ESSENTIAL METAL ALBUM(S) #48 Monday, November 24th, to Sunday, November 30th, 2025

After a fraught and very busy few weeks, I find myself playing catch up again, so apologies, but were back and today I present week 48 of THE SLUDGELORD’s weekly selection of Essential Albums, bringing you five crushing releases from the underground. Whilst each record is uniquely heavy in their own right, they will certainly shake foundations and melt speakers.
 
Kicking things off was an easy pick for my album of the week and that record is Oromet – “The Sinking Isle” (Funeral Doom / Atmospheric Doom). This record is a masterclass in bleak, immersive doom— suffocating and utterly devastating. Oromet conjure a soundscape that feels like drowning in slow motion, and it’s nothing short of hypnotic. It also feel weirdly emotive too, so please check it out.  ORM – “Guld” (Atmospheric Black Metal / Progressive Black Metal) follows with a sweeping, atmospheric black metal opus that feels totally unique. Honestly, they have a unique ability to weave melody into a progressive storm of riffs and thunderous percussion, making this album a towering achievement in modern black metal and for me, it is arguably one of the best black metal albums of the year.
 
Next up, Primitive Man – “Observance” (Sludge / Doom / Noise). As expected, this is pure sonic annihilation. Primitive Man continue to redefine heaviness with suffocating walls of distortion and nihilistic despair. Few bands can make you feel the weight of existence like they do. Pupil Slicer – “Fleshwork” (Mathcore / Progressive Metal / Experimental Metal). Rather than the pure chaos of previous records, “Fleshwork” leans into a more expansive and progressive approach. It’s intricate and dynamic, blending mathcore precision with atmospheric passages and layered textures. The result is a record that feels ambitious and emotionally resonant—balancing technicality with moments of clarity and depth.
 
Finally, Qrixkuor – “The Womb of the World” (Death Metal / Cavernous Death / Blackened Death) a harrowing cavernous colossal death metal record, this album is a suffocating, meticulously crafted descent into cosmic horror—ambitious, overwhelming, and utterly consuming.
 
This is THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums of the Week, WK48. Plug in and black out. The ‘Lord has spoken.
 

⚔️ 🩸 Album of the week:
 
 
#325
 
⚔️ Artist: Oromet 
🩸 Title: “The Sinking Isle”
⚔️ Release date: November 7th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: atmospheric doom, funeral doom

🩸 Essential Release (s)
 
#323 
 
⚔️ Artist:  ORM
🩸  Title: “Guld”
⚔️ Release date: October 31st, 2025

 

🩸 Genre/tags: progressive black metal

#324 
 
⚔️ Artist: Primitive Man
🩸  Title: “Observance”
⚔️ Release date: October 31st, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: black metal, dissonant, noise, sludge, doom

#326
 
⚔️ Artist: Pupil Slicer
🩸 Title: “Fleshwork”
⚔️ Release date: November 7th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags: grindcore, hardcore, mathcore

 

#327

⚔️ Artist: Qrixkuor 
🩸 Title: “Ritual of Split Tongues”
⚔️ Release date: November 7th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags:  death metal, doom, black metal

MONTHLY RECAP: THE SLUGELORD's monthly metal picks #11, November 2025

 

⚔️🩸 My favourite track (s) & artist (s) from November 2025 
 
 
⚔️ Total streams: 800 ↓ 47% vs. last month
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 35 ↓ 50%
⚔️ Total Albums streamed: 39 ↓ 56%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 227 ↓ 55%
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 2 days, 19 hours ↓ 49%
🩸  Average Streams: 27 per day ↓ 44%
⚔️ Most Active Streaming Day: 83 on 14th Nov ↓ 30%

 Top Artist: The Acacia Strain (143 streams)

🩸  Top Album: The Acacia Strain – “You Are Safe From God Here” (130 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: The Acacia Strain – “A Call Beyond” (12 streams)

🩸  Top 30 tracks of the month

PLAYLIST: THE SLUDGELORD’s Weekly Hitlist #47 November 21st, 2025 to November 27th, 2025

