PLAYLIST: The Sludgelord's Weekly Hitlist #45, October 31st, 2025 to November 6th, 2025

⚔️🩸 My biggest tracks from October 31^st, 2025 to November 6th, 2025

⚔️ Total streams: 213 ↓ 23% vs. last week
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 7 ↓ 54%
⚔️ Total Albums streamed: 7 ↓ 57%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 60 ↓ 32%
 
⚔️ Top Artist: The Acacia Strain (62 streams)

🩸  Top Album: The Acacia Strain – “You Are Safe From God Here” (62 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Conjurer – “Hang Them In Your Head” (10 streams)

⚔️🩸 Top 30 tracks of the week

ESSENTIAL METAL ALBUM(S): WK45 Monday 3 November, 2025 to Sunday 9 November, 2025

 
Week 45 is here, and THE SLUDGELORD’s weekly selection of Essential Albums brings you seven crushing releases from the underground. Each record offers its own unique vision of heaviness—ready to shake foundations and melt speakers.
 
Kicking things off was an easy pick for my Album of the Week: The Acacia Strain return with arguably their best and heaviest record to date. Since the release of 2019’s “It Comes in Waves”, The Acacia Strain have absolutely crushed me—and this album is no different.
 
Psychonaut strike the perfect balance between sprawling, kaleidoscopic psychedelia and monolithic doom, while Old Year emerge as one of the doom genre’s most exciting discoveries, offering a dissonant and bleak template of riffs reminiscent of genre heavyweights Primitive Man. Soulfly continue their sonic onslaught with a succinct yet lethal injection of groove-ridden noise and a rather surprising blackened edge
 
Meanwhile, Drofnosura literally blew my mind with their new album. Arguably more restrained compared to my other picks and yet they deliver something with immense weight and ferocity, interspersed with grunge soaked vocals, making this one an auditory synesthesia. Bonginator bring chaos and I shit you know, they play a wild mix of death metal fused with 80s action flicks, horror vibes, and retro video game aesthetics. Finally, Scorching Tomb unleash a blistering blend of old-school death metal injected with hardcore intensity—a true throwback with teeth.
 
This is THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums of the Week, WK45. Plug in and black out. The ‘Lord has spoken.

⚔️ 🩸 Album of the week:
 
#310 
 
⚔️ Artist: The Acacia Strain
🩸  Title: “You Are Safe From God Here”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags:  metalcore, deathcore, post metal, sludge, doom 

🩸 Essential Release (s)
 
#307 
 
⚔️ Artist: Psychonaut
🩸  Title: “World Maker”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025 

 🩸 Genre/tags: post metal, psychedelic, progressive metal 

#308 
 
⚔️ Artist: Old Year
🩸  Title: “No Dissent”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags: doom, sludge, death doom 

#309 
 
⚔️ Artist: Soulfly
🩸  Title: “Chama” 
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: thrash metal, death metal, groove metal 

#311 

⚔️ Artist: Drofnosura
🩸  Title: “Ritual of Split Tongues”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags: psychedelic, atmospheric, black metal, sludge, doom

#312 
 
⚔️ Artist: Bonginator
🩸  Title: “Retrodeath”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags: death metal, synth death 

#313 
 
⚔️ Artist: Scorching Tomb
🩸  Title: “Ossuary”
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

 

🩸 Genre/tags: death metal, osdm, hardcore 

ESSENTIAL METAL ALBUM (s): #WK44 Monday, October 27th, 2025 to Sunday, November 2nd, 2025

THE SLUDGELORD welcomes you back for Week 44 of our weekly roundup of the best heavy sounds from the underground. This week yet delivers yet another punishing spread of sonic extremity, where atmosphere, aggression, and experimentation collide.
 
From Tombs’ layered blackened soundscapes to Cacotopia’s technical chaos, Impermanence’s relentless death-infused assault, the underground is alive and snarling. Our very own Saltbuck return with a fuzz-drenched sludge monster and Azell channel cosmic weight as a crushing two-piece.
 
Last but by no mean, least, Conjurer are finally back and have evolved into a genre-defying force and in the process have delivered one of their albums of the year. 
 
This is THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums of the Week, WK44. So, Plug in and Black out. The ‘Lord has spoken!
 
⚔️ 🩸 Album of the week:
 
#306 “Conjurer shed their skin and emerge heavier, deeper, and more dynamic”
 
⚔️ Artist: Conjurer 
🩸  Title: “Unself” 
⚔️ Release date: October 24th, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags:  post metal, doom, sludge, hardcore 

🩸 Essential Release (s)
 
 
#301 “Feral Darkness is a descent into layered black metal atmospheres, where death metal tension coils beneath every riff”
 
⚔️ Artist: Tombs 
🩸  Title: “Feral Darkness”
⚔️ Release date: October 17th, 2025 
 

 🩸 Genre/tags:  black metal, death metal

#302 “a razor-edged spiral of progressive black metal—technical, chaotic, and utterly uncompromising.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Cacotopia 
🩸  Title: “Cacotopia”
⚔️ Release date: May 2nd, 2025 
 

🩸 Genre/tags: progressive black metal 

#303 “Annica is a firestorm of blackened death metal—raw, relentless, and carved from pure sonic aggression.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Impermanence 
🩸  Title: “Annica” 
⚔️ Release date: October 16th, 2025 

 

🩸 Genre/tags: post metal, sludge, doom, black metal 

#304 “Gorb is a suffocating wall of fuzz and filth—Saltbuck’s sludge doom drags you under with riffs that feel like sinking into tar.”

