ALBUM REVIEW: Sightless Pit, "Grave of a Dog"

By: Josh McIntyre

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 21/02/2020

Label: Thrill Jockey

“Grave of a Dog” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Kingscorpse
2. Immersion Dispersal
3. The Ocean Of Mercy
4. Violent Rain
5. Drunk On Marrow
6. Miles Of Chain
7. Whom The Devil Long Sought To Strangle
8. Love is Dead, All Love Is Dead

The Review:

This is not a metal album. That does not, however, make it any less heavy or nasty sounding. Sightless Pit consists of Lee Buford (The Body), Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota), and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell) and it is a deep exploration of the more electronic elements of each project’s respective sound. All three artists have been at the forefront of underground heavy music for years now and I would argue that this success has been aided by this shared interest in adding sampled effects, drum machine beats, and other sounds that really sets them apart from other sludge, grindcore, and noise musicians. There’s also the fact that these artists already have a bond as they have consistently toured together and collaborated. “Grave of a Dog” is the result of a strong chemistry between three artists leaning on each other to discover exciting possibilities with the music that they create. 

So the existence of Sightless Pit comes as no surprise to fans. Once the first song dropped on the public (“Kingscorpse”) I saw comparisons to the previous Full of Hell/The Body albums being made online, oftentimes with a sense of disappointment that new ideas weren’t apparent. Thankfully, these predictions are very wrong. One only needs to proceed to track two to see that this is a unique record. Every song has its own character, by far more so than most albums. Drum loops range from hip-hop grooves to militaristic and harsh. Layers of piano, synth, and distortion guide the album and give songs their melodic purpose. Dylan and Kristin both perform vocals throughout, adding their own timbres to already complex layers of sound. One of the most interesting parts is when autotune is added to Kristin’s melismatic singing in “Violent Rain”, somehow making it sound even more emotional in a fashion that recalls Kanye West’s outro in “Runaway”.

As mentioned, all of these elements have been present in each members’ primary project to a degree but it’s the focus on them here that makes “Grave of a Dog” such a fascinating record. I can’t help but compare it to a zombified Portishead or Burial. They’ve been murdered, dug into the ground, and resurrected as horrifying and scarred bastards. This isn’t just in the crackled sounds, its emotion reeks of mournfulness and dread. Even the screams have a strong sense of sadness, if not desperation, in them. There isn’t a single sign of light to be seen and sometimes it’s raining. It’s truly cinematic. It feels like a film where a zombie is brought back to enact vengeance on its killer but ends up still feeling empty in a very human way. The titles certainly help to bring this to mind. 

My guess is that the three were chatting one day and simply decided to make a record between them as more of a fun thing to do rather than to make some flashy supergroup display. Whatever the case may be, “Grave of a Dog” is a phenomenal and thought-provoking project. It can easily compete with the various albums released between the trio’s other works. The difference is that there are no riffs here.

Similarities are more abound to Tim Hecker’s “Virgins” and Portishead’s “Third” than anything metal or punk. I adore it all the more because of this.

“Grave of a Dog” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Uniform & The Body, "Mental Wounds Not Healing"

By: Dominic Walsh

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 08/06/2018

Label: Sacred Bones Records

Mental Wounds Not Healing” is a phenomenally heavy 27 minutes of music. Throughout the seven tracks, there are some extremely harsh vocals, mountainous droning guitar riffs and glitchy distorted beats.  This record is well worth your time if you like having your boundaries of music tested.

“Mental Wounds Not Healing” DD//LP track listing:

1). Dead River

2). The Curse of Eternal Life

3). Come and See

4). The Boy With Death in His Eyes

5). In My Skin

6). We Have Always Lived in the Castle

7). Empty Comforts

The Review:

With a title taken from an Ozzy Osbourne lyric (“Crazy Train”), Uniform and The Body have joined forces for a collaboration that pushes both bands far beyond their roots in industrial music and metal - creating an immersive listening experience that truly transcends genre. 

