ALBUM REVIEW: Erosion, "Maximum Suffering"

 By: Elliot Paisley


Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 19/10/2018

Label: Hydra Head Records

 

“Maximum Suffering” is a blistering portrayal of tunnel vision brutality and is far more hateful and savage than you could have ever assumed

 

“Maximum Suffering” DD//LP track listing:

1) Maximum Suffering
2) Everything Is Fucked
3) Need For Death
4) Human Error
5) Serpent Lust
6) The Crone
7) Deep In Hell
8) We Have Failed Us
9) Scorched Earth
10) Black Waves
11) Storm Of Steel
12) Dusted
13) Consumed

The Review:

In 2012, it was reported that Hydra Head would be closing their doors. Founded in 1993 by Aaron Turner, who would eventually go on to form Isis(or Celestial, for all intents and purposes), the label would be home to such heavyweights as Cave In, Xasthur, Jesu and Botch. It was a stamp of approval you could trust; they scarcely put out anything which was less than tremendous, and they provided a haven for those who had fallen out of love with the major-label metal being pedalled at the time – Limp Bizkit were topping the charts and Xasthurwas a glorious antidote.

When news spread of the label’s closure in 2012, it was a day of mourning for all fans of underground metal. However, it would eventually prove to have been a slight exaggeration. Turner announced that the label would continue to release and reissue their past releases, and eventually it was decided they would continue to release music on a case-by-case basis. While not quite what we had all hoped for, it was a compromise we could accept.

In this case, the band is Erosion. A ‘supergroup’ of sorts, formed by 3 members of Vancouver’s favourite unsung crusty-hardcore heroes Baptists, with vocals provided by Jamie Hooper, perhaps most famous for at one time providing the harsh-vocals in the sadly-defunct heavy metal revivalists 3 Inches of Blood. On paper, this is a peculiar and curious combination – Baptists are famed for their unforgiving meld of d-beat, crust and hardcore with a black metal bleaching, whereas 3 Inches Of Blood were a triumphant tribute to old-school heavy metal, unflinching in their willingness to recreate the tropes which many mock the genre for adopting.. One would be forgiven for assuming “Maximum Suffering” could limp out of the speakers as a crude mess which lacks emulsion.

The resulting album, however, is a blistering portrayal of tunnel vision brutality and is far more hateful and savage than you could have ever assumed. One glimpse at the track-list and one is confronted with a mission statement: “Everything Is Fucked”, “Need For Death”, “Human Error”, “Deep In Hell”, “We Have Failed Us”. It is abundantly clear what the socio-political outlook of this band is, and they remain unapologetic of this stance throughout the 13 tracks.

Musically, the album is more than simply an amalgam of 3 Inches of Bloodand Baptists. A wretched combination of Trap Them, Entombed, Brutal Truth, Darkthroneand Infest, the sheer sound of what they produce is totally arresting. The performances on this album are all superb, with Hooper’s vocals finally able to tear in the way they threatened to while in 3 Inches of Blood, now more untamed than ever before. In his old-band, he was sharing vocal duties with Cam Pipes, whose Halford-esque wail providing a startling offset to Hooper’s shriek. Here, he is the sole vocalist, and the pressure is on to capture the audience’s attention and man the mission solo,  and it is a joy to announce he has more than stepped up to the plate and given what is perhaps the most accomplished performance of his career.

 The band is on similarity savage form, with the apocalyptic rhythm section underpinning the chaotic guitar-work. The production accents the attack, the songs aren’t written with a gentle touch, nor are they strokes of genius, but when performed with such conviction, this hardly matters at all.

The only shame of this album is timing, and that’s hardly the band’s fault. 2018, as a year, has proven the most difficult time for hardcore bands, solely due to competition and the ensuing struggle to stand out. Code Orange have popularized the genre and achieved Grammy nods by incorporating elements of IDM, industrial music and 90s alternative metal like that of Type O Negative and Pantera.

