KASPER ROSA - Band To Check Out

Kasper Rosa are a four-peice from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They play mainly Instrumental Post-Rock/Progressive metal.

They are a four piece featuring

J Ryan McCormick
Steven Butler
Dave Shannon
James 'Tree' Bruce

Kasper Rosa formed around 2009, they quickly started impressing even scoring a support slot with drone/doom titans Earth after only a few months.

They have toured/played with the likes of Vessels,65daysofstatic,Maybeshewill and many more. They have upcoming festival appearances and gigs planned throughout the year.

Kasper Rosa have released two Eps so far and more recently the singles , Coronal Mass Ejection and First Breath First Blood. The releases are available from their Bandcamp site the Eps being available on the Pay what you want deal. This band really stands out from the Post-Rock crowd, mainly due to a wide range of influences from Mastodon to Oceansize ,Radiohead and Opeth

The tracks have a real organic feel to them including at times acoustic guitar passages and gentle synth effects. The songs are never repetitive and although some approach 10 minutes in length they hold your attention throughout. It would be pointless to single out individual tracks for praise as they all are high quality though Scaling Mount Improbable is a particular live favourite.

Recently the tracks , Coronal Mass Ejection and First Breath, First Blood have included vocals. This only adds to the uniqueness of Kasper Rosa's sound and blend perfectly with the textures of intricate sounds and stomping rhythms . They are currently writing and planning for their first full length ,one that is high on my list of anticipated releases. Do yourself a favour go check these Belfast lads out right away, if you enjoy Progressive/Post Rock they will not dissapoint .

http://kasperrosa.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/kasperrosa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNrb0N6Zor4

PJSludge

PALO VERDE - ZERO H(OUR ALBUM REVIEW

First up for me is a Two-girl instrumental Sludge/experimental/noise group from Portland. Palo Verde

Read more about them here, http://phratryrecords.com/bands/detail/palo_verde

These Girls don't mess about they record in a improvised manner and although they adopt a plug in and play philosophy it betrays the quality and cohesion of the tracks. What you get is slabs of Monolithic heavy guitars / wails of feedback and head crushing heavy drum fills.

Tracks though long pass easily constantly changing and although "improvised" have a structure while also evolving from the start . This album has excellent musicianship/production and for a two piece make an almighty noise. 

My Personal favourite is opener "Dark meadow for long night". With a spiralling opening riff giving way to a tribal-like drum beat and crashing Cymbals the drumming here reminds me of Kylesa, except they have two drummers this girl is pounding her kit herself, a sludge thick riff kicks in and from there the track ebbs and flows through passages of jaw-dropping heaviness and stop start grooves.

The four tracks here show what a talent these two have for crafting songs that hold your attention while pounding your brain with heavy grooves.

Recommended for fans of sludge/doom metal and bands such as Kylesa and Karma to Burn

At 4 songs and around 43 Minutes this is an album I'll be coming back to time and again and I'll be looking forward to more from this two-girl face-melting crew. 

The album is available here , http://paloverdeband.bandcamp.com/ with links to order in Various formats . 

Highly Recommended.

PJSludge.

http://paloverdeband.net/
http://www.facebook.com/PaloVerdeBand

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO.....

Hi all. Important News. A new member is joining Sludgelord to help me publish and promote all the superb bands in the Stoner/Sludge/Post-Metal/Doom/Black-Metal/Psych Realm.

He is called PJSludge and I have mentioned him a few times as he has recommended some great bands to me over the last few months or so. So I will let PJSludge now introduce himself.

"First of all allow me to introduce myself , I'm Phil you can find me on twitter@Pjsludge. 

I've known Steve (sludgelord) for some time and will be posting reviews,features as and when I can. My musical taste represents what's covered here everything sludge/stoner/post-rock/metal/electronica/doom."

I know you will all welcome Phil with open arms to the team. Normal service will be the same. Promoting brilliant bands to our loyal readers. Phil is going to write then next two articles. Enjoy!!!

Cheers

Steve

HUATA - ATAVIST OF MANN REVIEW

HUATA are an Occult/Stoner/Sludge/Doom/Drone Metal Band from France

The members are:

Ronan Grall : Summon
Benjamin Moreau : Invoke
Christophe Marconato : Worship
Alexis Darnoux : Adore 

HUATA play a truly haunting and spell-binding blend of Stoner/Sludge/Doom/Drone Metal Music mixed with amazing Occult Psych based rock. This is becoming quite popular to great bands like Ghost and Ancient Vvisdom.

But HUATA are probably the best band I have heard so far in the Occult Rock Scene. The guys came onto the scene last year with their brilliant debut EP which got a few rave reviews. I stupidly didn’t post this at all even though it’s still available for free download. I urge you all to download this brilliant release now.

