RECORDS OF THEIR YEARS: with Fórn guitarist Joey Gonzalez

Photo by Katia Sukhotskay

By pure coincidence, for the second successive week, we feature a band from Boston, and today it is none other than sludge/doom emissaries Fórn, who have returned with their highlyanticipated sophomore record, "Rites of Despair". A record of such quality that it in a frankly in a league of its own.  

With “Rites of Despair” having been in the public domain for a couple of months now, there has never been a more opportune time to feature them on THE SLUDGELORD, so I hooked up guitarist  Joey Gonzalez to discuss some of his favourite records.  Welcome to “Records of their Years”, 

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album from the year you were born?

Talk Talk, “Spirit of Eden” (1988) 

I actually didn't discover this record till either just before or just after I was entering my 20’s. I had kind of begun deep diving on a lot of atmospheric music and this album was elevator pitched to me from a friend as the “predecessor to post-rock.” I don’t think this album is that or even remotely post-rock to me. Post rock has always felt more to be about long build ups, carefully constructed to reach a point of overwhelming glisten, but this album is quite beautiful in its nature to deconstruct more traditional foundations and to place a great magnitude of emphasis on space, and sparseness, and an emptiness that can feel like chaos sometimes. It did me a great deal in teaching me song writing.

THE SLUDGELORD: First record you bought with your own money?

Green Day, “Nimrod” (1997) 

I’m counting this because it’s a pretty vivid memory in my mind, and even though technically it was my mom who bought this for me, it was a pretty special experience hearing something on the radio in the car and enjoying it with my mom, and we drove to what I believe was a Tower Record store, and I picked up this cd, because we had just heard “Hitchin’ a ride” come on the radio, and I wanted to listen to it. I also picked up alongside this gem, Blink182’s “Dude Ranch and” the Self titled Back Street Boys album, so least to say, 8 year old me was batting a 1000.

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite non metal / rock album? 

Moses Sumney, “Aromanticisim” (2017)

This might come as a shock to maybe those who don’t know me, but in reality, I don’t have much metal/rock music in heavy rotation in my life currently, so the vast majority of music I have been consuming for the last 6ish years has been not that. As such, my “favorite” album in this broad realm is always changing, but my latest obsession has been Moses Sumney. This record hit me like a fucking truck, emotionally, and in terms of the production, to me it is flawless. I was introduced to this record By our engineer Alec Rodriguez so I have to drop his name here for this one.

THE SLUDGELORD: Album that most disappointed you?

I’ve been let down by some records when I was younger, but the older I get, I don’t really hold other peoples art to my standards or expectations. I am way more interested in the process of the creation of what I am consuming then I am if its living up to some expectations I’ve had, so I can’t say anything has ever really disappointed me. I have been let down by a couple of records, but I’m not going to list them here

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album of all time or if you prefer album (s) you’d run back into a burning building to rescue

Deftones, “White Pony” (2000)

Opeth, “Blackwater Park" (2001)

So when someone poses this question to me, I always feel like it’s hard to scope out something that has been a favorite of mine, or something that’s definitively my all time favorite. I always feel like the root of the question is like what are the “keystone” records for me in my life, and these two would be a good start. A lot of people may not know, but before I ever wrote a riff or anything, I played drums for a long time, and these are the two records I really learned how to shape my style around. These are two records I really felt were integral to me for really jumping head first into music. They’re some of the only records that elicit an honest nostalgia out of me anymore. If I had to add one more record, I would add pg.99 – “document 8”. Not only do the songs still hold up, but this band and record was my stepping stone into the ethics of art, music being an individual and part of a community, and what that responsibility entails. It’s just every bit as important to who I am as a musician now.

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album (s) of 2018?

Serpentwithfeet, “Soil” (2018) 

This record is painstakingly crafted, and it pays off in dividends on repeated listens, and it’s pretty much been all I can listen to lately. It’s almost obnoxious it’s so intoxicating. I’ve been searching for music that really elicits and invokes the feelings it’s crafted in wake of and listening to the record, the nature of it is obsessing and  a celebration of the feelings of grief and melancholy. It’s beautiful in the most painful of ways.