⚔️ Artist: Saltbuck
🩸  Title: “Gorb”
⚔️ Release date: October 31st, 2025 

 

🩸 Genre/tags: sludge, doom 

#305 “Astralis is a cosmic crush of sludge and space—Azell’s two-piece assault hits like a supernova, dense, hypnotic, and devastating.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Azell 
🩸  Title: “Astralis”
⚔️ Release date: October 17th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: sludge, doom 

PLAYLIST: The Sludgelord's Weekly Hitlist #44, October 24th, 2025 to October 30th, 2025

⚔️🩸 My biggest tracks from Oct 24th - Oct 30th, 2025
 
⚔️ Total streams: 276 ↓ 23% vs. last week
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 15 ↓ 17%
⚔️ Total Albums streamed: 16 ↓ 34%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 87 ↓ 20% 

⚔️ Top Artist: Biohazard (60 streams)

🩸  Top Album: Biohazard – “Divided We Fall” (60 streams)

 

⚔️ Top Track: Tombs – “Feral Darkness” (8 streams)

⚔️🩸 Top 30 tracks of the week

ESSENTIAL METAL ALBUM (s): #WK43 Monday, October 20st, 2025, to Sunday, October 26th, 2025

 
Week 43 didn’t overwhelm with quantity, but the underground still coughed up a handful of records worth your time—and your volume knob. I scraped through the noise to find the ones that hit hardest, weirdest, and most unapologetically raw.

Cranial delivers a slow-motion collapse of sound—dense, deliberate, and tectonic. An Abstract Illusion twists progressive death into a fever dream of layered chaos and fragile beauty. Author & Punisher grinds out mechanical grief, each track a piston-driven dirge. Coroner, ever the surgical ghosts of thrash, return with riffs honed like bone saws.
 
Cthvn drags listeners through a mire of blackened sludge, thick with ritual and rot. And Sunbreather offers a hallucinogenic ride through heavy psych and stoner haze—equal parts desert mirage and amplifier worship.
 
It’s a lean week, but the essentials are here. This is THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums of the Week, WK43. Plug in. Black out. The underground has spoken.

⚔️ 🩸 Album of the week:
 
#298 “A dreamlike descent into progressive death metal—cinematic, surreal, and emotionally unhinged”
 
⚔️ Artist: An Abstract Illusion 
🩸  Title: “Sleeping City”
⚔️ Release date: October 17^th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags:  atmospheric progressive death metal

🩸 Essential Release (s)
 
#295 “A suffocating slab of post-metal architecture—Structures doesn’t build, it crushes.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Cranial 
🩸  Title: “Structures”
⚔️ Release date: October 2nd, 2025

 🩸 Genre/tags: post metal, doom, sludge 

#296 “It’s industrial doom stripped to its rawest nerve.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Author & Punisher
🩸  Title: “Nocturnal Birding”
⚔️ Release date: October 3rd, 2025

🩸 Genre/tags: industrial, drone, electronic, noise 

#297 “Hymn is a slow-burning wreck of sludge and dissonance—raw, abrasive, and absolutely unrepentant.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Cthvn 
🩸  Title: “Hymn”
⚔️ Release date: October 10th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: post metal, sludge, doom, black metal 

#299 “It doesn’t chase past glories; it carves out new ground with surgical intent.”

⚔️ Artist: Coroner
🩸  Title: “Dissonance Theory” 
⚔️ Release date: October 17th, 2025 

🩸 Genre/tags: technical thrash metal

#300 “Sunbreather eases through psych textures, stoner tones, and grunge mood with a slow pulse and open space.”
 
⚔️ Artist: Sunbreather 
🩸  Title: “Sunbreather”
⚔️ Release date: October 10^th, 2025 

 
🩸 Genre/tags: heavy psych, psych rock, stoner rock 

PLAYLIST: The Sludgelord's Weekly Hit List #43 October 17th, 2025 to October 23rd, 2025

 

⚔️🩸 My biggest tracks from Oct 17^th - Oct 23^rd, 2025
 
⚔️ Total streams: (358)
🩸  Total Artist(s): (18)
⚔️ Total Album(s): (24)
🩸  New Track(s): (108)
 
⚔️ Top Artist: Nine Inch Nails (121 streams)

🩸  Top Album: Nine Inch Nails – “TRON:  Ares (Original Motion Picture) Soundtrack” (121 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Nine Inch Nails – “As Alive As You Need Me To Be” (8 streams)

⚔️🩸 Top 30 tracks of the week

INTERVIEW: “Saltbuck: Riffs That Crush, Tones That Suffocate"

 

We’re beyond stoked to welcome Saltbuck into the fold—a band whose sound hits like a landslide and lingers like smoke in the lungs. Known for their tectonic riffs, suffocating low-end, and a tone that feels carved from the bedrock of despair, Saltbuck have carved out a singular niche in the heavy music underground.

