of what they do organically. More commanding in the overt sense than what Neurosis did they owe a little more to Sepultura. Though their songs are painted with a dystopian darkness rather than blood-red aggression.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/death-is-june-inerth-hybris.html

3-Sect-"Plagues Upon Plagues" 

 This band is comprised of who's who of post-millennial  Hard-core. At the mic former Cursed vocalist Chris Colohan, who is giving an impassioned performance, with a husky croon that winks in the direction of Neurosis. His approach gives the dark tension of the music, more depth and makes more of an impact when it does get time to scream and kick the riffs driven by former Earth Crisis guitarist Scott Crouse. Darker and denser than the bounds metallic hard-core if what finds them lumped in here.

 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/sect-plagues-upon-plagues.html

2-Chat Pile - "Cool World"

Expectations are high for this one as 2022's "God's Country" made it to number six on the Top 10 Punk Albums of the Year list. This album feels a great deal angrier. Where every band always says this will be a heavier album than our last, these guys just delivered. They still care about songwriting, perhaps even more so, as the almost industrial sludge beatings give way to nuance. They fell short of bringing the kind of sonic darkness as the band who took the top spot this year, but should still be celebrated for the great album they delivered. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/chat-pile-cool-world.html

 

1-Glassing -"From the Other Side of the Mirror"

In 2021, this band earned the 7th spot on the overall metal top 10 for the year. They have a history of ruling, and it's not stopping. This album was darker and more melodic, giving me more of what I wanted from them. At times, the screamed vocals offset what might otherwise be creepy bass-driven shoegaze. They get feral and deface your eardrums with their tangible sense of anguish. Though none of this is contrived or thought out from a marketing perspective by a record label this is just where they are, perhaps even angrier than the previous album though there is a wide range of emotional colors being used here making them the best sludge album of the year with the inner apocalypse they project outwardly. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/glassing-from-other-side-of-mirror.html

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UFOMAMMUT : "Hidden"

 Italian psych-progsters are back with a renewed thunder. This is their tenth album so they know what they are doing. It moves in a manner that is not the doom they self-identify as until it does slow into a more sludged-out trudge. The commanding vocals are more sung than howled, though often splitting the difference between the two. It is a ten-and-a-half-minute opening track with enough groove to feel like it's being jammed out to excess. At two songs in it feels like it is a heavier album for sure. The vocals are more shouted in the background as the fuzzed-out mix gets an odd turn of ambiance. The guitars are not the focal point but another texture as the bass drives it forward. At the song's halfway point the drugs begin to take a turn. If Lemmy had taken Hawkwind in the direction he went with Motorhead the results might have been similar. 

Things slow down to a more deliberate stomp on "Spidher".  It moves in another sludge-dripping groove. One of the more straightforward rocking moments I've heard from them in some time.  At almost eleven minutes long'Mausoleum" is the album's most sprawling song. This droning indulgence finds the song not really kicking in until the two-minute mark. The vocals have the prophet of doom feel that Uncle Al from Ministry delivers these days. Once again when the drugs kick in the song shifts into an even trippier direction than the last time they followed this formula. 

"Leeched" feels like it could either be from "Filth Pig" or a Melvins cover, both work for me. Less apocalyptic than that era of Ministry so I am going to go with the Melvins. The last song finds them wandering off in a direction that has more in common with older Cure. I wish they had worked more of this kind of thing into the other songs. Vocally they are not as impassioned as Robert Smith, but it works well enough from the more Pink Floyd vibes they drift into. I will give this album a 9 , it continues to find the band excelling at what they do. 

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UFOMAMMUT : "Fenice"

The Italian band's 9th album finds them continuing further down a darker, heavier and more experimental path. Even better is the fact they are not taking the most obvious routes to get to these places, which is more progressive than bands who throw a bunch of notes and solos in to be labelled as such. it carries a more sludge like weight to it's crunch. It was almost the end of the song before I realized it was an instrumental.  The second track is more of a interlude, with the next actual song being "Pyschostasia" which is almost more of a shoe gaze sounding song in the way it hypnotically drones on. I can hear a little Hawkwind influence in their so it is not like they just went straight up My Bloody Valentine with it. The vocals help for ma trippy background layer than demanding the spotlight. It does build into something more dynamic and rocks out. 