Turnstile have become the hottest commodity in the scene with their absolutely astounding sophomore effort “Time & Space”, a joyous amalgam of Trapped Under Ice, Metallica, Helmet and Jane’s Addiction. Outfits such as Employed To Serve, Palm Reader, Jesus Pieceand Harm’s Way have all released diverse and critically-acclaimed albums in the last two years and so for many people, the no-frills hardcore presented on “Maximum Suffering” may fall short of the mark. 

Those people are doing themselves a disservice, as this album is one of the finest examples of pure blistering hardcore to be released in some time. By no means are Erosionreinventing the wheel, they are instead fashioning it into a buzz-saw.

If Hydra Headare going to continue being highly selective in their releases, fans are only going to remain loyal to the label if the quality is maintained. With “Maximum Suffering”, it is clear that Turner maintains his keen ear for outstanding, uncompromising music and Erosion ought to be very proud of what they have accomplished here.

“Maximum Suffering” is available HERE

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp

VIDEO PREMIERE: Chicago's Of Wolves return with "Heart To Hand"

Hailing from Chicago, Illinois Of Wolves play a raw and heavy blend of punk and metal from stoner sludge to hardcore & post punk. Releasing their debut record “Evolve” in May 2013, it was a caustic, white-knuckle roller-coaster ride, fueled by a righteous fury at the world around them.  An album full of skull crushing riffs and lumbering bass pierced with a load of heavy grinding monster beats and stomping blasts that open up like bursts of machine-gun fire.  This devastatingly intense band write songs to deal with stress, disillusionment, social injustice.

6 years have now passed since their debut and Of Wolves have a new album in the can which is set for release via Cimmerian Shade Recordings next year.  Given the fact that we loved their debut so much, it was a no brainer when we were asked to debut a brand new track  and today at THE SLUDGELORDwe’re stoked to be premiere “Heart to Hand” which you can check out below.  More new about their sophomore will be announced when we know more.  In the meantime, turn the volume to 11 and watch your speaker die!!!

Band info: Facebook || Bandcamp

THE SLUDGELORD PREMIERE: Montreal quartet Modern Eyes deliver vicious new video “Hérésie”

“Tragedies Dictate Our Lives” is the first full length by Montreal quartet Modern Eyes and what you get is twelve crashing and gloomy tracks mixing elements of d-beat, crust, post metal, hardcore executed in a very defined and unique way.

Formed in 2015, Modern Eyeshave released two EP’s during which they have experimented with their sound and played various showcases and Canadian Festivals.  Lyrically the new record varies from frustrations with modern systems to emotional distress caused by social oppression and every days ordeals.

Produced by Topon Das “Tragedies Dictate our Lives” should undoubtedly serve as the turning point for this Canadian quartet because on this record it achieves the perfect combination of chaotic intensity and melodic soundscapes.  With a release date set for early 2019, today THE SLUDGELORD is exclusively debuting the brand new video for the track “Hérésie” which you can check out below.  Crank this one up and watch your speakers die!!

Band info: facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Allfather, ‘And All Will Be Desolation’

By: Daniel Jackson


Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 7/9/2018

Label: Rotting Throne Records

With ‘And All Will Be Desolation’, Allfather appear to be poised to be the spiritual successor to Crowbar this generation needs and deserves. This is heavy music stripped of all pretenses, given to us to remind us that while innovation is important for forward progress, conviction and a deadly riff are all you really need.

 

‘And All Will Be Desolation’ CD//DD track listing:

1. Black Triangle

2. Citadels

3. Lord Betrayer

4. By Sword, By Famine, By Plague

5. Jackal's Night

6. Inherit The Dust

7. Lampedusa

The Review:

I’ve spent entirely too much time trying to figure out how exactly to categorize Allfather. There are elements of sludge, hardcore, doom, and even more besides in play here. But at a certain point, I came to realize that none of that really matters. What matters is that Allfather, and their new album ‘And All Will Be Desolation’ are rotten with riffs, and catchy ones at that.

