TRACK PREMIERE: Italian heavyweights Formalist leave you strung out with the crushing "Mainlined"

FORMALIST was founded in 2014 when long-time associated individuals from the Italian heavyweights FORGOTTEN TOMB [vocals], MALASANGRE [bass & drums] and VISCERA/// [guitars] joined forces with the aim to open new gates to total sonic horrors. Excelling in the art of low-tuned sickness, the band members managed to forge together their many influences and proceeded to write and record the first full-length album during summer 2016, featuring 3 songs for a nightmarish 40 minutes length where extreme Doom, Black Metal, Sludge and Ambient/Drone combined with a completely hostile, nihilistic approach to vocals and lyrics.

The album entitled "No One Will Shine Anymore" will finally be released on the 16^th March and with the band soon hitting the road with selected stage appearances, today THE SLUDGELORD has an exclusive first play of the track “Mainlined”, this is one most certainly for all sludge/doom/depressive fanatics.  Preorders are being taken at the following links Wooaaargh: Toten Schwan: 3rdirex

Band info: facebook

TOP 16 ALBUMS: The Sour 16 (July 2017)

Olde

Yes, it is that time again O ye lover of riffs, “THE SOUR 16” returns.  You know the drill by now, each month you the reader are unwittingly compiling a list of the top 16 records of the month, covering all genres of metal.  Is it not a chart, in which reviewers or contributors extol their opinion about their favourite music.  To put it simply, “THE SOUR 16” are the records that have been trending the most at THE SLUDGELORD Headquarters.

The results are compiled based on the amount of page views the reviews have received and are then calibrated into the list below.  All reviews can be viewed by clicking the artwork and we have included album streams wherever possible. (Total views since their publication are highlighted in the red)

16). Entrails - “World Inferno” (370)

I can't find any fault with this album from intense opener to epic closer of “The Blood Breed”, the band don't put a foot wrong. This is raging death metal, plain and simple

15). Viscera/// - “3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals” (373)

"If one were forced to classify the band’s current sound, post-metal might be the safest category, but even that vaguely defined subgenre does not quite do the band justice, as it fails to mention the strains of psychedelia, black metal, hardcore, death metal and the band’s grind roots to are still very present in VISCERA///

14). Eternal Black - "Bleed The Days" (374)

The sheer weight of the riffs will indeed threaten to pull you under, as they deliver just the right amount of menace to go with the fuzz. There is a hefty dose of soul in the music here, along with a pervading blackness.

13). Norska - "Too Many Winters" (393)

“Too Many Winters” is a captivating collection of powerful doom steeped in Norska’s unorthodox and compelling personality.

12). Cloud Rat/Disrotted - "Split LP" (413)

This is an awe-inspiring release from two incredible bands who can seemingly do no wrong at the moment and continue to deliver an embarrassment of heavy riches in 2017.

11). Goatwhore - "Vengeful Ascension" (458)

“Forsaken” jumps out of your speakers and down your throat and suffocates and entertains the listener in the best way possible. There’s nothing quite like what this band can deliver – the riffs, vocals and drumming is first class and unique

10). God Dethroned - ‘The World Ablaze’ (466)

If you’re a longtime fan like me, this album is everything you’d want and then some. ‘The World Ablaze’ is all of the best elements of the God Dethroned’s entire discography amalgamated into a single album.

9). God Root - "Salt and Rot" (518)

God Root have managed to craft one of the most ambitious, progressive, and emotionally harrowing offerings of 2017.  The cosmic journey of “Salt and Rot” is one that will leave you shaken to your fleeting, human core.

8). Voivod - "RRRÖÖÖAAARRR", "Killing Technology", "Dimension Hatröss" (Reissues) (534)

7). Wounded Giant - "Vae Victis" (581)

there are moments of majestic riffing and an impressive amount of variation on offer

6). Owlcrusher - "Owlcrusher" (697)

With three tracks spread across 45 minutes, each song embraces sprawl and space: the reverb heavy drum tone pounds like the pulse of a leviathan.  The low end guitar tone crackles with fuzz, while the bass rumbles so menacingly that, with the right sound system, you may get your guts churning like you’ve just been forced to smoke a whole pack of unfiltered cigarettes – you’ve got the cold sweats, your insides feel poisoned, and you’re probably gonna puke, but god damn it you’re hooked

5). Destroyer of Light - "Chamber of Horrors" (719)

I will have to say that this album falls into an epic category for its great compositions, the honest heart involved in creating such a journey of ebb and flow, the range of emotion that continues what true music is about; music that continues what early St. Vitus and Trouble were doing, but DoL are creating it their own way.