THE SLUDGELORD:..and finally The last album you bought?

Ilsa, “Corpse Fortress” (2018)

Ah, you thought I’d make it all the way without listing a single metal album, but you’re WRONG. Ilsa are some of my favorite people and they are easily one of my favorite bands doing heavy shit out there. Plus they’re from DC (*cough* silver spring*cough*), and we go back a ways. I love my boys, and this record rips harder than any other heavy music I’ve heard this year.

“Rites of Despair” by Fórn is out now and available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Inexorum, "Lore of the Lakes"

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/07/2018

Label: Gilead Media

This is an exceptionally composed and fully realized project. This is one person putting together all of these different elements and insuring that they work together to create something powerful in unison and for that reason I can’t recommend this album to you highly enough. 

‘Lore of the Lakes’ LP//DD track listing:

1. Raging Hearts

2. Let Pain Be Your Guide

3. Years in Exile

4. To Omega

5. Lore of the Lakes

The Review:

‘Lore of the Lakes’ feels like an album made specifically with me in mind. Its sound, courtesy of Inexorum’s sole member Carl Skildum, is a rich mixture of melodic black metal and melodic death metal. It’s a style that mixes the deep sorrowful melodies of bands like Sacramentum and Vinterland, and reinforces those melodies with the heavier death metal side of things, like an In Aeternum or early God Dethroned. But these comparisons are only to get you in the general ballpark; Inexorum has a sound all its own.

‘Lore of the Lakes’ has what I like to call a “world building sound”. The trem-picked melodies here are the kind of atmospheric that has more to do with creating images of natural landscapes or fanciful scenes in your mind than it does with keyboards or heavy effects on the guitars. It’s in that sense that this album displays just how beautiful extreme music can be. Even as the opening moments of “Raging Hearts” see the drums blasting away in properly brutal fashion, the guitars weave their way through the beat in a way that evokes a sort of melancholy fantasy. The locomotive double bass that follows is complemented by fretwork that is more nimble than before, and it all builds to an emotional climax of harmonized guitar leads that soar atop the commotion beneath them.

That’s just one specific example of something that is true of the whole album: this is an exceptionally composed and fully realized project. This is one person putting together all of these different elements and insuring that they work together to create something powerful in unison. Even at what is often an unrelenting pace, the music takes on different dimensions, sometimes feeling hopeful or driven, others feeling even whimsical. But the heart of the album is the sense of wonder it creates, bringing the listener into a world built with evocative chords and harmonies. That it does this despite being largely a guitar/bass/drums-centric affair speaks volumes about Skildum’s ability and imagination.

So yeah, ‘Lore of the Lakes’ is fucking great. It’s the kind of album that made me want to yammer on incoherently about worlds and fantasy and whatever the hell else. And when an album makes you want to talk about the deeper emotional and cognitive impact of music, even if you’re woefully ill-equipped, as I am, then it has to be an album worth investigating. There are scores of albums with great riffs. But it’s not every day you have an album come your way that actually encourages you to use your own imagination as you listen to it. And if that’s something you value; I can’t recommend this album to you highly enough.

‘Lore of the Lakes’ is available here

Band info: Facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Northless - "Last Bastion of Cowardice"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/11/2017

Label: Gilead Media |

Halo of Flies

Northless’ chemistry has gotten better, and the compositions are much more rich and the effect is nothing less than absolutely crushing.  If you enjoy intelligent sludge, "Last Bastion of Cowardice" is for you.

 

"The Last Bastion of Cowardice" CD//DD//DLP track listing

1. The Origin Of Flames

2. Godsend

3. The Devil In Exile

4. Slave To A Scorched Earth

5. Their Blood Was Always Mine

6. Never Turn Your Back On The Dead

7. Extinction Verse

8. Last Bastion of Cowardice

9. Our Place In The Dirt

10. Rotting Days

The Review:

The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness in a given year, while one in 25 will experience a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. We've seen these issues played out again and again on the national stage, often in the form of violence. However, tragedies are only the hint at a much more widespread problem.

