South East Sludge

There must be something in water down here….

Three Thrones - Progressive Sludge/Doom riff worship

My names Rich and I play guitar in Telepathy and put on the odd show down here, you might recognise the name of our band, as the fine gentleman here at the Sludgelord have been kind enough to support both our releases.  The reason the guys have let me write to you is to notify/warn you/raise awareness of the beautiful amount of riffs coming from the South East of the U.K. You may have even had your ear canals pillaged by some of these bands before after reading a review on this blog.

As a band we’ve been active now for just over a year, and have had the immense pleasure to be a part of a local scene that has produced some of my favourite bands, and put on some of the most rad shows that I’ve been to or participated in.

Centered around the Colchester/Ipswich/Sudbury area, most weeks you can find d.i.y  gigs hosting some of the most awesome bands in the underground Sludge/Punk/Stoner/Hardcore and Doom scenes, in venues such as Colchester Arts Centre, Vbar, Ipswich’s Royal Oak and the White Horse in Sudbury.

Colchester Arts Centre regularly holds the great Church of Riff nights, and has recently played host to Slabdragger, Meadows, ThreeThrones, Old Man Lizard, William English and a whole host of great riff worshipping bands. Just recently Pint of Bin and Kibou Records held the Wallop Fest, featuring bands such as Hammers, Weekend Nachos, Chestburster and The Afternoon Gentleman, surely the best Crust/Sludge/Hardcore line-up the area has ever seen. That’s just two of the countless shows that have happened in recent times. Look out for shows from Thrash Gordons D.IY Distro and ourselves in coming months.



Chestburster - Songs about your favourite movie murders @ Wallop Fest

You may be thinking; “why bother writing about this?”, because, basically, up until not long ago, none of this shit was happening.  Now thanks to a bunch of insane fuckers & the local venues, our local scene has turned into somewhere you can catch a rad sludge/stoner/hardcore gig on a regular basis.



Meadows rupturing eardrums at Desertfest, London

As a massive fan of this kind of music myself, we’re bloody lucky to have this much stuff happening. Don’t just take the word of some dude who plays guitar and just managed to singe his own hair on a cigarette. Check out some of these bands, buy /download a record or come to a show, a large percentage of the time both of these things are free or available for less than the price of a pint.

Notable mentions should go to the upcoming Three Thrones E.P, Meadows imminent split release with Slabdragger, Chestbursters album of hardgore classics and Earthmass’s ebut one track 20 minute voyage of Doom/Psych lunacy, “Lunar Dawn”, that you might see reviewed here soon - just the tip of the iceberg of records that have been keeping us inspired as we trundle our way through a maze of riffs and polyrhythms that should become the next Telepathy E.P.

Hopefully you enjoy some of the records mentioned, and also have something similar going on in your own town or local area. We all make music that’s on the fringes of society.  We all want to hear slow riffs, fucked up time signatures, grindcore songs about Driller Killer and heavy shit Buzz Osbourne & Dale Crover would be proud of, so the least we can do is find out what’s going on around us and make the most of it.

Upcoming South East events for you to leave your dungeons and TV’s for:

21^st July 2012: Bitches, The Domestics, 5 String Dropout Band, Suggested – PJ McGintys, Ipswich

7^th August 2012: Chestburster, Magle, Meatpacker & Meadows – Vbar Colchester

10^th August 2012: Shrine 69 & Old Man Lizard – White Horse, Sudbury

26^th August: OGFest  3 – Shrine 69, Earthmass, Telepathy, Osmium Guillotine, Three Thrones – St Annes Castle, Gt. Leighs

28^th August 2012: Church of Riff 3: Arabrot, Self Loathing, Earthmass & Old Man Lizard  - Colchester Arts Centre

14^th September: Telepathy, Ghold, Shrine and A Farewell to Tyrants – Hope & Anchor London

Much love and sludge,

Rich