 

⚔️🩸 My biggest tracks from November 21st, 2025 to November 27th, 2025
 
⚔️ Total streams: 90 ↓ 50% vs. last week
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 11 ↑21%
⚔️ Total Albums streamed: 12 ↑10%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 43 ↓ 24%
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 11 hours
🩸  Average Streams: 13 per day
⚔️ Most Active Streaming Day: 54 on 27^th Nov

⚔️ Top Artist: Primitive Man (39 streams)

🩸  Top Album: Primitive Man – “Observance” (39 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Primitive Man – “Devotion” (9 streams)

🩸  Top 30 tracks of the week

INTERVIEW: Primitive Man @ Meat Locker, Montclair, NJ (8/11/2017)

By: Mark Ambrose

Denver’s Primitive Man has amassed a truly impressive discography since their debut, “Scorn”, was released in 2013.  Remarkably, 2017’s “Caustic” is only their second full-length, but gathered rave reviews from every heavy music outlet that matters.  Rather than exhaust their prime material on a number of splits and EPs, Primitive Man seems to have an endless supply of brutal riffs and despairing lyrics to hammer into sludge masterpieces.  Ethan (guitar/vocals), Joe (drums), and Jon (bass) took a few minutes to talk to THE SLUDGELORD before their November 8 gig with Bell Witch to talk about their record, touring, and the inspiration behind their bleak, uncompromising music.  Primitive Man will be embarking on yet another US tour this spring with Spectral Voice.

While there has been steady output from Primitive Man, it’s been four years since the last full length.  What made now the right time to release a full length album?

Ethan: We had a year and a half where we were doing a lot of touring and we were just writing a lot of songs in the process.  There was enough material there for a really long record and it just came together that way.

Jon: Because we did all the other stuff, too, we just wanted a really focused Primitive Man release.  Those were all splits and shit.  It’d been so long since our first record.

Ethan:  Yeah, the reason we did all those splits is because we wanted to see things through.  It took all of that time to get through that stuff.

Joe, you’re relatively new to the band.  What has the process been like?

Joe: Yeah I’ve been with the band about a year and a half.

Ethan: Two years.

Joe: Wow.  Yeah two years.  I started practicing with these guys about two years ago and the idea I generally got from these guys that we’d work toward a full-length.

And you’ve become comfortable in this lineup since you’ve been touring nonstop?

Ethan: Yeah we’ve played a lot of shows in the last two years.

Any standout locals that you’ve enjoyed playing with?

Ethan: Figures, from Omaha.  Heaviest.

Jon: Swollen Organs.

Joe: Worthless from Milwaukee.

There seems to be a lot more political content to your lyrics that many heavy bands seem comfortable with at the moment.  What’s the process like when writing?  Is it a concerted effort to address political, racial, or economic themes?

Ethan: I’m just writing about the life that I’m living, the way that I’m experiencing it.  My perception of the world around me.

What are your nine to five lives back at home?  How is that work/band balance?

Ethan: I mean, yeah we all have regular jobs that we go to.  I’m a substitute teacher.

Joe: Jon and I both work at bars back home.  We’ve committed to this situation so we’ve somehow found ways to balance our home lives with Primitive Man.

Jon: It’s still really hard, though.  I lost a job coming out for this tour.

Ethan: It doesn’t always work out that well.  We arrange our home lives around this.

Jon: Even just with partners and stuff it’s hard.  You go from living with someone every day.  Ethan’s been with his wife a long time.  I’m with this lady and living with her – it’s hard.  But it’s also that I wouldn’t have it any other way.  You just make it work.  The technology really helps.

What do you guys do to wind down?  Any music, books, movies?

ALL: Smoke weed. *laughter*

Jon: And eat chicken wings.

How has traveling with Bell Witch been for this tour?

Ethan: Oh great.  We’ve known them for a long time, before all this. 

Jon: They’re frosty little darlings.  Love those boys.

And what does 2018 look like?

Ethan: We have a split coming out.  Bunch of touring.  And writing music – keeping it going.