Now 10 years into its career, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Northless has continually captured hopelessness in its blackened, noisy sludge. Their 2011 album "Clandestine Abuse," 2013's "World Keeps Sinking" and the 2016 EP "Cold Migration" gave fans intense, personal and heavy music. Their new album, "Last Bastion of Cowardice," delves headlong into a much darker place, telling the story of a person who discovers the futility of violence.

In his day job as a social worker, guitarist/vocalist Erik Stenglein mentioned in recent interviews the scope of mental illness he sees on a daily basis. Human suffering an institutional lack of empathy and neglect for people's most basic needs are all far more significant than you might imagine. His experience, combined with today's headlines, offer a poignant backdrop to what is, even stripped down of concept, a savage return for Northless.

Fans of Northless' work will take in its first one-third of the album with a lot of satisfaction. Drummer John Gleisner and bassist Jerry Hauppa concoct a sinister foundation for those first three songs. "The Origin of Flames" opens festivities with a tremendous noise rock/post-punk influence that enhances the sludge base of the quartet. "Godsend" slows the rhythm down as Stenglein's mammoth vocals take center stage. This cut also lets you appreciate Nicholas Elert's guitar riffs and his overall contribution to the band. As you reach "The Devil In Exile," which brings back in a bit more of the post-punk and even hardcore edge to the band, longtime listeners will appreciate the maturation process for Northless. The group's chemistry has gotten better, and the compositions are still more rich. Oh yeah, and the effect is nothing less than absolutely crushing.

Furthermore "Last Bastion of Cowardice" is effective because it weaves stories that are at once topical and still not crack-you-over-the-head political. No shots at bands who can make political music; 2017 has seen many exemplary songs that are socially conscious. Northless just happens to be the strongest at creating a mood and presenting songwriting that everyone can relate to in many a fashion. Without spoiling more of the story, Stenglein and company are faithful to telling their story through the tracks. "Their Blood Was Always Mine" is tightly wound lyrically. If you enjoy intelligent sludge, "Last Bastion of Cowardice" is for you.

"The Last Bastion of Cowardice" is available here and here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Yellow Eyes – “Immersion Trench Reverie”

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/10/2017

Label: Gilead Media (LP)

If Yellow Eyes’ output continues to shine like “Immersion Trench Reverie”, it’s only a matter of time until they’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the fellow legends of black metal.

"Immersion Trench Reverie" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Old Alpine Pang

2. Blue as Blue

3. Shrillness in the Heated Grass

4. Velvet on the Horns

5. Immersion Trench Reverie

6. Jubilat

The Review:

Black metal has become the land of musical modifiers: blackgaze, blackened death, black doom, ambient black metal.  The expansiveness of black metal is, by and large, a great thing – is there anything more boring than some TRVE CVLT hipster claiming they have the first pressing of “Dawn of the Black Hearts”?  But sometimes, you need to strip away the permutations and bask in lo-fi menace.  Yellow Eyes are all too happy to oblige with their third album, “Immersion Trench Reverie”.  Brothers and constant members Will and Sam Skarstad hang loosely to the foundational pillars of second wave black metal: stripped down production, frenzied guitars, classical and/or monastic influences, and a preoccupation with sylvan landscapes.

Opener “Old Alpine Pang” establishes the key elements of the record quickly.   A natural field recording (captured by Will and Sam during a trip to Siberia) meshes with bells and footsteps on concrete, before an eruption of reverb laden guitars and double bass drumming.  It’s akin to stumbling into a profaned old world convent.  The guitars are layered without sounding overproduced, creating dramatic tension between the frantic tremolo harmonies and the ringing chords that punctuate the song’s movements.  Will Skarstad’s shrieking vocal attack is dry as summer pine needles, and wouldn’t sound out of place echoing through a darkened forest.  “Blue as Blue,” opens with a distinctly Russian folk sample, segueing into massive guitar riffs that evoke the Romantic bombast of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff.