With the possible exception of the album’s opening clean guitar passage, every moment of this album is spent wringing every last ounce of gut-wrenching vitriol out each new riff. ‘And All Will Be Desolation’ strength is in its simplicity. Nothing gets in the way of immediacy and impact. Each of these songs is clearly communicated; its language is universal. These are the kinds of stomping, thrashing, hammering songs that cemented my love of heavy metal in the 90s. The music here is incredibly earnest, shouting from the rooftops an unabashed love of anything and everything heavy.

The emphasis on groove here can’t be overstated. Everybody in Allfatheris working overtime to make sure you feel the weight of each and every crunch, every downbeat; the conviction behind these songs is so devastatingly present that it practically radiates from the speakers. Even the guitars feel like they’re a part of the rhythm section at times, with so many of the album’s highlights built around heavy palm muting and deep pockets of groove. Whether it’s something thrashier, like “Citadels” where the grove takes on a similar feel to that of some of High On Fire’s faster songs, or the brilliantly melodic swing of “Inherit The Dust”, rhythm is the crux of Allfather’s sound.

As strong as the album is collectively, “By Sword, By Famine, By Plague” is the band’s best song to date. The opening riff wields both a massive hook and a menacing atmosphere, eventually giving way to a devastatingly simple but powerful palm muted section that’s bound to snap a neck or two live. The second half of the song is loaded with sludgy swing, building to a massive climax where a scintillating guitar solo takes center stage. The song is a fucking journey, with its closing moments dedicated to a swampy southern crawl, and the perfect end to one of the year’s better songs.

With ‘And All Will Be Desolation’, Allfatherappear to be poised to be the spiritual successor to Crowbar this generation needs and deserves. This is heavy music stripped of all pretense, given to us to remind us that while innovation is important for forward progress, conviction and a deadly riff are all you really need.

“And All Will Be Desolation’ is available here

Band info: Facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: LLNN, "Deads"

By: Mark Ambrose


Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:27/04/2018

Label: Pelagic Records

 

Whatever discomfort mounts when you listen to “Deads” there’s always a filthy, churning riff or shouted chorus to tug you back towards the joy of top notch music that will probably be blasting through your speakers for the next decade

 

“Deads”CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Despots

2. Parallels

3. Armada

4. Civilizations

5. Appeaser

6. Deplete

7. Structures

8. Deads

 

The Review:

            

It was over a decade ago that I first listened to Deadguy’s “Fixation on a Coworker” – one of the most apt distillations of workday despair I’d ever encountered.  Nihilistic, acidic, indignant at the situation everyone grinding their lives away in corporate America, the sole full-length was already a decade old.  Yet with the 2008 financial crisis on the horizon, my time at college done, and my life consumed by a middling, frustrating job, it felt like it could have been created mere weeks before for an audience of one.   Listening now is both a nostalgic, infuriating experience, because it seems just as prescient over two decades from its inauspicious debut.  If anything, the only marker of “Fixation on a Coworker” that makes it the odd product of the pre-impeachment Clinton 90s is the personal, rather than global, politics of its running obsessions.  Yet no band had as succinctly captured capitalism-gone-haywire nightmares as Deadguy… at least until LLNN’s “Deads”.

A cinematic, ambient introduction sets up an auditory sucker punch from track 1, “Despots”.  Vocalist/guitarist Christian Bonnensen snarls invective like a bedraggled street prophet: “Walk through life with a single purpose. Shirt collar tightens like a fucking noose.  True purpose lies in never punching out.”  For those who have checked work e-mail during a midnight piss, or a vacation, or major life crisis, the words feel equally sympathetic and accusatory.  The rhythm combo of Rasmus Furbo’s monolithic bass and Rasmus G. Serjensen’s drum work convey hardcore ferocity and metal technicality.  On tracks like “Parallels”, there’s a really interesting dynamic between Bonnensen’s guitar and Ketel G. Sejersen’s synth work – it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.  It’s obvious when Sejersen goes off on an interlude (“Civilizations”) or incorporates sampling into “Armada,” but the heavily processed tones of Bonnensen’s guitar make it sound like a dual synth line, while the distortions on the synth push the instrument to its heavy extremes.