With a new album looming on the horizon—one that promises to be their most punishing and immersive yet—we sat down with the band to dig into their origins, their creative rituals, and the bleak vision fueling their next chapter. This isn’t just a signing—it’s a seismic shift.

Stay tuned for the full interview and exclusive insights into what’s coming. Saltbuck is here, and the ground beneath us is already trembling.

Introducing the band:

THE SLUDGELORD: For those unfamiliar with your band, could you share a bit about yourselves? How did you come together, and what led to the band’s formation?

We originally played together in our previous band, Sunstone, which was primarily a doom band. After releasing our second album, our drummer relocated to Australia, making it difficult to continue booking gigs. The three remaining members decided to regroup and focus on crafting some truly angry, filthy music.

The Making of "Gorb"
 
THE SLUDGELORD: Tell us about your latest record, "Gorb." Did your approach to this album differ from past releases? Did you change studios, gear, or aim for a new sound?
 
The writing process for "Gorb" was challenging. Our first album, "Cityslicker," came together quickly as we experimented and kept the ideas that resonated. However, the pandemic hit right in the middle of writing "Gorb," and since we work best collaborating in the rehearsal room rather than bringing in fully formed songs, it disrupted our usual flow.
 
Once we had the material, we chose to record with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse. Wayne had previously produced excellent work for friends in the London doom scene—like Existence Dysphoria’s "Minus Negative," Borehead’s second EP, and Old Horn Tooth’s "True Death"—so working with him was an obvious choice. He really helped us highlight the raw, gritty aspects of our sound.
 
We also dropped our tuning even further to make the low notes hit especially hard, and we pushed for more grit in the guitar tones to create an extra gnarly sound. If you enjoy the overwhelming wall of sound from bands like Primitive Man and Bongripper, you’ll feel right at home with our music.

Writing, Rehearsals, and Recording Memories
 
THE SLUDGELORD: What was the writing and rehearsal process like for the album?
 
The writing and rehearsal process was heavily impacted by the pandemic, which forced us to adapt how we worked together. Our preference for in-person collaboration was challenged, but we managed to bring our material together despite the obstacles.
 
THE SLUDGELORD: What stands out as your most memorable moments from the recording sessions?

There are a few key memories: Wayne showing up on the first day riding a massive motorbike; the sheer heaviness in the room when we laid down the first rough track as a full band; and our singer/bassist absolutely letting loose on vocals—he really delivers when it counts.

 

Reflections on the Journey
 
THE SLUDGELORD: Now that the album is complete and just weeks from release, how do you feel about the journey of creating it? How does it represent your current creative state?
 
Finishing "Gorb" was a significant achievement, especially after the challenges we faced. The album reflects where we are creatively, capturing our growth as a band and our commitment to pushing our sound further.

The Album Artwork
 
THE SLUDGELORD: Album artwork often goes unnoticed, but it's an essential part of the record for me. Can you share how the artwork came together, your thoughts on the final result, and any favorite album covers?
 
At first, we thought we could quickly put together some artwork. However, we soon realized that it needed more thought. We began analyzing the album’s themes and our influences. Living in a large city deeply affects us—personally, professionally, and artistically. We’re also fans of sci-fi literature, which often inspires us.
 
We tried to translate our perception of the music into visuals, combining a sense of unease and bleakness with our influences. After reviewing various portfolios, we were drawn to the cover of 71TONMAN’s "End of Time" LP and chose the artist, CVSPE. It was a fantastic decision—he understood our vision quickly and, after a few iterations, we landed on the final artwork. CVSPE was professional, efficient, and easy to work with.

As for favorite album covers, there are too many to list, but some standouts include:

·       Fu Manchu – “In Search Of...”

·       Sleep – “Dopesmoker”

·       Blood Incantation – “Hidden History of the Human Race”

·       Mastodon – “Remission and Leviathan”

·       King Crimson – “In the Court of the Crimson King”

·       Pink Floyd – “Dark Side of the Moon”

·       Santana – “Santana”

THE SLUDGELORD: How closely does the artwork reflect the themes or mood of the music?
 
The artwork closely mirrors the album’s sense of unease and bleakness, aligning with the music and our lived experiences as artists in a metropolis influenced by sci-fi literature and heavy soundscapes.
 
Looking to the Future
 
THE SLUDGELORD: With the new record complete, what are your future plans?
 
We’ve been away from the scene for too long, and we’re eager to bring more heaviness. We have a couple of tracks left from the recording sessions—long, pounding songs that didn’t fit "Gorb" but deserve to be heard. Stay tuned for those.

Additionally, two of us are working on a new death/doom project with a mysterious third member. As longtime death metal fans, we’re excited to explore this direction more fully.
 
Final Thoughts

THE SLUDGELORD: Do you have any final words for our readers? Anything you’d like to say to fans who have supported you?
 
We’re honored to be part of the Sludgelord family. You know you’ll always find crushing music from this label, so don’t wait—grab a copy of "Gorb"! To all our fans, thank you for your ongoing support throughout our journey.