“Shrillness in the Heated Grass” has one of the most subtly menacing opening riffs of the year, like a broken music box from hell, before launching into ethereal, shifting chords.  Pushing through constant suspensions and permutations, Yellow Eyes create a virtual orchestra using only a handful of guitar tracks – you get the distinct impression that these passages would be just as grand and moving in a live four-piece setting.  As the final notes ring out, more of the brothers Skarstads’ Siberian field recordings provide a human, sacred counterpoint to the low end attack of “Velvet on the Horns”.  The track is the most distinctly “progressive” of the sextet, highlighted by tempo and time signature changes.  The guitar harmonies are at their most intricate, while Rekevics’ drumming is inhuman – by the end, I felt exhausted on his behalf.

       

The title track has some of the most interesting, restrained moments of guitar work on the whole record, sometimes evocative of post-punk, sometimes basking in nauseating dissonance that will make your head ache with masochistic satisfaction.  Once again, the drumming is both frantic and inspired – maybe the best on the record.  Closer “Jubilat”, stretching to ten minutes, is a worthy epic that alludes to Mozart’s Requiem and the ever-present folk elements in equal measure.  In the final movement, Yellow Eyes display supreme confidence, locking into a repeated pattern that will be branded onto your brain well after the final, chiming bells fade out.

On “Immersion Trench Reverie”, Yellow Eyes continue to cement themselves as heroes of the lo-fi underground.  While they’ve honored their forebears in their compositions and production methods, they aren’t some tired pastiche.  It’s almost as if you discovered some long-lost cassette nestled among your black metal classics, a forgotten gem that deserves reconsideration.  If Yellow Eyes’ output continues to shine like “Immersion Trench Reverie”, it’s only a matter of time until they’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the fellow legends of black metal.

“Immersion Trench Reverie” is available here

Band info: bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Thou - "Peasant" (Reissue)

By: Jay Hampshire

Album Type: Full Length (Reissue)
Date Released: Out Now
Label: Gilead Media

“Peasant” CD//DD track Listing

1. The Work Ethic Myth     

2. An Age Imprisoned

3. Belt of Fire to Guide Me, Cloak of Night to Hide Me

4. Burning Black Coals and Dark Memories

5. They Stretch Out Their Hands

6. The Road of Many Names

The Review:

Out of print for five years, and recorded back in 2008, “Peasant”, the second release from Baton Rouge’s Thou, is seeing the light of day once more. The six tracks have been given the studio lift and polish one would expect from an album re-issue. But how have the tracks fared in the near decade since they were first lain down, and in the face of Thou’s now impressively expansive back catalogue?

Opener ‘The Work Ethic Myth’ kicks in with some deliciously organic amp/plugging in noises, before some typically Thou-ian mournful, weighty chords slide in, with a backbone carved of busy kicks and steady drums. The pace drags (in a good way), occasional guitar notes lifting from the dense, bass heavy fug. Bryan Funck’s crowing vocals rasp atop the mountainous terrain, and the track moves through lush, melodic riffing and into a chugging drive home.

‘An Age Imprisoned’ is buzzy and oddly uplifting, the tightly locked drums dictating a sludgy pace, throwing occasional gasps of fills into the mix. There’s a post-metal flair here, combining a head-nodding groove and a steadily growing spaced-out drone section well. ‘Belt Of Fire To Guide Me, Cloak Of Night To Hide Me’ is doomier fare, punctured by jazzy drum work, slowly building tension before being cast aside by a punchy, lumbering riff that ascends and exhausts itself, coming to rest among shimmering cymbals and tom heavy tribal drums.

‘Burning Black Coals and Dark Memories’ starts off wearied, lighter guitars flitting over a smooth bass undertow. The brooding, moody tone and canny layering makes this the high point of the album so far, which is only strengthened by its climactic turn through thick, sludgy chords and malevolent canyons of throbbing feedback. ‘They Stretch Out Their Hands’ is all massive chug, charging like a prehistoric beast, lapsing into wavering dissonance and wandering bass. ‘The Road of Many Names’ closes with rampant, driving riffs, propelled towards mania by frantic drums, ending with ethereal, reverb drenched single notes.