On perhaps my favorite track, “Appeaser”, LLNNwrests free of my Deadguy comparison by imbuing their personal politics with global dread.  The apocalyptic scream of “Skies fall and the fire cleanses in its wake / Run amok / The world is yours to take,” is chilling in ways both sublime and terrifying.  The slow ramping up of dread, the tightening of musical tension, makes “Appeaser” a truly devastating masterpiece.  And for all the cinematic, intellectual, or political subtlety on display, the closer “Deads” reiterates the simple power this four-piece can wield with a quiet/loud dynamic and pummeling guitar riffs.  Whatever discomfort mounts when I listen to “Deads” – capitalist existential dread, political despair, the fear that humanity is teasing out its final days destroying the planet – there’s always a filthy, churning riff or shouted chorus to tug me back towards the joy of top notch music that, like “Fixation on a Coworker”, will probably be blasting through my speakers in a decade… barring any catastrophes to match LLNN’slyrical horrors.

“Deads” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Conjurer, "Mire"

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 09/03/2018

Label: Holy Roar Records

“Mire” is a laudable achievement in sludge experimentation and to my ears it sounded like the work of veterans at the peak of their powers.

“Mire” CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Choke

2. Hollow

3. Thankless

4. Retch

5. The Mire

6. Of Flesh Weaker Than Ash

7. Hadal

The Review:

Sometimes it pays to go into a piece of art blind – too often the biographical details or personal obsessions of iconic performers, writers, filmmakers or musicians can make every release from a prolific legend feel like another chapter in an ongoing biography.  Or, in another limiting way, you end up playing the comparison game: how much progress has this band/writer/director shown since their last burst of output?  Does it live up to an undisputed classic or just ape its style?  Is this a pandering bit of nostalgia bait or a bold return to form?  It’s another tired, fill in the blank method for quick, lazy criticism that ticks off the right boxes (prior knowledge, fealty to popular opinion, an obsessive attention to trivia), but usually doesn’t get into the actual merits or missteps of a particular piece of art.  Impressive debuts are intriguing but difficult for this very reason – is this artist a flash in the pan or a budding genius?  Does that even matter?  In the game of genre gatekeeping, making the “right call” on someone seems to be the coin of the realm.

Thankfully, when I threw on Conjurer’s debut “Mire”, I wasn’t bogged down by all this bullshit.  Knowing nothing about the band, I assumed it was a second or third major release – the level of confident songwriting, bold choices, and what feels like a carefully honed “Conjurer style” is so atypical of a full-length debut, I could have sworn this was a group into its second decade as a band.  From the first track, “Choke”, Conjurer establishes itself as a group that could lay down competent, crackling sludge and probably stand out among the crowd.  But then they throw in some nasty groove riffs, galloping drums, dual register high and low harsh vocals, and a measure of post-rock twang.  Guitar duo Nightingale and Deeprose trade off chugging rhythms with soaring leads, and on “Hollow”, introduce clean vocals that recall some of the best in 2000s post-hardcore.

“Thankless”pays further homage to post-hardcore, math, and borderline grind metal technicality.  A bass-driven interlude highlights bassist Conor Marshall’s considerable bass chops; there aren’t any wonky pedal modulations on here, just clean, precise groove.  My only caveat here is a somewhat flabby post-rock midsection that is initially atmospheric, but had me craving more of the brutality Conjurer invokes so well.  “Retch”and “The Mire” answered my prayers, ricocheting between blasts and grooves that attest to Jan Krause’s status as percussive deity.  “Of Flesh Weaker than Ash” is a return to classic sludge perfection riding on palm muted guitar harmonies and pornographically filthy guitar tone.  Closer “Hadal” is another “classic sludge” cut – a restrained wallow in hypnotic, minimalist misery that just hints at fat, bluesy riffing.