If you’re into Church Of Misery, Ghost, Ancient Vvisdom, Electric Wizard and Ramesses well you’re going to love this band. As HUATA play the same bleak type music but add a superb Psych Drone Metal vibe to proceedings.

They have just released their astonishing debut full length record – Atavist Of Mann. A 6-song 62 minute masterclass in Occult Driven Sludge/Stoner/Doom Metal.

Atavist Of Mann blends classic Doom Metal/Stoner Metal with modern Sludge/Drone Metal influences brilliantly well. Throw in bleak down-tempo Occult Rock and you have a masterpiece of the genre.

This is an album that is not easy to define. You need multiple listens to determine what genre it falls under. I have listened to this about 4 times now and I am still discovering new pieces of this classic and amazing album.

Full of hypnotic riffs and sublime ambient vocals littered through out the albums running time.

This is a really challenging album to get into but if you stick with it you will find something extraordinary here. Believe me HUATA are going to be massive. This is where the hype is actually justified.

Don’t believe me. Well these guys have been invited to play Roadburn 2012 because of this superb album and the reputation they have forged in the short time they have been around. Catch them while you can. As like GHOST these guys will be one of the next big bands to check out.

The songs on show are simply classic examples on how to blend the many genres superbly and all done in an original way.

3 of the tracks run past the 12 and 15 minute mark and it’s these tracks where this album comes to life. With the tracks showcasing brilliant riffs, vocals and lyrics to match.

My fave tracks are the epic tracks especially the 15 minute epic “Thee Imperial Wizard”. My fave track is the 12:40 minute track “Fall Of The …”

If you’re into epic heavy albums then Atavist Of Mann will blow you away like it did with me. My mouth just dropped to the floor after I listened to this. I even commented on the guys Facebook Page I would do a review and that I needed a lie down in a dark room to get over this. And I meant every word of it.

This album just floored me. It really did. All I can say is HUATA deserve as much praise they can get for this brilliant, hypnotic and classic album. Just WOW.

This really is a true masterpiece of any genre and I can’t wait to see what these guys will release in the future. They have the potential to become your favourite new band.

French Stoner/Sludge Metal is in a really great place at the moment. They are throwing the baton to over countries to follow suit as the country to beat for Sludge/Stoner/Doom Metal Music. First CROWN and now HUATA. 2012 is really becoming a great year for amazing albums so far.

You can buy this amazing album on Vinyl Here (I have already bought mine). Rumour is the might be a free download coming later this year of this superb album. When its here I will publish it and recommend you all to download it right away. 

You can download their guys Debut EP "Open the gates of Shambhala" for free from BandCamp. 35 mins of crushing Doom, Stoner and Sludge in the filthiest possible way. Another superb release.

Simply Unmissable.

Check This Amazing Band Below:

Facebook

BandCamp

Check Out The Superb 8 minute epic "Lord Of The Flame". Brilliant Stuff.

Vulgaari

Vulgaari is a Sludge/Thrash/Stoner/Death-Metal/Doom from  Minneapolis, MN USA

Vulgaari is the work of two crazed insane geniuses called  Zack Kinsey and Brent Hedtke who have blended their favourite Metal genres into one big melting pot and they have came up with this brilliant and amazing S/T album.

Vulgaari is a 9 song 57 minute masterpiece of Stoner/Sludge Metal music. What they have done is got all the best aspects of  Sludge, Stoner, Thrash, Death-Metal, Doom and put their own unique brilliant creative spin to release one of the best Crossover Sludge/Thrash/Stoner Metal debut releases I have had the pleasures to hear.

This album is just described in one word. Amazing. I love this release. And so do a lot of other blogspots and websites as this has popped up all over the place.

Zack only emailed about 3 or 4 blogspots and I was one of them. This is what blogging is all about. Spreading the word of a brilliant and individual band/artist and that’s what Vulgaari is. Their music has gone into the stratosphere with this amazing debut album.

So don’t take my word for it. Take every other top-notch Metal Blog/Website. They cant all be wrong.

The album is full of amazing songs. Especially the epic tracks “Lie”, “Match” and “Outride The Reaper”. Some of the best Sludge/Stoner/Thrash Crossover Metal tracks you will hear this year.

This album is like all of your favourite bands in the many genres on show here forming to create a supergroup. This would be the twisted end result so congrats to Vulgaari in creating a masterpiece of Modern Sludge/Stoner Metal as these are the two genres that is the glue that holds this brilliant album together.