“Mental Wounds Not Healing” is a phenomenally heavy 27 minutes of music. Throughout the seven tracks, there are some extremely harsh vocals, mountainous droning guitar riffs and glitchy distorted beats. Think NIN, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sunn 0))) and bits of Ministry mixed together with Pharmakon and Blanck Mass. It’s a complete maelstrom of industrial noise throughout.

Most of the song titles are culled from horror literature and cinema. “The Boy With Death In His eyes” is a particular highlight at the midpoint of the album. The beat is more orthodox, and the distorted synthesizers and guitars that accompany the beat create a dark, tension filled backdrop to the despairing vocals.

“In My Skin” contains a particularly unnerving screaming sound throughout the entire track, but the track also contains one of the most notable guitar melodies that spins its web around more twisted and distorted noise. As you disappear down the hole of this track, the ending of the track feels almost serene against many other parts of the song, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is full of lush melodies! “Dead River” also has the same screaming motif that runs throughout the track. It takes you wonderfully out of your comfort zone.

“We Have Always Lived in a Castle” is pure drone. “Empty Comforts” and “The Curse of Eternal Life” are the most NIN style moments on the album as the electronic beats are clear and punchy, but the former really lacks any kind of recognisable rhythm; like a heartbeat with no real idea of what it is doing. The guitars again convene towards the end of “Empty Comforts” to show that this collaboration is not simply about making a glorious racket; there is melody rooted deep within this album – you just have to have the endurance to stick around to find it. “Mental Wounds Not Healing” is well worth your time if you like having your boundaries of music tested.

“Mental Wounds Not Healing” is available here

Band info: facebook || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: The Body & Full of Hell - "Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/11/2017

Label: Thrill Jockey

The Body and Full of Hell have created an album not easily forgotten

"Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Light Penetrates

2. Earth is a Cage

3. The King Laid Bare

4. Didn't the Night End

5. Our Love Conducted with Shields Aloft

6. Master's Story

7. Farewell, Man

8. I Did Not Want to Love You So

The Review:

Split 7-inchers are everywhere. For great reason: they're easier for bands to issue are less costly than solo pressing, and they keep one's name out there. In the case of experimental metal act Full of Hell, though, it is not enough to simply put out music with others. The quartet, which pitches punk, death metal, noise, black metal and avant garde into its blender, has generated lots of attention for full-on collaborations with others, to impressive results.

Full of Hell's 2014 recording with Japanese noise master Merzbow was widely hailed as a superb achievement. The collab was easily one of the most indurated pairings in recent memory; its ultra-short tracks clocked in at under a minute, and were nothing less than an airplane propeller of bluster and apoplexy. Full of Hell followed that effort up with "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache," a 2016 collaboration with Providence, Rhode Island sludgers The Body. It turned out to be one of last year's better albums, showing up far better than most probably expected at least. The Body and Full of Hell return as a Legion of Doom once again, with this year's "Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light."

Much like "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache," The Body and Full of Hell combine for a sound on the upcoming album that is related to doom and sludge in only the slightest ways. You may hear a chord here or a muddy bass there. Rather, "Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light" is definitely more in the wheelhouse of Full of Hell, for fans of its intense brand of grindcore. Even if that is not quite for you, extreme music aficionados are sure to find something they like in disparate efforts included in "Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light."

What has always distinguished Full of Hell as well as The Body is boldness. The groups are willing to permit genres you would not normally hear together very often, including industrial, a touch of electronic and, of course, mountains of hard guitars. "Light Penetrates" the opener, is a great instance of this. The oscillating guitar and drums quite nearly brush an indie vibe until the blitzkrieg vocals and curtain of sound crash in. As they build to a crescendo, those screams are going to stick with you. The vocals get even fiercer on "Earth is A Cage," which features its own unique effects. Presumably you are hearing The Body's Lee Buford's hand with some of the unusual elements. The Body has had its own nondenominational relationship with sludge, and has been seemingly more open than many to diversify its arrangements. The bands merge to creative music with impact on this track.