4). Cirith Ungol - "King of the Dead" (Ultimate Edition) (724)

It's a very engaging listen, 33 years on and is an absolute must have for any fan of doom- or anyone looking at how the genre started to really form into something (along with the work of Vitus, Trouble et al).  An essential album and a worthy reissue. Enrich your record collection and your life by buying it!

3). Melvins - "A Walk With Love & Death" (727)

On “A Walk with Love and Death”, the Melvins do both things that their cultish fans love about them, and do them both damn well.

2). Venomous Maximus - "No Warning" (731)

In some places on the album, those qualities are phrased in the same ways that fans have come to expect, and so admirably, but in other spots on “No Warning”, Venomous Maximus explore new ways to do that which they’ve always done: create infectiously and wonderfully diabolical music.

1). Olde - "Temple" (866)

Olde’s “Temple” is doom metal done the way it should be. It is well-crafted, forward-thinking, and a contender for one of the best records of the year.

A big thank you as always to our amazing writers, your dedication knows no boundaries and for that I am truly grateful.  July 2017’s “SOUR 16” features reviews by:  Richard Maw, Daniel Jackson, Charlie Butler, Ben Fitts, Mark Ambrose, Mark Tremblay, Jay Hampshire, Jack Taylor & Eric Crowe.

ALBUM REVIEW: Viscera/// - “3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”

By: Ben Fitts

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 05/05/2017

Label: Unquiet Records |

Drown Within Records |

Wooaaargh

"If one were forced to classify the band’s current sound, post-metal might be the safest category, but even that vaguely defined subgenre does not quite do the band justice, as it fails to mention the strains of psychedelia, black metal, hardcore, death metal and the band’s grind roots to are still very present in VISCERA///

“3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals” CD//DD track listing:

1). Uber-Massive Melancholia

2). Martyrdom for the Finest People

3). Titan (Or The Day We Called It Quits

4). In The Cut

5). Anxiety Prevails

The Review:

Italian trio Viscera/// is hard to describe. Although the band has its roots in goregrind (as exemplified on their 2003 demo “Entrails Defecation”), Viscera///’s sound has since evolved into a stylistically fluid assault that makes to strike an evocative range of emotions, often within the same song. If one were forced to classify the band’s current sound, post-metal might be the safest category, but even that vaguely defined subgenre does not quite do the band justice, as it fails to mention the strains of psychedelia, black metal, hardcore, death metal and the band’s grind roots to are still very present in Viscera///. While their previous few releases also evidenced this growth, nowhere in their discography does their varied sound come together as well as on their fourth full-length album, “3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”.

The album opens on the sinister sounding and melodramatically titled “Uber-Massive Melancholia”. Over the nearly eleven and half minutes of  the opening track (making it only the second longest song on the album), Viscera/// display the nastiest, dirtiest sounds in their cannon, as well as the most overt black and death metal influences to be found on the “3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”. The following track, “Martyrdom for the Finest People” sees the album continue with the blackened elements of “Uber-Massive Melancholia”, but it strips away the death metal aspects in favour of ambient and drone influenced sounds. The result is a blackened post-metal track whose ten and half minutes manage to be tranquil while being propulsive, a combination in line with many of the cutting edge metal acts of today.

“Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals” continues in a similar vein over the course of its next track, “Titan (Or The Day We Called It Quits)”. At just shy of four minutes, it is by the shortest track on the album (by over four minutes) and it feels like a blur when compared to the sprawling length of the other four tracks on the album. But despite its short length, “Titan (Or The Day We Called It Quits)” manages to make as much of an impact as any other track on the album, due largely to its hazy post-rock inspired tones and thunderous, tremolo-picked guitar riffs.  