The End

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Primitive Man - "Caustic"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 6/10/2017

Label: Relapse Records

"Caustic" is an ambitious project, among the band's longest and most complex to date. Like their past work, the group explores nihilism in sound that rivals some of the most hopeless metal you've heard. That unrelenting quicksand of guitars and bass is here, as are those vocals of your nightmares.  Primitive Man offer up some of its most excellent music to date, making this sprawling and charging full length worth the wait.

“Caustic” CD//DD//LP Track listing

1. My Will

2. Victim              

3. Caustic

4. Commerce

5. Tepid

6. Ash

7. Sterility

8. Sugar Hole

9. The Weight

10. Disfigured

11. Inevitable

12. Absolutes

The Review:

Few artists of any genre were as unflinching and brutally frank as poet Gil Scott Heron. He profiled the 1977 Houston police murder of Vietnam War veteran Jose Campos Torres in an eponymous poem. In it, Heron remarked bitterly, " I had said I wasn't going to write no more words down about people kicking us when we're down/About racist dogs that attack us and drive us down, drag us down and beat us down/But the dogs are in the street/The dogs are alive and the terror in our hearts has scarcely diminished." And in his 1971 poem "Home is Where the Hatred Is," Heron touched on his lifelong struggle with drug addiction, which cast a shadow until he succumbed to complications of HIV in 2011. He wrote, "Stand as far away from me as you can and ask me why/Hang on to your rosary beads/Close your eyes to watch me die/You keep saying, kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it/God, but did you ever try, to turn your sick soul inside out/So that the world, can watch you die."

When Primitive Man rose to prominence with its own "Home is Where the Hatred Is," a 2015 EP that put its unflinching rawness on full display, you almost had to wonder if this is what an overdose internally would sound like. There are so many sludge and doom metal bands. However, few acts are as rapturously gritty as Primitive Man. Unlike the funeral doom and black metal with which many heavy groups mingle genetic material, the Denver, Colorado trio instead pours down your throat a broken glass pile of noise. Having release so many splits, solo singles and EPs, they have carved a path into your flesh where Primitive Man's aural brutality is unwavering, raging and ceaseless. The sandpapery touch of noise flays you at many points, and such is an unusual addition to doom, given how often noise influences stay in their avant garde lane. The average doom Primitive Man never was, and fans of this style must this day surely rejoice for their returning full length.


"Caustic" is an ambitious project, among the band's longest and most complex to date. Like their past work, the group explores nihilism in sound that rivals some of the most hopeless metal you've heard. That unrelenting quicksand of guitars and bass is here, as are those vocals of your nightmares.

The new album starts with "My Will" and "Victim," which share a deep guitar squeal in common along with a guttural howl. They are the kind of tracks that remind you why you love this music. The guitar and vocals of Ethan McCarthy are searing from start to finish, while the band's bass and drums thrash into a muddy current of despair. The most beautiful of sludge flings you into some oblivion that is hard to fathom or find release. Mission accomplished here, where this two-act opener is the scene setter for the onslaught to come.

Listeners will gravitate to the triple towers of "Caustic": a pair of 12-minute songs and a 10-minute cut that give Primitive Man its chance to be truly creative.  "Commerce" and "Disfigured" are in particular what makes the group interesting. The music's pace is methodical without feeling overindulgent and long. The noise elements border on a controlled chaos akin to the Boredoms. However, McCarthy's vocals are what stand out most. Those diabolical growls and deep-gut screams stick in your mind's eye until you go back again to listen. Indecipherable, unyielding and without end. By "Inevitable," the final long track, you are mesmerized by the intensity, taking it in as brutally frank performance unlike many others. Primitive Man offer up some of its most excellent music to date, making this sprawling and charging full length worth the wait.

In "Winter in America," Gil Scott Heron wept for the enormity of darkness in 1973. It was a moment in which President Richard Nixon had been deposed, the Black Panthers had been vanquished and it felt in many quarters like certain doom was upon us. "And ain't nobody fighting," Heron said, "'cause nobody knows what to save." And with "Caustic"'s typhoon of guitars, noise and roars, you are quite possibly too going to hold what's dear. It's going to be a hard ride.