Whether or not Conjurermake a “compelling follow-up”, establish a headliner-level career, etc., “Mire” is a laudable achievement in sludge experimentation.  To my ears, obviously, it sounded like the work of veterans at the peak of their powers.  But as a debut, I do hope there are new soundscapes and amalgams for Conjurer to forge.  They more than promise excellence – they deliver.

“Mire” is available here

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp

VIDEO PREMIERE: LLNN deliver "Appeaser", a monolith of monstrous dimensions

Copenhagen's LLNN burst onto the international scene with 2016's critically acclaimed debut album “Loss”.  After a split EP with LA's WOVOKA in the summer of 2017, LLNN now return with their sophomore album, “Deads”, an erosive, abrasive, dystopian, apocalyptic monolith of monstrous dimensions: more compact, yet more complex and organic all at the same time.  Released on the 27^thApril 2018 via the celebrated Pelagic Records, today you can check out a brand new video for the track “Appeaser” and the band offer the following insight below. You can preorder here

"We are fascinated by how the human mind tends to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadows, as creatures and structures.  A psychological phenomenon called “Pareidolia”. And how music and visuals can evoke certain emotions in us and let our imagination unfold into abstract storytelling.

These are the thoughts behind the music video and the album artwork of “Deads” (with photographs by drummer Rasmus G. Sejersen).  The overall album theme of “Deads” is about births and downfalls of civilizations in other worlds throughout the universe.From creation to final decay, the depletion of the host - scenes which inspired the music video. All the footage is filmed mostly with macro lenses to create the extreme close-ups in combination with a few wide shots.  Created in a minimalistic setup in our parents home. (Combined with some heavy Halo Reach 2v2 gaming. Come get some!

LLNN + BISON Live Rituals

22.04.18 NL ROADBURN
23.04.18 DK Copenhagen
25.04.18 NO Oslo
26.04.18 SWE Stockholm
28.04.18 DE Hamburg
29.04.18 NL Utrecht
30.04.18 DE Karlsruhe
01.05.18 DE Wiesbaden
02.05.18 BE Brussels
03.05.18 CH Bulle
04.05.18 CH Porrentruy
05.05.18 F Paris
06.05.18 UK DESERTFEST (London)
08.05.18 CZ Prague
09.05.18 AT Vienna
10.05.18 CR Zagreb
11.05.18 RO Cluj
12.05.18 RO Craiova
13.05.18 RO Bucharest
14.05.18 HU Budapest
15.05.18 PL Krakow
16.05.18 PL Warsaw
18.05.18 DE Kiel
19.05.18 DE Berlin (PELAGIC FEST)

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp

FOR THOSE ABOOT TO ROCK: Riffs of Canada with Wake [Calgary, Alberta]

By: Mark Tremblay

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 23/02/2018

Label: Translation Loss

“Misery Rites” is a standout contemporary extreme metal record one of the most punishing heavy music albums of the year so far.

“Misery Rites” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Exhumation

2). Misery Rites

3). Embers

4). Rot

5). Paradigm Rot

6). Exile

7). Rumination

8). Bitter Winter

9). Burial Ground

The Review:

Canada’s most complex grindcore band returns with “Misery Rites”. Taking a lot of what the band had previously done on “Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow”, and further pushing elements of black and death metal. The album is one of the most punishing heavy music albums of the year so far.

From the very start, the record opens on a different path. The sludge riffs on “Exhumation” would make Primitive Man proud. In true grind fashion, however, the album is still full of blast-beats. They are interspersed with moments of dissonant death metal riffage; “Paradigm Lost” and “Exile” utilize this structure in a way that make the heaviest moments stand out. This band really excels at building peaks and valleys in its music for the listener.