"Metamorpheonix" has a great sound. As a song it builds off onr drone and gradually increases the intensity int a swell. The vocals present but in more of a manner than reminds me of old Pink Floyd. It crashes into the song after it "Pyramind" which took a couple listens to figure out where one song ended and the other began.  It takes a about two minutes into this song before it ebbs down enough to take a turn to developing itself into something rather than just running off the momentum established in the previous song. If you are a regular reader here then you know how I feel about bands being sonically heavy rather than just heavy metal. You can have booth and in some places what is going down here touches upon it. 

 I would say they are rocking in a direction towards space rock here, so might owe more to say Hawkwind than Slayer. The sounds like they re calling out to you from another dimension rather than just being the narration of a song. The vocals go into a more commanding scream in the last minute of the song. 

This is not going down as their most melodic album by any means. Their trippiest , well so far it looks that way. I guess with everything going on in the world today some mind expansion is in order. "Empyros" does make an attempt to be a song, it is pretty short and sweet and feels more like they had a cool idea that they wanted on the album, so I will let it count as a song on this album for the purpose of this review. Even then in scoring this album I will still go ahead and round this up to a 9.5, since it is once of those lucky accidents where a band decides to grow in the direction of my musical tastes. This album is being released May 6th on Neurot Records. 

Top 10 Sludge / Stoner Albums of 2017

So this list was started because well doom and sludge are not the same thing. Neither is doom and stoner rock. While stoner rock and sludge are not the same thing, the lines seem to be blurred a little closer and basically this is about how much pot you are smoking. If you are smoking pot hoping for the apocalypse then you are sludge, you also probably like crusty punk. If you are riding around the desert smoking pot while hoping to find more pot to smoke while listening to Thin Lizzy you are stoner rock. Now that that is out of the way I have also included the reason the albums are ranked as they are in case that brings up even more questions.

10-Space Witch- "Arcanum"


Living up to their name these guys can be the metal equivalent to kraut rock and in fact employ some synth sounds that are taken from the annuls of kraut rock.As the band's second album it  would be properly enjoyed to the fullest extent of the bong as a sound track to sailing out of your mind and over your couch in the late night hours. The riffs bubble out of the distortion like the liquid in a lava lamp.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/03/space-witch-arcanum.html

9-Ocaso- "Demo"


This might be the first time I have had a demo on a top ten list. The Germans in Ocaso ask where does sludge begin and neo-crust end. Another question is does having a violin part automatically make you neo-crust , folk or otherwise? I I think there are more battle metal elements at play than this band wants to confess to. Some of this lies in the darker mood being conveyed.They beat out Space Witch because they are darker.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/10/ocaso-demo.html

8-Bury the Machines-"Wicked Covenant"


John E Bomher of the Chicago based  band Yakuza released a solo album where he is a one man sludge band. He blends bleak melodies and layers the vocals on the first song so the more droning sung vocals sits over an almost black metal rasp. I like this much better than the typical gruff bark most sludge bands rely on.This is a coasting on a sea of bong smoke as nightfall comes sort of album, but certainly one of the better sludge albums, beating out Ocaso, because this is a more full realized and polished project.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/04/bury-machines-wicked-covenant.html

7- Devil Electric-S/T

 his Australian band busts out some pretty hefty rock that falls some where between doom and stoner rock. So it's either dark stoner or doom. I think this was being called occult rock or vest metal a few years ago. There is some Sabbath worship, but their singer has a personality of her own and is not just trying to totally fall in line with all the Grace Slicksters that came after Christian Mistress. Great production and catchy songs. In fact the songs are so catchy that they elevate this album above Bury the Machines.


 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/10/devil-electric-st.html

6- Seer- Cult of the Void - 

 This Canadian band brings metallic elements to their sludged out rock n roll. Like a rough and tumble version of Katatonia as the baritone vocals are carried with more balls. Very melodic they give into their dark side wand has darker side to it like a more grunge ridden Woods of Ypres. So not the most original band on the list , but they combine all of these elements in a powerful way that elevates this album over the more hooky songwriting of Devil Electric.