Full of amazing riffs you can shake your fist at. Vulgaari are brilliant musicians. The instrumental work is just simply astonishing on this amazing release. Not one note out of place.

It’s a brilliantly produced effort that you will be listening to time and time again.

What is even better is Vulgaari is giving away this brilliant album away for free from BandCamp right now. But hurry up I think the 200 downloads on BandCamp will soon be used up.

But if those run out you can download it all over the place. Just do a quick internet search and see why this brilliant album has became something of a fave with the underground metal crowd.

Brilliant, Brillliant, Brilliant. Get Downloading Now!!!

Zack is also in the process of putting a live band together for this project. Check out the bands already involved with this project when Zack pulls this off.

"The live band will feature members of Sourvein, Witchden, The Mighty Nimbus, Powermad and Bastard Saint"

This is one band I want to see live as these songs will go down a storm on the live venue.

Well I have gone on like a love sick teenager long enough. Get downloading. Brilliant, Amazing, Superb, Classic, Masterpiece.

Highly Recommended.

Check This Great Band Below:

Facebook
BandCamp

Morality Crisis - Band To Check Out

Morality Crisis is a Post-Hardcore/Sludge Metal Band from Minnesconsin. USA

The members are:

Jordan Kasey Pete Christ

Morality Crisis plan an intriguing blend of Post-Hardcore with brutal Sludge Metal riffs with great vocals to match as well.

These guys play brutal fast and furious Sludge Metal blended with surprisingly less angrier Post-Hardcore riffs. They have just released their new EP - "North". A 4 song 15 minute blast of heavy riffage that will last long in the memory.

The EP is full of superb epic Sludge Metal riffs blended in with outstanding Post-hardcore elements that you need to check out now.

This EP will have you begging for more. It really shows what this hugely talented band does so well. Blending both genres to outstanding effect.

All tracks are superbly played and produced which all need to be played really loud to get the desired effect.

You can buy this superb EP from the guys BandCamp Page and I recommend you do this now. You can download their suberb Debut EP for free right now from BandCamp as well.

Highly Recommended.

Check This Great Band Below

Facebook
BandCamp

Horrors That You’ve Seen

Horrors That You’ve Seen (HTYS) is a Doom/Hardcore Punk/Stoner Metal band from Edinburgh, Scotland.

The members are:

Graham Caldwell - Vocals
Kieran Higgins - Guitar
Niall Robb - Guitar
Chris Hewer - Bass
Alain Baron - Drums 

Horrors That You’ve Seen play a great blend of Hardcore Punk, Doom and Stoner Metal to get you head-banging in no time.

The guys have just released their outstanding debut album – “Breaking Hearts”. A 11 song 45 minute masterclass of Stoner Metal with great Doom and Hardcore Punk vibes running through it’s veins.

HTYS play their music fast and furious so you better try and keep up with them as there are no slow numbers at all on this brilliant album. This is balls-to-the-wall Stoner Metal with attitude that you don’t hear too much these days especially when they mix Hardcore Punk and Doom Metal to their great music.

The album is full of potential anthems for us jaded Stoner Metallers who are fed up with Radio Friendly artists trying to be metal where they are so fucking not!!!

Its great to see that these guys have a snarling lets fight anybody who gets in our way type attitude. And their music is better for it. This album makes you feel alive and gives you a reason to stand up for what you believe in.

Especially on superb tracks “Reality (Is All I Have)”, “Sinking Ships”, “Graves” and the superb “Worthless Idols”.

I really can’t compare this superb band to anyone else currently on the scene at the moment. If anyone can let me know as I want to check more bands like this.

I hear a lot of bands that I don’t publish that really get me down and jaded with the music scene in general. As they are badly produced and not worth publishing. But every now and again there is a gem of an album that restores my faith in the Sludge/Stoner Metal underground that makes me feel alive again. And Horrors That You’ve Seen fit that scenario.

This album just blew me away. The album cover doesn’t give you a true reflection what to expect. It’s a cool album cover but what you get is so much more.

It’s brilliantly produced and played by all concerned. How come these guys are not signed to a label as they can give their major league counterparts a run for their money.

“Breaking Hearts” is a triumph. Full of superb Stoner Metal riffs blended brilliantly with Hardcore Punk/Doom Metal to great effect. This is one album I recommend you all to download now.

You can download this brilliant album for free from the guys BandCamp Page. I recommend you all do this now If their their monthly 200 downloads limit is exhausted as this is going to go in to time at all the download from the following Mediafire link which the band have kindly provided.

So get downloading now. You won’t regret it. Simply superb stuff.

Check this brilliant band below:

Facebook
BandCamp
http://horrorsthatyouveseen.bigcartel.com/