Despite this squall of superlatives, a re-issue and remaster is meant to highlight the strengths of an already formidable release. With “Peasant”, it only seems to cast light on some of the records flaws. Instrumental layers often stand too far apart when they should tie closely together. Some of the tracks seem too subtle, lacking true dynamic punch, leaving them sounding at best slightly flat, at worst drudgy and uninspired. It’s with the vocals that these cracks show most – they sit awkwardly on top of sections, always separate, somewhat hollow, lacking resonance. Certainly not the sharpened, venomous shrieks that can be expected from Thou now.

While “Peasant” showcases the band transitioning between their earlier sound and their more fully realised state, the necessity of its re-issue is questionable. Not as strong as their latter work, somewhat of a ‘difficult second album’, it’s slightly tousled by a sometimes less than flattering remaster. For diehard fans, this will be a long awaited opportunity to reclaim a slice of the bands’ ancient history. For new initiates, it’s arguably best avoided.

‘Peasant” is available here

Band info: bandcamp

RIYL: Khanate, Keeper, Primitive Man

ALBUM REVIEW: Mizmor - "Yodh"

By: TJ Kliebhan

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 12/08/2016
Label: Gilead Media

A.L.N. demonstrates a penchant for punishing the listener in so many different ways, but also establishes a talent for creating harmony layered within the chaos.

“Yodh” CS//DD//LP track listing:

1). Woe Regains My Substance

2). A Semblance Waning

3). The Serpent Eats Its Tail

4). Inertia, an Ill Compeller

5). Bask in the Lingering

The Review:

A.L.N. follows a long line of Pacific Northwestern musicians leading the charge for American Black Metal. The mysterious multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon lends his talents to multiple projects including Hell and Urzeit who create unique blends of tumultuous black metal and doom metal. “Yodh” is the latest release from A.L.N. under the Mizmor (meaning "psalm" in Hebrew) moniker he uses for his solo-projects. With “Yodh”, A.L.N. makes a strong argument for Mizmor as his best musical project. After a four year gap between full length recordings, the project has returned stronger, focused, and more cathartic than ever.

“Yodh” is broken into five extended pieces that all have their share of A.L.N.’s ferocious growl, mesmerizing doom riffs, and suffocating abrasive climaxes. All five tracks are incredibly ambitious and while the track lengths can appear daunting “Yodh” does not suffer from any periods of self-indulgence or overkill, each sequence being equally as gripping as the last. These tracks feature multiple sequences that are woven in a way similar to seventies prog rock. What differentiates Mizmor from other metal acts in the same vein are the smooth transitions that remove any abruptness from appearing, making this the perfect blend of black and doom metal stylings. This album is downright heavy like a great doom record should be. “The Serpent Eats the Tail” has a brilliant riff that would find itself right at home on an early Black Sabbath record. “Yodh” is also as horribly biting and desolate as a great black metal record, but does so in an incredibly maximalist way. This record is beautifully mastered and sounds as sharp as any metal record in recent memory. This mastering style paired with the black metal traits gives the record a similar feel to Emperor’s “In The Nightside Eclipse”, in that it does not need to rely on aesthetic or tradition to provide that eerie feeling of total misery.

 A.L.N. is a master of sonic and vocal diversity that makes the 60 minutes blow by as fast as the riffs themselves. Rather than employing an utter scorched earth policy of heaviness, these tracks offer a lot a breathing room within this bleak atmosphere. This is certainly a technical release whose monoliths were created to be admired while dwarfing whatever surrounds it. A.L.N. demonstrates a penchant for punishing the listener in so many different ways, but also establishes a talent for creating harmony layered within the chaos. Much like the world in which the record was created, these tracks have a hidden beauty about them that can be lost in the distracting clamor of what is immediately apparent. A.L.N. displays both what is ugly as well as what is harmonious in a frighteningly familiar imbalance. The grim heavily outweighs the allure in a way not totally dissimilar from what so many of us are used to. 

Yodh is available on cassette here digitally here and on vinyl here

Band info: bandcamp

Fórn - "Weltschmerz" EP (Review)

By: Chris Bull

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 19/11/2015

Label: Gilead Media

The distortion kicks in and reduces everything to rubble. Stylistically, it's blackened funeral doom; depressing and bleak in it's melody but inherently evil and completely devastating. The vocals are growled from the bowels of the underworld and screamed from the edge of oblivion.  , Fórn have created something perfect for the end of the year; let it smash your 2015 into oblivion like a biblical flood. You can start anew in 2016.