"The King Laid Bare" is among the release's most abrasive cuts, and it is seemingly where the release starts its most furious stretch. Where the Merzbow disc was unmatched in volume and "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache" set a standard for the pairing's fervor, this song and "Didn't the Night End" raise the bar. However, instead of pure bombast, The Body and Full of Hell amalgamate the harsh guitars, drums and dissonance with noise rock trappings that ramp up the constriction you feel as you listen. It is hard to overstate just how taut that gets in "Our Love Conducted with Shields Aloft," where the drums are teeming and the screaming mirrors a sort of mania that rattles you from all directions.  When that trance-sort-of drum machine and in/out effect assaults you, it's pretty much over.

There are moments when the experimentation takes a little getting used to. "Master's Story" feels like a Ministry outtake that doesn't quite work as well as it sounds. "Farewell, Man" slips into this mode too. Fortunately enough, Full of Hell and The Body get back on track in time for the closing, "I Did Not Want to Love You So." It meanders through a doom or drone energy until it slams into its final note. Chances are, you will get into "Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light" understanding it will not be your typical metal record. The Body and Full of Hell make good on your assumptions, and make an album not easily forgotten.

"Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light" is available to preorder/buy here

Band info: The Body || Full of Hell

RIFF REWIND (23/05/2013): The Body - "Master, We Perish"

 

The Body’s Chip King and Lee Buford can emote pain like no other band, and their ability to move between the often strict confines of the metal world and the electronic music sphere is perhaps best illustrated on their 2016 full length “No One Deserves Happiness”, an album that eludes categorization.

Buford and King are outlaws of the metal world, striving to create music without a category. They embody many contrasts but always deliver punishing music in volume and scale.  Back in 2013 in an ongoing pilgrimage towards the apocalypse and perpetual hatred for humankind, THE BODY unleashed their “Master, We Perish” EP which showcased the THE BODY’s nihilistic audio terror with three blackened bursts of noise-drenched, low-fi doom.

With mangled-human cover art by Manifester, “Master, We Perish” was released as a 12” EP, CDEP, cassette and digital download on April 30^th 2013 via At A Loss Recordings.  Today we rewind the riffs to 4 years ago to the day and reacquaint ourselves with “Master, We Perish”.  So if you missed it the first time, be sure to remedy you error by checking out our review in full below. 

By: Chris Markwell

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 30/4/2013

Label: At A Loss Recordings

This is a musical Frankenstein at work: stitching together lifeless vocal snippets and attaching them to raw guitar and drum tissue.  What is created is nothing short of terrifying: it should not be, but here it is in front of you.  ‘Master, We Perish’ is a fuse leading to dynamite, and it gets lit every time you listen to it.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

“Master, We Perish” CD//DD//LP tracklisting:

1) The Ebb and Flow of Tides in a Sea Of Ash

2) The Blessed lay Down and Writhe in Agony

3) Worship

The Review:

Sometimes in this life we come across… anomalies.  Strange happenings we experience but cannot quite explain.  Portland, Oregon’s The Body is an example of such an occurrence: a two-piece metal act that sounds like an entire orchestra of angry, darkly creative musical alchemists.  Their latest offering is the EP ‘Master, We Perish’, and it’s three tracks of pure, churning hate.  Let’s let the autopsy begin. 

EP opener ‘The Ebb And Flow Of Tides In A Sea Of Ash’ begins with an air raid siren rolling up and letting loose, followed by a low, ripping guitar riff that feels like you’re being crushed with the sheer force of it.  It reminds me of Pulled Apart By Horses, with a generous tint of Hierophant mixed in.  As openers go, it’s a mighty beast, and Chip’s vocal cries are those of a madman, freshly escaped from the asylum. 

