The Sludgelord 'Sour 16' for July 2015

Welcome to The Sludgelord’s ‘Sour 16’. Each month, you the reader are unwittingly compiling a list of the top 16 records of the month, covering all genres of metal, but predominately the best the doom, sludge, stoner-psychedelic genres have to offer.  Is it chart? Not really.  To put it simply, the ‘Sour 16’ are the records you guys have been most interested in over the last month and checking out on this page.

So here is the The Sludgelord’s ‘Sour 16’ for July 2015, the 16 records you’re most looking forward too or are currently checking out.  Check em out, spread the word and perhaps revisit some records you may have overlooked.  

The results are compiled based on page views alone and calibrated into the list below. So without further ado, this is the ‘Sour 16’. So until next month, roll up, kick back, chug a beer and Hail the riff! All review links, are held under the artwork. (Total views at the time of publication highlighted in orange)

16) = The Nepalese Temple Ball – ‘Arbor’ (245)

‘How this band is not a household name is beyond my comprehension, but this album should go some way to making sure that happens.’

Review

16) = Dreadnought – ‘Bridging Realms’ (245)

‘The cinematic scope of Dreadnought’s music sounds like it should take a small orchestra to perform it.’

Review

14). Plaguewielder  - ‘Chambers of Death’ (252)

‘Ominously named, and equally ominous with their execution, Plaguewielder has no real give to their sound, the first track, ‘Existence is Our Exile’, simply shreds against the walls of your mind, with the torturous vocals raking like the nails of the dead against the inside of your skull.’

Review

13). Vattnet Viskar – ‘Settler’ (254)

‘This record is DENSE! With a massively thick tone, these songs sonically envelop you in billowing oppressive textures’

Review

12). Freedom Hawk – ‘Into your Mind’ (263)

‘Overall a very strong album that holds strong throughout; immense riffs and licks, explosive drumming, engaging vocals and solid bass playing- it doesn’t get much better.’

Review

11). Hair of the Dog – ‘The Siren’s Song’ (284)

‘The tone of the record is undeniably loud and heavy, but incorporates an atmosphere which is vibrant, full of energy and represents a band with a very bright future indeed’.

Review

10). Abrams – ‘Lust.Love.Loss’ (294)

‘Blending spiky guitar lines reminiscent of These Arms Are Snakes, plenty of weird Cave In style effects, angular post-hardcore aggression and no-nonsense stoner riffing, Abrams have created a compelling and addictive listen here.’

Review

9). Tremonti – ‘Cauterize’ (304)

‘It is not metal like Celtic Frost, certainly, but it is as metallic as bands like Black Label Society for instance.’

Review

8). Fogg – ‘High Testament’ (311)

‘If you like your music with heavy riffs, fuzz pedals in overdrive and mixed with various styles, Fogg are worth checking out.

Review

7). Goya – ‘Obelisk‘(326)

'Obelisk' is, in all, a thinking man’s doom metal record; it keeps you on your toes, always remains untamed, delivering uppercuts with complete conviction just when you think you’ve sussed them out.’

Review

6). Khemmis – ‘Absolution’ (334)

‘From the opening riff of the album you can pretty much tell ‘Absolution’ is great. Laying somewhere between Pallbearer and perhaps a downtempo Ghost, Khemmis' first full-length is one of the best albums you will hear this year, Period!!’

Review

5). A Trust Unclean  - 'Reality Relinquished' (341)

‘The whole EP is so energetic, inspiration seems to bleed from every available crevice; here is a band basking in a creative flourish.

Review

4). Weeed – ‘Our Guru Brings us the Black Master Sabbath’ (343)

‘Be it in the album’s closing track or all the tracks preceding, Weeed has made a potential classic stoner rock album that draws from familiar elements of the genre and has enough experimentation to give them a sound of their own.’

