Friday 25 October 2019

TRACK PREMIERE: Byzanthian Neckbeard debut "Minaton"

Back with another bag of riffs, Guernsey blackened sludge Doom trio Byzanthian Neckbeard return on November 1st with their third album “Minaton”.  Today at THE SLUDGELORD, we’re excited to debut a new track, which you can check out below.  Byzanthian Neckbeard may be three miscreants from the foggy island of Guernsey, but they know their way around a bone-shattering song, so press play, turn your stereo up loud and watch your speakers die




Band info: facebook || bandcamp

Thursday 24 October 2019

PREMIERE: Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean’s next chapter of aural depravity “Tell Me What You See Vanishing and I Will Tell You Who You Are”



Despite knowing very little about the band and precious little info being available, with the release of their debut full length Decay and Other Hopes Against Progress” in 2017, Springfield, Massachusetts, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean’s delivered a record so utterly fucking devastating, the band literally became one of our favourite bands at THE SLUDGELORD

Their music is plain wretched and today we bring you exclusively their next chapter of aural depravity “Tell Me What You See Vanishing and I Will Tell You Who You Are” in full below.   The record is released tomorrow and preorders are being taken here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

Tuesday 22 October 2019

ALBUM REVIEW: Unfurl, "The Waking Void"

By: Eeli Helin

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 20/09/2019
Label: Independent



”The Waking Void” CD//CS//DD track listing:

1. Ancestral Spirit
2. Ritual of Fire
3. Null
4. Post-Modern Prometheus
5. Void
6. Withering Aeons
7. Black Widow Hourglass
8. Lazarus Reflex
9. Begrudging Lucidity
10. Guest of the Cavern/Mind Altar
11. Blue Rose

The Review:

Unfurl are one of those bands who are flying under the radar way too fluently while they'd deserve all the attention possible from bigger and smaller medias. Their debut full-length "The Waking Void" was released on September 20th and the buzz started only afterwards, given that it's reasonably increasing constantly. Struggling to get press is pretty much a standard today, but it's bands like this that makes all that seem very unfair; after all, "The Waking Void" is amongst the better albums of the year, and one hell of a debut that came from nowhere.

Having enthusiastic music nerds as friends is a benefit, that proved to be worthwhile with this release as well. After being directed to this album by the #lord himself, it proficiently stole my undivided attention for days. "The Waking Void" is a voluble mix of blackened and partly noisy death metal with shoegazey and mathgrind leanings. One of the most interesting creations on the record are the shorter, noisy and mostly electronic tracks scattered throughout, offering brief pauses and moments of ease amidst the intense battering. While the inclusion of such seemingly minuscule tracks might feel out of place at first, they end up being very integral for the narrative of the entire album.

Apart from the interludes, the heart and soul of "The Waking Void" obviously lies in the main tracks. The beating starts on the second track "Ritual of Fire", showcasing the high compositional level and underlying tones quite well right from the beginning. "Post-Modern Prometheus" carries you away into the noisier, black metal-esque end of the spectrum and holds within one of the most breathtaking breakdown of this decade. The production atmosphere is like a tightening grip, but doesn't turn suffocating as the organic feel is cherished with precision and thought. A short intermission leads the listener to "Withering Aeons", grooving like a motherfucker all the way through to what is perhaps the greatest surprise on the album.

"Black Widow Hourglass" is a moment of pure mourning, expressed through clean vocals and guitars, textured with ambient washes and floaty drum beats. Flowing straight into "Lazarus Reflex", this pair represents the band in their best, weaving a plethora of wildly different flavours into each other seamlessly. It's soon obvious that with these tracks, Unfurl kick in a whole new gear. While the first half had it's own strengths, the latter is where the band relies solely on their personal expression, finding a whole new kind of coherency and momentum to themselves.

Towards the end, the tracks progress into more diverse and fascinating ones, and by the time the final piece "Blue Rose" is over, you'll find yourself wondering why Unfurl aren't on every single metal enthusiast's or music journalist's lips, why an album of this caliber was released independently, why you haven't heard about them before. As futile as those questions are by now, they still bear a meaning in today's music industry, underlining the fact that without heaps of green and direct connections to certain persons of interest, a lot of amazing music gets buried underneath the rubble. We can only hope that this kind of material finds its own audience, preferably sooner than later.


”The Waking Void” is avialble HERE




Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Tuesday 15 October 2019

6 NEW BANDS: THE SLUDGELORD's "666 Pack Review" (September 2019)

By: Nikos Mixas


Welcome to THE SLUDGELORD’s September 666 Pack Review.  Summer is OVER, so dust off your black hoodie collection and stow away your favorite pair of camo cargo shorts.  Winter is coming and so is the onslaught of review submission to THE SLUDGEORD.  If you’re new to this, each and every month we handpick 6 review submissions and critique them by only using 6 words, then we rate them on a scale from 1 to 666!  Check out our metal fashion themed rating scale below: 

1 – This is as exciting as…your bootleg Pantera shirt. 
2 – Wearing a kilt at a metal festival and this submission go hand in hand.  
3 – Anything camouflaged is pretty standard in metal fashion, this band can relate for sure. 
4 – Spikes, chains and leather are always a cool look…in fact, you guys are pretty cool too.  Four it is.  
5 – The hottest thing in metal fashion has to be the battle vest/jacket trend right now.  You guys should definitely make some patches.  
666 – Truth be told, being original and talented isn’t fashionable at all. THE SLUDGELORD doesn’t give a fuck how you look, only how you sound.  You guys killed it, congratulations!