Track 2 opens in a much darker, low-key way: a guitar riff, doomy yet melancholy, mixes with some of Lee’s strange samples, creating a very unsettling, dark atmosphere to descend.  This is ‘The Blessed Lay Down And Writhe In Agony’, and it’s a really messed-up slice of doom.  This is a musical Frankenstein at work: stitching together lifeless vocal snippets and attaching them to raw guitar and drum tissue.  What is created is nothing short of terrifying: it should not be, but here it is in front of you: ‘IT’S ALIVE!  IT’S ALIVE!’ 

Lee’s very fine drumming work begins proceedings on final track ‘Worship’ and, clocking in at 9:39, it’s a real odyssey of a song, one that takes you down blind alleys and through streets with boarded-up houses and smashed windows.  The drums are unstoppable on this track and, frankly, the entire musical experience found here is nothing short of suffocating until it bursts open at around 6 minutes in and becomes this grinding, doom steamroller.  ‘Master, We Perish’ is a fuse leading to dynamite, and it gets lit every time you listen to it.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

 Band info: Facebook



ALBUM REVIEW: Aseethe - "Hopes of Failure"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/02/2017

Label: Thrill Jockey Records

“Hopes of Failure” is sparse and minimal yet packed with detail and intricacies, like Yob and Unearthly Trance stripped of their psychedelic tendencies to let the raw oppressive riffs do the talking.  Aseethe have crafted a slow-burning masterpiece that reveals more with each listen. Every spin increases the pull of its hypnotic spell and leaves you with no option but to submit to its crushing power.

“Hopes of Failure” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Sever The Head

2). Towers of Dust

3). Barren Soil

4). Into The Sun

The Review:

Thrill Jockey Records continue to bolster the impressive heavy end of their roster in 2017 with the latest LP from Iowa trio Aseethe. “Hopes of Failure” sounds destined to follow in the footsteps of label mates Sumac and The Body and bother many an end of year list in eleven months’ time.

Over the course of four lengthy tracks the band entrances the listener with their distinct brand of bleak doom. It is sparse and minimal yet packed with detail and intricacies, like Yob and Unearthly Trance stripped of their psychedelic tendencies to let the raw oppressive riffs do the talking. Vocals are kept to a minimum, carefully deployed when necessary for maximum impact such as the pained howls that accompany the snail-paced downward spiral into misery at the climax of “Barren Soil”. Aseethe eschew vocals entirely on “Towers Of Dust”. Instead they focus on aggressive riffage that slowly degenerates into a jerky discordant locked groove reminiscent of Harvey Milk at their most awkward.

The band offer some glimmers of light in amongst the gloom. The middle of “Sever The Head” breaks down to clean picked guitar that brings a hint of Slint-style dark post-hardcore to proceedings. This leads to a passage of restrained heaviness that packs as much of a punch as the punishing riffs that bring the track to a head.

On “Hopes Of Failure”, Aseethe have crafted a slow-burning masterpiece that reveals more with each listen. Every spin increases the pull of its hypnotic spell and leaves you with no option but to submit to its crushing power. 

“Hopes of Failure” is available to buy/preorder here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

The Body & Full of Hell - "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache" (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/03/2016

Label: Neurot Recordings

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a nightmarish journey to the outer limits of sound; a cold, dark creation of cathartic noise almost entirely devoid of standard structure.  Covering so much ground over the course of a single album could easily make for a messy, disjointed experience. Somehow The Body and Full of Hell manage to pull these disparate styles and approaches together to make a coherent and consistently unsettling record.  “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is every bit as terrifying as you would expect from these two trailblazing acts.

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” CD//DD track listing:

1. One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
2. Fleshworks
3. The Butcher
4. Gehorwilt
5. World of Hope and No Pain
6. Himmel und Hölle
7. Bottled Urn
8. The Little death
9. Cain
10. Abel

The Review:

It says a lot about an album when the most conventional track is a torturous doom reworking of Leonard Cohen’s “The Butcher”. The Body and Full of Hell both have formidable reputations as bands as innovative as they are uncompromising, qualities that are amplified on this full length collaboration. “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a nightmarish journey to the outer limits of sound; a cold, dark creation of cathartic noise almost entirely devoid of standard structure.