Drummer Josh Bueckert really stands out on this record. The drum patterns create a lot of surprising twists and turns. The continual motion on tracks like “Burial Ground” showcase a variety in drum patterns rarely heard in heavy music. “Misery Rites” is a standout contemporary extreme metal record that sees this band moving further into other forms of heavy music, and finding their unique sound

“Misery Rites”is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Full Length: Full length

Date Released: 26/01/ 2018

Label: Housecore Records |

Season of Mist

Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Little Fucking Heroes

2. Utopian

3. Choosing Mental Illness

4. The Ignorant Point

5. Individual

6. Delinquent

7. Photographic Taunts

8. Finger Me

9. Invalid Colubrine Frauds

10. Mixed Lunatic Results

The Review:

A friend once said he loved hip-hop legend Cam'ron because he was the king of ignorant rap. The former Killa Cam has made a 20-year career out of having wealth, screwing women, making trouble and slapping haters. It's just narcissistic music for the club that is blessed by an artist with a seductive flow who knows his lane is the Wraith and Hennessey, and not Black Lives Matter or introspection. He seems to like it that way, as do his fans, who have followed Cam'ron through the various Diplomats reunions, guest spots and feuds.

Metal's Cam'ron is almost certainly Phil Anselmo. No one in the last 20 years has been as polarizing or reliable/predictable as the former Pantera front man and lead for Superjoint and Down. Rage and seething are largely the emotional spectrum. Anselmo's continued stumblings into political commentary have earned him a reputation as a neo-Nazi, a label he has repeatedly rejected, unconvincingly. His excesses would have killed most of us. And, like Cam, Anselmo's worst enemy has been himself. Fans may point to stylistic growth. It's just not terribly convincing either.

On "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" Anselmo offers the first glimpses in some time at attempts to prove his haters wrong. Granted, it's done in that pretentious Anselmo way of not caring what you think, but it's evident nevertheless. When the album's title track was released in November, it featured vintage Anselmo alongside elements of his Down and Superjointincarnations. Guitarist Marzi Montazeri is gone from this version of the Illegals. And Anselmo suggested this go-around was more collaborative, and intended to convey a story of facing mental health issues.

This renewed energy comes at the right time. As with Cam'ron, the music Anselmo once led has steadily been growing beyond him, and some switches were in order. Metal has since Black Sabbath been a convergence of commentary. Social media and growing political divides, however, have sparked more than a few heavy acts to blend critique into their music. For years, Anselmo has had a penchant for voicing his opinion in his music and elsewhere; unfocused, it can become a trainwreck, such as in his white supremacist flirtation. The topic of mental health herein is a loaded one. In mid-February, a 19-year-old man with an apparent mental illness killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. There's a worldwide opioid epidemic spurred by attempts to deal with psychiatric problems. How Anselmo contributes to the discourse feels interesting, to say the least.

On the first Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals album since its 2013 debut, there is plenty of red meat for Anselmo's hardcore base. He's still mad, still dropping that rumbling vocal and still backed by a bruising metal ensemble. The album's opener, "Little Fucking Heroes,"delivers a white-hot blast of fury, driving rhythm section and raw riffs for the vocals to tear into. Anselmo, who turns 50 in June, is undoubtedly grown from the kid who fronted 1988's "Power Metal," though his passion is timeless. Unmoored by a band's larger identity, Anselmo feels freer than usual, roaring into the microphone with the muscle that made him famous. Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

However, don't hold your breath for Anselmo to go Kendrick Lamar on this album in regard to the mental health crisis. Rather than a slam on Congress, insurance companies, Big Pharma or state failures, the critique throughout "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" seems aimed at anyone who's not him. It's the wary eye generations of rockers have cast at politicians, liberal social justice warriors, media, institutions, parents and anyone else who just doesn't get it. The two types of people in the world, Anselmo says on "Invalid Colubrine Frauds" are those who just want to be left alone, and those who won't leave them alone. On "Individual," he declares, "I don't want to be part of your pack. Shut the fuck up, you don't even listen… I'll never be what you created." In these sentiments, Anselmo implicitly opens another conversation, most vividly illustrated in the Nikolas Cruz case: where does the right for someone who is seemingly unstable to be left alone end and the community's safety begin? Amidst the American debate over gun control, issues like institutionalization, mental health and the near-manic desire to be self-involved collide too. There are no easy answers.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" is available here

Band info: facebook

TRACK PREMIERE: Pittsburgh blackened / doomed death barbarians Slaves BC debut "Lo"

Slaves BC has announced the release of their sophomore full length "Lo, and I Am Burning". The new full length shows a strong evolution from their previous material, and Slaves BC have delved further into their black and death metal influences to reach new depths of horror. Lyrically, this is the most personal Slaves BChas ever been with songs dealing with depression, suicide, loss, crisis of faith, and the current political turmoil in America.