Review

3). Sweet Cobra – ‘Earth’ (354)

'Earth' will sit nicely in any collection and would add some melodic relief in between the usual tipple of sludge, doom, death metal and black metal. Brilliant.’

Review

2). Alustrium – ‘A Tunnel  to Eden’ (409)

Listening to "A Tunnel to Eden" I get the feeling that this might be the album that "makes" this band

Review

1). Gorgoroth – ‘Instinctus Bestialis’ (411)

‘Technical and precise, this album at times has a subtle yet palpable progressive tinge…’

Review

This list features reviews by Heather Blewett, Chris Tedor, Chris Bull, Victor Van Ommen, Philip Weller, Brian Mclean, Kat Hilton, Charlie Butler, Steve Howe, Hunter Young, Richard Maw & James Harris

A Trust Unclean - ‘Reality Relinquished’ EP (Review)

‘The whole EP is so energetic, inspiration seems to bleed from every available crevice; here is a band basking in a creative flourish.’

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 07/08/2015

Label: Self Released 

‘Reality Relinquished’ EP track  listing:  

1). Enucleation”
2). “Feckless Traditions”
3). “Perverse Agenda”
4). “Insipient Catastrophe”
5). “Reality Relinquished

A Trust Unclean

Joe Corky | Vocals

Steve Hunt | Guitar

Mikey Gee | Guitar

Bobby Hembrow| Bass

Scott Horne | Drums

Review:

Music such as this is savage by design, and with a name like A Trust Unclean, you expect this band’s sonic assault to be as rough and splintering as a hangover after a four day absinthe binge. But what has surprised me with the Oxfordshire band’s ‘Reality Relinquished’ EP is just how much character lurks in their overtly guttural and uncivilised demeanour.  Never at any point do they get lost in that unquenched desire to be heavier than Satan’s bollocks and forget about the key assets in melody, structure and imagination. The songs snap every which way, like Steve Irwin – God bless his crazy, crazy soul – wrestling an unsuspecting alligator, but the way, in which these compositions are constructed, you end up sucked into its ebb and flow almost instantly. 

‘Perverse Agenda’ is underpinned by low strung grooves which are interjected by Joseph Corcoran’s hoarse vocals and fly-in-a-glass whizzing fret board runs. The whole EP is so energetic, inspiration seems to bleed from every available crevice; here is a band basking in a creative flourish.

Blast beats, when you venture down heavier roads such as this, can so often be an all-out matter of quantity outweighing quality. But here, especially on ‘Incipient Catastrophe’, Scott Horne’s footwork is deft, intricate and all over the place, tighter than a gnats arse yet so fluent. It gives the songs a chaotic undercurrent, but a chaos that is well organised and executed. It’s these stuttered rhythms, despite the crushing countenance of the overlaying guitars that give this record so much of that aforementioned character. Without it, this would just be a heavy record, another one for the pile of ‘just noise without anything going for it’ records in existence.   

On the title track it is guitarists Steve Hunt and Mikey Gee who impress the most. From the pained lead lines to the Gojira pick scrapes, bursts of tremolo picking and all-round complexity – the tab of this no doubt resembling something akin to a child let loose with a label gun – here are two guitarists with their heads firmly leading, their macro intellect and vision the way. Showmanship isn’t really an egotistical presence here, for any of the musicians. This is a collective effort and, yes, there are moments of brilliant individualism, but it is as a collective where they are strongest, no one ever takes the limelight for more than each particular section requires.

With five songs all either three or four or five minutes long, the EP flies by. It’s a wham-bam-thank-you-mam of technical and devastating death metal. The juxtaposing smile that broadens your gob while listening speaks volumes. Honestly speaking, I’m not too enamoured by this end of the metal spectrum – it’s something I dip in and out of from time to time – so for a band of this calibre to capture my imagination, to have me excited as this record does is, from a personal stand point at least, a pretty darn good achievement.

It is heavier than Satan’s bollocks, but it’s fun and very well written too.

Words: Phil Weller

For more information:

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