“The Little Death” is the closest the record comes to fulfilling any narrow preconceptions of what this meeting of minds may sound like. The opening half is based around pummelling blastbeats, with intermittent squalls of guitar and electronics fighting for dominance over the dual howls of Dylan Walker and Chip King. This degenerates into a treacly, sludgy second half, making this the perfect warped combination of grind and doom one might have expected.

The rest of the album sees both bands channelling their more challenging urges to create bold new forms. The title track opens with a huge, lurching drumbeat that soon becomes the backdrop for menacing, clanging chords. The effect is like a middle ground between the slow motion terror of Khanate and the galactic dustbowl atmospherics of Barn Owl. The brief burst “World of Hope and No Pain” gives way to the claustrophobic cloud of “Himmer und Holle”. Over 6 minutes the bands build up layers of crackling static and shards of prickly noise, harrowing vocals pushed to the background like captives screaming for help from the eye of a tornado. “Bottled Urn” serves up 4 minutes of sharp stuck-groove noise rock, relentlessly hammering like a malfunctioning piston before finally breaking under the pressure.

Covering so much ground over the course of a single album could easily make for a messy, disjointed experience. Somehow The Body and Full of Hell manage to pull these disparate styles and approaches together to make a coherent and consistently unsettling record. It’s by no means an easy listen but “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a gripping ride and every bit as terrifying as you would expect from these two trailblazing acts.

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is available here

Band info: facebook (thebody) || facebook (fullofhell) 

The Body - "No One Deserves Happiness" (Album Review)

By: Richard Jaspering

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 18/03/ 2016

Label: Thrill Jockey

Horns swell as dim, low riffs wash over your mind, drums vacillate between cold sweetness and strong blows and the stage of chaos is set by the high screaming voice of unreason, formless yet voluminous and constant. Static whispers through grating frequencies and primal percussion, augmented by surprising claps and snaps, urges the dance of a readied, warring people.  The Body’s latest is an opus to ecstatic agony redolent of SWANS and Neurosis’ output. If no one deserves happiness, I suggest here that it is earned.

“No One Deserves Happiness” CD//DD//LP track Listing

1) Wanderings

2) Shelter Is Illusory

3) For You

4) Hallow/Hollow

5) Two Snakes

6) Adamah

7) Starving Deserter

8) The Fall And The Guilt

9) Prescience

10) The Myth Arc

The Review:

With The Body’s fifth full-length, on Thrill Jockey, one is presented an image of a negative plain where a person learns their contentment, a grace through isolation and self-injurious means. Lee Buford and Chip King display their pedigree in disharmony through measured, musical violence and guest Maralie Armstrong (Humanbeast) lends splendid vocal harmonies to this grim fray of a release.

Our introduction to“No One Deserves Happiness” is slow, sterile and beatific with the repeated sung admonition by Armstrong to “go wait alone.” Horns swell as dim, low riffs wash over your mind, drums vacillate between cold sweetness and strong blows and the stage of chaos is set by the high screaming voice of unreason, formless yet voluminous and constant. Static whispers through grating frequencies and primal percussion, augmented by surprising claps and snaps, urges the dance of a readied, warring people. We see, by the title “Shelter Is Illusory,” that we’re at last, at least secure in the idea that no plan is safe and that what is seen as asylum is only perceived, ephemeral.

Through the duration of the songs to follow, a framework for hate’s sake is built on a foundation of arrogance and contempt, based in vanity and pulchritude. From “For You,” a succinct offering of searing pitches and erratic, stunning crashes of drums bleed into the next, “Hallow/Hollow,” a mire of the spirit that ensnares unwary musical travelers where the siren’s song is for neither light nor dawn. Next, in “Two Snakes,” sub-bass and concussive blasts of programmed snares assail in tandem in short form, whipping and pulling into another place of contemplation of punishment labeled “Adamah.” These two tracks comprise eight minutes of hate but, when weighed against the other sonic themes established throughout the record, provide respite for the listener by affording them a chance to dance for all they’re worth to the weird electronic rhythms before plunging them into another sub-level of discordant, dragging metal where horns begin to sound again through the obscuring fog of a track, dedicated to a coward’s fate.