It is followed by “In The Cut”, which, at over twelve and a half minutes, is the longest track on “Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”. Viscera/// utilize the track’s length to touch upon every mood in album’s arsenal. “In The Cut” opens with a passage of dark, guitar driven psychedelic rock before morphing (rather naturally) into blood curtling black metal and diminishing into an ethereal, chiming clean section, all within the track’s first five minutes. Over its remaining seven a half minutes, “In The Cut” rebuilds its intensity, heaviness and energy, often dipping back down and becoming more impactful when it rises again. The album closes with the track “Anxiety Prevails”, the bitterest, evilest, and heaviest track anywhere on the album. While the other tracks on the album flit through sounds and emotions, “Anxiety Prevails” stays consistently nasty throughout its eight minutes, making it perhaps less adventurous and challenging than the album’s other tracks, but quite possibly its most enjoyable. 

“3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

The Sludgelord Presents: ABATON & VISCERA/// - 'Diade(ms)' Exclusive Stream & Review

We at the Sludgelord are extremely excited and grateful to the folks of Sentient Ruin Laboratories to announce the exclusive stream of a monolithic release, a collaborative release in every sense of the word from two of Italy's finest, most forward-thinking and heaviest sludge/doom/post-metal bands around these days, namely Abaton &  Viscera///.

Abaton is a project created in 2009 and the characteristics of the sounds are a mixture of obscure and gloomy doom and sludge, with powerful hardcore openings.  The ultimate purpose of the band is to create dark and meditative atmospheres, to scratch the most introspective and oniric side of every individual.  Viscera/// are an italian psychedelic metal trio. Their style gathers the experiences of post HC, 70's space rock, drone and ambient, in order to create an intimate and extremely personal view of heavy music. So with that description firmly in mind this is what the folks at Sentient Ruin had to say about this groundbreaking release

‘This 7" vinyl EP Titled Diade(ms),  is the collaborative EP manifestation of the wills of both bands to materialize a synergistic, interwoven, and multi-layered work, in which the two bands become fused together into one multi-headed hideous sonic monstrosity, to materialize and represent their own vision of complete aural annihilation.’

A Co-release with: Hypershape Records (IT), Insomnia Isterica (CH), Bare Teeth Records (ITA),Drown Within Records (ITA) and Dio Drone (ITA), Unquiet Records (PL).  This is set for release on 23^rd June and will be available here

Find out what we had to say about the record below about the record

‘Diade(ms)’,  track listing:

Side A: Special Needs (05:31)

Side B: Pandemic (06:21)

Review:

Of the common split, a true collaboration is indeed a rare thing. Today, we have a coSLABoration between 2 Italian extreme music juggernauts: Abaton and Viscera///. 

This is a very sludgy, very caustic slice of extreme metal from across the Big, Blue, Wet Thing, all the way from the Roman Empire. Being a true collaboration, both bands had contributions to each others songs, without either overpowering the main band. So, Viscera/// is the major artist on track 1, ‘Special Needs’, with a bit of credited help from the guys in Abaton, and vice versa for the flip track, ‘Pandemic’. And while both are very extreme, they do have their differences.

On ‘Special needs’, the music and tone is quite a bit more frantic, almost playing with a panic to the song. The vocals are just the most evil sounding rasping screams, carrying a blackness and depravity in tone alone. The track is just evil, with lyrics of selling ones soul, for what sound like nefarious reasons. It's ridiculously black metal in a sludgy format. The bleakness of the vocalist bleed into the guitar, with a harsh, jagged tone hammering at you. Alternating at different points in the track, Viscera/// do like to slow it down a bit, then speed up to drive the nails in deeper. Its a very destructive give and take throughout the 5 and a half minutes it jabs at you.

From there we reach the slower, and just as heavy, Pandemic by Abaton w/ Viscera/// adding some touches. Still have the blackened feel to the song, with a tone and vocal delivery, but it's slow, much slower than ‘Special Needs’, It feels more gritty to the ear, with more effects giving a space like a cavern, black and unending. The vocalist has that severe rasp, pretty much the entire run time. He uses it to strip the skin out of your ear cavities, as the guitars and drums just chew through you. 

Of the two tracks, this one wins my pick, just because it’s that little extra that catches my fancy, due to just that slow building horror they capture so well. Fans of extreme, caustic, bleak metal pay heed, this is very much a combination you don't want to miss at all!

Words by: Hunter Young

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/Abaton.it

http://abaton.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/viscera3stripes

http://twitter.com/viscera3stripes

http://viscera3stripes.bandcamp.com

http://soundcloud.com/viscera3stripes