 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/05/seer-vol-iii-iv-cult-of-void.html

5-the Melvins -"A Walk With Love & Death" 


 If Mike Patton gives these guys a huge thumbs up it's hard to argue, though he is also a fan of a special needs choir, so tastes in music might be subject to change. In the here and now is what we are going to focus because despite their legacy the reality is you are only as good as your last album. "Death" is the rock album end of this double album equation and to be honest the only part of it that matters the rest was noise. They rock part of this however was so go that it made it to number 7 on here so that says something. It grew on me each time I listened to it and has way more depth than Seer so that's why they are 5 and this album is 4.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-melvins-walk-with-love-death.html

4- Horseneck-"Heavy Trip"


 Former members of Wil Haven and Jess Gowrie who played drums for Chelsea Wolfe. It is a wild ride that ranges from a crazy 70's style boogie to a manically screamed Kvelertak like rock n roll strut. So this is a more punk take on swamp metal, at times seems influenced by Kyuss, and at others a beast of it's own making. This wild energy is what found it beating out the more refined Melvins. 


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/01/horseneck-heavy-trip.html

3-Ufomammut-8


Bongs across the world must be aflame so the trend of super psyche filled sludge continues this time coming from Italy. These guys continue to take their sound even further out in the cosmos. These guys take the Sabbath core of stoner rock and obscure with clouds of tripping haze. The vocals feel more Pink Floyd like to me than carrying any kind of an Ozzy influence. With each song they take you further into the depths of their warped rabbit hole. More ambitious than Horseneck with a sonically heavier sound.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/08/ufomammut-8.html

2-King Woman- "the Image of Suffering" 

 There is an even more dream like haze cast over the doom-gaze of the band's debut full length than we found on their previous ep. This hits a sweet spot for me as it once again proves you don't have to adhere to the typical trapping of metal in order to be heavy.She does allow for some of her backing vocal tracks to to into more of a scream and the guitar carries the dense distortion. Vocally powerful it was an album that makes you want to dig deeper into it with each listen. Vocally more powerful than "8" so that is why this album sits at number 2.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/02/king-woman-image-of-suffering.html

1- Amenra-Mass VI

 This band from Belgium is back with another piece of despair. With members of Oathbreaker in the fold they deliver a lush take on metal. The atmosphere might be even thicker on this album than it was on the previous releases. I am not hearing this as just a sludge band as the Neurosis worship has been washed away in favor of a sound that has more emotional depth. The anguish howls of the vocals and their accompanying guitar parts really pack the heart punch here.It starts off with the kind of aggressive sludge you expected from them though the anger almost borders on hardcore. 


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2017/09/amenra-mass-vi.html

Ufomammut : "8"

Bongs across the world must be aflame so the trend of super psyche filled doom continues this time coming from Italy. I just hit publish on the new Monolord album, when I started listening to this and these guys are even further out in the cosmos. Where Monolord hits you with fuzzed out density, these guys have the Sabbath core of doom obscured by clouds of tripping haze. The vocals feel more Pink Floyd like to me than carrying any kind of an Ozzy influence. With each song they take you further into the depths of their warped rabbit hole. By the second song it's clear the drummer is a fucking champ. They establish more tension on "Warsheep". These are not catchy songs that grab your ear with their infectious allure. Instead they are immensely interesting and captivating in a more cerebral fashion.  They do lock into some more conventional doom like riffs here and there, but the organic melting of ear movement into another has a life of its own.

"Zodiac" carries over the rumble from the previous song. They vocals are more shouted. Two minutes into this song they launch into a cool progressive groove. So this is not for doom purists , but I think even they can find plenty to love about this album. Normally I might be bitching about songs going over the 9 minute mark, but these guys know how to fill every minute. This album begins to work more in movements, much like how "Zodiac" progressed out of the song before it the same could be said of "Fatum". The heavilly effected vocals do kind follow a Ozzy like cadence in how they bounce of the thicker pounding laid under them. Heading into the three minute mark it's so heavy it is sick. Once again the groove of the preceding it given a twist into something new this time it's "Prismaze". There is more of a palm muted tension that reminds me a little of Tool, but on more drugs. "Core" is a more punishing explosion than anything they have offered up so far on this album.

The first solid Sabbath thumbprint is not until "Wombdemonium". This is one of the album's more straight forward moments. At only three minutes they still manage to do better than most of the sprawling merchants of 13 minute doom. I think the dark groove to "Psyrcle" is more compelling . There is a weird hint of a female vocal sampled in and the lead vocals have more of a chanted quality to them. I was not expecting the tempo shift midway into the song.I'll give this album a 9.5 it's an excellent blend of surreal and heavy and another step forward for this band who is clearly not afraid to be different and I commend them for it.