The new LP will be available on limited 180 gram vinyl from The Fear and the Void Recordings. The vinyl pre-order will be available hereand will go live March 2nd, 2018. The album will be released via bandcamp digitally and vinyl pre-orders will begin shipping on March 16th, 2018.  Today is gives us great pleasure to debut the track “Lo”.  Which you can check out below.  

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

SATAN'S DOZEN: 13 Unearthly Hymns Unearthed #6 (January 2018)

Compiled by: Andrei Moose

Artwork by: Josh Mashesh

SATAN’S DOZEN is THE SLUDGELORD’s attempt to present the very best music the underground scene has to offer and whilst we’d love to review every band submission we receive, not to mention the countless recommendations you send our way, in practical terms that is just not possible.  Therefore because we don’t want killer music to pass you by, each and every month our member of the Russian chapeter Andrei Moose  painstakingly sifts through the music labelled  killer  riffs” and chooses 13 of the best new albums released via bandcamp and bundles them together into the mightiest riff sandwich.

Whilst all the albums we have included below are top tier stuff, we have compiled them into a chart on a sliding scale of 13-1. So we hope you dig our selections for January 2018 and enjoy 13 Unearthly Hymns Unearthed.  

These bands need more exposure, so go “like” “share” and “follow” their pages, but most of all enjoy some of the best music the underground has to offer.  THE SLUDGELORD most sincerely approves.   Now, go heavy or go home.

13) Sons Of Nibiru – “Hellspirit” (Rzeszow, Poland), Released December 16, 2017

Psychedelic / Stoner-Doom

   
12) Borgonaut – “Borgonaut”EP (Trieste, Italy), Released January 31, 2018

Stoner-doom / Sludge

   
11) FILTHxCOLLINS / SKINLOVER – “Split 7” (Cardiff, UK), Released January 21, 2018

Sludge / Grindcore / Powerviolence

   
10) Taser – “Social Exclusion Blues” (Lahti, Finland), Released January 19, 2018

Sludge

   
9) Dowager – “Hymns for the Dead” (Los Angeles, California), Released January 1, 2018

Stoner-Doom

     

8) Nerveshatter – “Madhouse”(New York(, Released January 9, 2018

Noise / Hardcore / Sludge

   
7) Troll Teeth – “Boiled Alive” (New Jersey), Released January 1, 2018

Psychedelic / Stoner-Rock / Stoner-Metal

   
6) Psychic Lemon – “Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay”(London, UK), Released January 12, 2018

Instrumental / Psychedelic / Kraut / Prog / Rock

   
5) Floaters – “WAITING FOR AMNESTY” (Tokyo, Japan), Released December 29, 2017

Stoner-Doom / Sludge

4) Smoke – “Stoned To Death” (Houma, Louisiana), Released January 12, 2018

Stoner-Doom / Sludge

   
3) The Mothercraft – “Pillars” (Edmonton, Alberta), Released January 5, 2018

Stoner-Rock

 
2) Legalize Crime – “Beat The Law” (Wroclaw, Poland), Released March 30, 2017

Sludge / Hardcore / Stoner-Metal

    

1) Orphans Of Doom – “Strange Worlds/Fierce Gods” (Kansas City, Missouri), Released January 26, 2018

Progressive/ Sludge / Doom / Metal

Band info: Orphans of Doom || Legalize Crime|| The Mothercraft|| Smoke || Floaters || Psychic Lemon || Troll Teeth || Nerveshatter|| Dowager|| Taser || Skin Lover || FilthXCollins || Borgonaut|| Sons of Nibiru