Caveat:  Even though the 666 Pack Review is meant to offer humorous critique, there are no safe spaces here and your gripes will only make you sound like a bellyacher.  THE SLUDGELORD is a picky listener…and doesn’t care what you think of his opinions….


1). Wardomized “A Heated Exchange” (Belfast, U.K.)    Rating: 5

Napalm Death influence abundantly clear…aaaargh!!!



2). MUNT Towards Extinction” (Melbourne, Australia) Rating: 666!

Fucking hate on the barbie mate!


3
). The Beginning and the End “Ourboros” (London, U.K.)    Rating: 3

was down until the vocals…



4). Cross Dog “Hollow” (Petersborough, Ontario, Canada) Rating: 3

Again, solid music…but the vocals…


 
5). Alienatör “Pariahs” (Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada) Rating: 4

Not the most original, but groovy!



6). Oktas “Oktas” (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)   Rating: 5

Ambient without fashion…without trend

Band info: Wardomized || Munt || The Beginning and the end || Cross Dog || Alienator 

Saturday 12 October 2019

ALBUM REVIEW: Car Bomb, "Mordial"

By: Eeli Helin

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 27/09/19
Label: Independent | 
Holy Roar Records



Mordial” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Start
2. Fade Out
3. Vague Skies
4. Scattered Sprites
5. Dissect Yourself
6. Xoxoy
7. Hela
8. Blackened Battery
9. Mordial
10. Eyecide
11. Antipatterns
12. Naked Fuse



The Review:

If you are one of those people who went their way to declare the new Car Bomb album "Mordial" as the album of the year as soon as it was announced before hearing a single note, and want to stick to that notion without considering another side to it, I'd advice you not to read this review any further. Said album was released on September 27th to a wide acclaim, and the previous statements flew very broadly and high. Even though I got the album a month in advance, scribing a review took a while since after the first listen, I honestly didn't remember or even want to replay it. Given my expectations were gigantic, as their previous album "Meta" is simply one of the greatest records ever written, I still didn't even consider the possibility to be put off completely the way I was. Not to be overwhelmingly negative, after many, many listens, I can say "Mordial" is a good album, but that's about it.

Car Bomb's output has refined and evolved over the years, apparently hitting their peak with the anterior album, this newest one falling somewhere in the middle. "Mordial" is the kind of record that explores what has fallen through the cracks on the previous albums, and it thrives in just that. There's plenty of material that momentarily brings out the old giggling fanboy in me, but in its entirety, the album feels bland and flat. I mentioned that after the first listen I didn't feel the need to get back to it, and that is what underlines the opinion I have about it for the time being.

The customary, brain-melting and comprehension-meddling rhythms and weird effects dominate the overall scapes of "Mordial" exactly in a way most people were expecting them to do. While tracks like "Fade Out", "Vague Skies" and "Antipatterns" push the boundaries of what can be deemed rhythmical, at the same time they lack adhesiveness. It might sound stupid to say the twists and turns are hard to follow when the band in question is what it is, but few steadier and more digestable parts could've made a huge difference. You know, stuff that you can nod to. The integral chaotic and nonsensical aspect to the band is present constantly, but also feels too controlled this time around. Granted, the band's sound is deliberately mechanical, but that doesn't mean that the human touch should be left out completely. The atmosphere on "Mordial" is suffocated and more unnatural than before, which on it's part surely affects the taste it leaves behind it.

Not so surprisingly, the best moments on the album are those you didn't expect at all. Such things would be the clean guitars in the title track, the black metal-ish tremolo picking/ double kick section in "Eyecide", and the random Metallica influences on "Blackened Battery" for example. "Dissect Yourself", "Xoxoy", and "Naked Fuse" express the most "basic" side of the band, if you can call it that, but also work wonderfully each time. I'm aware of the contradictions I'm making here, but that's just to make my point clearer. There's better and worse sides to everything, but sadly the latter seems to stick with me when talking about this album. I’m also pretty surprised how ”Meshuggah” they went this time. Surely that band has had a huge effect on what Car Bomb is doing, but it’s a bit sad the lines can be drawn so directly to that one particular source of influence this time.

There's also a lot of recycled riffs and rhythms, which also goes to give that "between the cracks" feel to "Mordial". I don't doubt that people enjoy this album, but it feels that its place is somewhere in the middle and between everything. Opinions are prone to change, and I don't feel the need to state things definitively as I might be on the other end of the spectrum a year from now, but currently I feel that Car Bomb didn't reach the standard they ever so eloquently set for themselves with their past doings. 

”Mordial” is available HERE



Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Friday 4 October 2019

TRACK PREMIERE: Gospel of the Witches, "Womb of The World"



KARYN CRISIS’ GOSPEL OF THE WITCHES is the brainchild of two visionaries: Karyn Crisis (ex-Crisis) and Davide Tiso (Ephel Duath, Howling Sycamore). Their debut “Salem’s Wounds” was released by Century Media Records with worldwide critical acclaim in 2015, and now it's time for a brand new album. Titled “Covenant” and featuring Fabian Vestod (Skinlab) on drums, it offers 12 songs of the finest Occult Metal -- from evil heaviness to ambient passages invoking very ancient concepts and vibrations of the realm of the Goddesses and those who celebrate their magic on earth.  Today at THE SLUDGELORD we’re exclusively streaming a new track entitled "Womb of the World" which you can stream below