'Weltschmerz' DD//LP track listing:

1). Saudade (Part I)

2). Saudade (Part II)

3). Dolor (Part I)

4). Dolor (part II)

The Review:

Boston MA's Fórn have delivered one of the bleakest, most soul crushing albums of 2015 with 'Weltschmerz' and that pleases me so...

'Saudade Part I' starts with mournful guitar playing like the weight of the world rests solely on the shoulder of the player. As a second guitar joins in briefly, we're treated to sorrow in its purest form. The distortion kicks in and reduces everything to rubble. Stylistically, it's blackened funeral doom; depressing and bleak in it's melody but inherently evil and completely devastating. The vocals are growled from the bowels of the underworld and screamed from the edge of oblivion by vocalist Chris Pinto. 3 and half minutes in, the tempo increases momentarily before its doomier side slithers back in. 'Saudade Part II' is more ambient and post apocalyptic than its predecessor, mostly utilising clean guitars and no drums. 'Dolor Part I' follows with everything slowly crushing from the get go, washing away all life in swathes of overdriven and reverberating guitars. A clean, picked riff stands alone on the precipice of the earth before the second wave hits and destroys buildings, mountains and trees. As the final note plays out it bleeds slowly into 'Dolor Part II'. An apocalyptic wasteland, drowning in its own decay is all that remains. Solemn and sombre guitars build claustrophobically, engulfing and entangling the listener and slowly diminishes into feedback.

Despite only being 2 actual songs and 2 drumless instrumentals, there is plenty of tectonic doom to be had, it's similar to 2014's 'The Departure of Consciousness' but warm and earthy. With 'Weltschmerz', Fórn have created something perfect for the end of the year; let it smash your 2015 into oblivion like a biblical flood. You can start anew in 2016.

“Weltschmerz” is available here

Band info: bandcamp | facebook

Kowloon Walled City - 'Grievances' (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 09/10/2015

Label: Neurot Recordings (CD) |

Gilead Media (Vinyl)

Passages of minimal melodic interplay give way to shards of dissonance and outbursts of lean, razor-sharp riffing. The languid tempo of the drums reinforces the weight of the music and together with the gnarly bass, act as the perfect backdrop for intricate guitar interplay.

‘Grievances’ CD//DD// LP track listing:

1. Your Best Years
2. Grievances
3. Backlit
4. The Grift
5. White Walls
6. True Believer
7. Daughters And Sons

The Review:

Sometimes understatement and restraint can hit harder than an onslaught of volume and noise. San Francisco’s Kowloon Walled City have dialled back the distortion on “Grievances” at no detriment to the emotional heft of their music.

From the spare picked intro of “Your Best Years” to the final ringing chords of “Daughters and Sons”, the band weave a hypnotic path through pared down heaviness and fragile calm. Passages of minimal melodic interplay give way to shards of dissonance and outbursts of lean, razor-sharp riffing. The languid tempo of the drums reinforces the weight of the music and together with the gnarly bass act as the perfect backdrop for intricate guitar interplay. Scott Evans world-weary vocals add the final element to the mix, lending an air of frazzled urgency to proceedings particularly on the excellent slow burning “True Believer”.

The overall effect is something that straddles the worlds of metal and post-hardcore, not sitting comfortably in either but instead creating something interesting and unique. Imagine These Arms Are Snakes playing Slint or Shellac slowly melting in the sun.  As an album, “Grievances” really holds together well and feels more like a single piece that ebbs and flows rather than a collection of songs, although each of the seven tracks are distinctly great in their own right.

 “Grievances” piques your interest on first listen then really digs its claws in as further plays reveal its full depths. You may hear many records this year powered by towering walls of amplification delivering rivers of molten sludge, but few will leave the same lasting impact as this fine collection.

‘Grievances’ is available here

FFO: Fight Amp, Shellac, Fudge Tunnel, Theory of Ruin

Band info: bandcamp | facebook