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