"Caustic" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM PREMIERE: Polish soul crushing doom band 71TONMAN unleash "Earthwreck"

Polish doom band 71TONMAN are set release their sophomore album “Earthwreck” via Black Bow Records on September 22nd 2017.  As a follow up to their 2013 self titled album, “Earthwreck” takes their original template, but this time around the delivery is bigger, bolder even more soul crushing.  71TONMAN have delivered a fucking monster of an album, so if you love fat riffs, then this 71 Ton goliathon is highly recommended. If you’re a fan of band like Suma, Indian and Primitive Man check out the full stream below and be sure order a copy when it's released on Friday.  

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

TRACK PREMIERE: Atlanta, GA’s Crawl are back and deal us some black market “Pornography of Grief”

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, however in the case of today’s featured artist, Atlanta, GA’s Crawl, absence appears to have made their heart grow darker.  Indeed, after lurking in the shadows for two years, Crawl are finally edging towards the release of their brand new  7" release "30 Year Suicide" on Bad Road Records.

According to the band, this material continues where “Old Wood and Broken Dreams” left off, exploring the dark realms of anxiety and mental breakdowns, taking the listener to a dark and bleak place.

Whilst on previous material vocalist/guitarist Eric Crowe may have sounded like a man who smokes fifty filterless Marlboro’s a day in between bottles of Jim Beam as he croaked over solid  southern riffs, on “30 Year Suicide” Crawl can draw comparisons to Denver’s Primitive Man, their new release is a dense earth moving release, that moves at a lethargic pace across the sonic wasteland. A fusion of gigantic, monstrous riffs and spiteful blood curdling vocals, this record is horrible, it’s horrendously dark but in the most remarkable way.

Crawl has produced amplifier-destroying sonic psychosis that is intent on disintegrating your senses, leaving the listener completely exhausting and I love it.  Added to that the incredible artwork by Eric Harrison, “30 Year Suicide” is a release you won’t want to miss.  Today it gives us great pleasure to debut the opening track of this release, so get ready, this song is made of granite,  Check out “Pornograhy of Grief” and make sure you preorder a copy here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Fistula - "The Shape of Doom to Cumm)))"

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 01/11/2016
Label: Totem Cat Records

“The Shape of Doom to Cumm)))” is dripping with sardonic hatred for scenesters and fad chasers, scrapping rusty barbed wire across the speakers as if to wound those who listen. They bring the noise, the hate, and will tell you to your face if there’s even a hint at being a douchebag.

“The Shape of Doom to Cumm))) LP track listing:

1). Serial Vapist

2). Promiscuity Ingenuity

3). Goat Brothel

4). Sabbath Wants To Do A Split with Me

5). Tough Guy

6). Black Maggot

7). Negative

The Review:

There is the sludge genre, and then there are bands that are sludge. One such band, and the only redeeming quality outside sports, is Ohio based Fistula. Known less for coming from the gutter than just simply crashing on its couch all the time, Fistula simply drips with the scuzziest noise outside a grindcore club. They bring the noise, the hate, and will tell you to your face if there’s even a hint at being a douchebag (oh track one, "Serial Vapist", you scamp!); and to make matters worse, they just dropped a huge slab of greasy, queasy fuzz onto the scene: 'The Shape Of Doom To Cumm)))'!