In “Prescience,” the connection in one between a mother’s love of literature and a father’s penchant for violence is explored, first through a short, spoken-word word piece that clearly, blessedly delineates the order of a life’s work in pain-causing and absorption of the same and again through the music, which cleverly establishes the themes in a sound schematic for sadomasochism.

Finally, the arcs of the myths of existence are smashed in the concluding track, a churning lull with choral arrangements and lingering riffs that caps the work brilliantly, leaving one to regain their senses and return to paralyzing normal life. The Body’s latest is an opus to ecstatic agony redolent of SWANS and Neurosis’ output. If no one deserves happiness, I suggest here that it is earned.

“No One Deserves Happiness” is available here

Band info: facebook | bandcamp

"A Year in Review": The Sonic 6 of Sludge 2015

By: Aaron Pickford

As part of our review of 2015, over the coming days, I will present the definitive “Sour 16” for 2015 and this will be generated by looking at all releases throughout the year, however I thought it would also be cool to look at specific genres too and whilst I would have loved to have generated a “Sour 16” for each popular genre at The Sludgelord, that would have taken up an inexplicable amount of time. Of course we all gravitate to a favourite genre, however each has its own merit, therefore I thought it would be a good idea to highlight, “six of the best” releases of 2015 within our most popular genres.  So today, as we reflect upon an awesome year of music in 2015, we present the Sludge “Sonic 6” for 2015

The Sludgelord’s ‘Sonic 6’ for 2015 is compiled based upon page views alone and calibrated into the list below, we will be presenting further lists during the lead up to Christmas, but for today roll up, kick back and Hail the riff!  Check out the Sludge “Sonic 6” for 2015 (full reviews can be viewed by clicking the artwork and total views since the date of publication are highlight in red). 

6). Limb – “Terminal” (607)

All in all, Terminal builds on what Limb have already achieved and is ultimately better than their top notch debut. The tracks on Terminal are well crafted, and the whole piece is tighter throughout. Absolutely no time is wasted on the album with every note being completely integral to the success of the album

5). The Moth – “And Then Rise” (621)

“And Then Rise” is simply unmissable on every level.

4). Greenhorn – “Like Rows Of Crooked Teeth” (773)

Truthfully, my first listen to Greenhorn left an everlasting impression, they truly are a force in the UK doom scene and this album only strengthens that belief. Give this album a listen; let them leave an impression on you too, because what’s so brilliant about them is that as well as being seriously fucking heavy, you get a history lesson  thrown in too’

3). Torche – “Restarter” (833)

To scrape a nit comb over this record, there is little originality in the noises that rattle your eardrums here. There’s nothing we haven’t heard and felt from the Miami four piece before, but  I for one am just delighted to hear another Torche record and I have no doubt that the vast majority of the already converted will see ‘Restarter’ as faultless.

2). The Body/Thou – “You, Whom I Have Always Hated” (1240)

It’s exceptionally rare that an album, or a work of art for that matter, can effectively convey terror, but throughout this release I was struggling to think of comparable works of art and kept returning to masters of horror fiction: Poe, Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti. Like each of these authors, The Body and Thou manage to create concise, compact stories of horror, which, when collected, should be seen as guidebooks to human terror and masterworks of nuanced, unbridled genius.

1). Dopethrone – “Hochelaga” (1560)

The album is, in a word, massive. Beware the listener that clicks play on this with cheap speakers. You'll soon need to replace them simply because of the sludgy, waxy build-up their riffs will leave on the speaker material. They play some of the nastiest blues you'll find outside of Satan's record collection, focusing on booze, rebellion, occult, sex, and of course, drugs.

Reviews featured in this article were written by: Hunter Young, Mark Ambrose, Phil Weller, Chris Bull, Steve Howe, Dominic Walsh