Laden with everything they have come to purvey, 'The Shape Of Doom To Cumm)))' is an ode to all those bands and "artists" who seem to think an Orange amp and some gain make you something to give two rats asses about; hint: you matter not to the Void. “The Shape...” is dripping with sardonic hatred for scenesters and fad chasers, scrapping rusty barbed wire across the speakers as if to wound those who listen. Fistula deliver punk energy and some (heavily shop-soiled) bluesy riffage to bear, as on "Sabbath Wants to Do a Split with Me". They pull some truly Sabbathian riffs and tones out of their bag of tricks and rampage all over traditional Doom, while paying some heavy respects to the Iommi. The whole album just reeks of Doom, alongside their more signature scuzzy sound, and it's definitely at the forefront of tracks like "Sabbath..." and "Tough Guy", the middle siblings of the album. Classic Fistula fans (and there must be millions) don't be down trodden, as they still keep their fast paced, gritty sound throughout the album (tracks "Goat Brothel", "Black Maggot", and "Negative", which will have you in a pit in no time), interwoven with that heavy, fuzz-filled doom that they swear will CUMM))) ("Promiscuous Ingenuity", definite blankets of fleas, slow and fast). They haven't lost any edge in delving into the lo and slo, it's just simply a slower drag of their jagged knives across your wrists. Fistula has created a maelstrom of binge-fueled hell, and by god you need to bring more beer.

Along the lines of lyric content, Fistula makes Metal Hate Again with just about every track. They pick apart whatever and who/whomever they wish, like on "Serial Vapist" as they eviscerate the whole vaping phenomenon and the Hipster trends; and "Tough Guy", where they tackle internet tough guys who want to talk bigger than their britches fit. They call them out and tell them to come on or fuck off. And they even tackle the recent popularity of splits and the bands who hang off the undercarriage of the aforementioned band. Overall, they pretty much swing a whisky bottle (empty, of course) at everything popular and current, leaving no room for argument or misinterpretation as to where they can shove all those trends. The closing track, "Negative", also provides another Fistula toe tag: sound clips taken from outside sources, highlighting the barb-filled philippics like marbling in a good steak. 

Fistula has absolutely nailed it home with “The Shape of Doom to Cumm)))”, bringing with them an outlet for the stupidity running rampant nowadays. This album just further cements them as a band to be reckoned with, and one you should actively seek out and support, if they are spreading their filth, filthy sound out near you; They are currently on an European tour (as of this writing), so go check to see if the outbreak is stopping near you."

“The Shape of Doom to Cumm)))” is available on vinyl from tomorrow here

Band info: official || facebook

FFO: Iron Monkey, Primitive Man, Goatsblood, Fister

ALBUM REVIEW: Vermin Womb - "Decline"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/10/2016

Label: Throatruiner | Translation Loss |

Hibernation Releases | Sentient Ruin

Vermin Womb succinctly distill the essence of their sound into one word: “Violence”.  It is a grimly exhilarating ride, but an oppressive racket that is hard to resist.

“Decline” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:

1). Entomb

2). Industrialist

3). Disrepair

4). Present Day

5). Rank & File

6). Pitiless

7). Age of Neglect

8). Inner World

9). Slave Money

10). Cancer

The Review:

iTunes genre tags are generally pretty useless. Denver wrecking crew Vermin Womb provide an exception to this rule by using the tag to succinctly distill the essence of their sound into one word: “Violence”.

New album “Decline” packs an almost unbearable amount of venom and fury into its sub-25 minute duration. The trio rip through ten tracks of relentless horror, an ugly fusion of the gnarliest elements of death metal and grindcore. Vocalist/guitarist Ethan McCarthy also plays in the mighty Primitive Man, a band whose bleak onslaught is echoed here albeit with the tempo cranked up into the red.

The whole record seems filtered through a sickly haze which lends a hint of black metal atmosphere to proceedings. This influence really comes to the fore during the wailing riffs that usher in “Industrialist”.

Vermin Womb maintain a constant high tempo barrage for the majority of “Decline” but throw in a few curve balls to keep things interesting. The crushing slow-motion intro of “Age of Neglect” hits even harder in amongst a sea of blastbeats and the stop-start sludge riffing in “Slave Money” is a welcome addition. When the band break into pummelling Disfear style crust-punk during closer “Cancer”  it sounds almost optimistic in contrast to the surrounding drudgery. The mood does not last though as the track is dragged back into the dirt for a slow, 

punishing finale.

“Decline” is a grimly exhilarating ride. It’s not pretty but Vermin Womb’s oppressive racket is hard to resist.

“Decline” is available in Europe here and overseas here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

FFO: Primitive Man, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, Fuck The Facts, Dead in the Dirt