ALBUM REVIEW: Divide and Dissolve - "Basic"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/03/2017

Label: Dero Arcade

Divide and Dissolve in full flow is like a huge slab of noise reminiscent of UK low-end warriors Bismuth and the sadly departed Palehorse.  The band’s distinct racket is simultaneously skeletal and super dense, with most of the tracks consisting of slow-motion pounding drums and an oppressive wall of discordant distortion.  “Basic” is a powerful record in every sense.

“Basic” DD//LP track listing:

1). Black is Beautiful

2). Black Supremacy

3). Black Power

4). Black Resistance

5). Black & Indigenous

6). Black Vengeance

7). Black Love

8). Crimes of the Future

The Review:

It is rare for instrumental bands to have something to say, let alone more to say than most bands with lyrics. Divide and Dissolve are a duo from Melbourne who aim to empower black and indigenous people the world over and dismantle white supremacy via the medium of minimal, crushing doom.

The band’s distinct racket is simultaneously skeletal and super dense. Most of the tracks on “Basic” consist of slow-motion pounding drums and an oppressive wall of discordant distortion. “Black Is Beautiful” is a prime example of Divide and Dissolve in full flow, a huge slab of noise reminiscent of UK low-end warriors Bismuth and the sadly departed Palehorse. The tempo creeps above a crawl on “Black & Indigenous” while “Black Love” introduces some erratic blastbeats into the fray to killer effect.

Divide and Dissolve are at their most captivating when they deviate from their core sound. “Black Power” begins with a lone, haunting saxophone that creates a hypnotic, hazy ambience. This alone is enjoyable enough but when the drums and guitar make their thunderous return the track becomes a glorious collision of heaviness and otherworldly sound. “Black Resistance” finds the band at their most pared-back, the distortion dialled back to create a captivating solo guitar track that sounds like Slint trapped in a cave.

“Basic” is a powerful record in every sense. Buy it now and help Divide and Dissolve spread their message far and wide.

“Basic” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Palehorse - Looking Wet in Public

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 01/07/2016
Label: Truthseeker Music

Wonderfully acidic and bludgeoningly sludgy, Palehorse's new creation, “Looking Wet in Public”, is just magnificent.

“Looking Wet in Public” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Half Lizard / Half Lizard
2). Miserable Heroin Addict vs. Jehovah's Witness Guy
3). Lambs to the Laughter
4). The Shower
5). Terrifying Japanese Coldplay Documentary
6). 1893

The Review:

You know when the grungy metal gods have sent you something magnificent when you start to feel the music leave a greasiness on the skin, because it's that or my soap has gone on strike. Wonderfully acidic and bludgeoningly sludgy, Palehorse's new creation, “Looking Wet in Public”, is just magnificent. At once suffused with a gloriously dirty sound, a punishing delivery, and vocals that absolutely rub my throat raw, it's a tour de force of what the underground can put out! A tour of the force of a sludge pipe, perhaps, but a force of some sort for sure!

Make no mistakes about Palehorse's intentions; as soon as you hit play you shall be assaulted by massive sonic cinder blocks. There are no warnings, just scratching, a word or so, and then you're being dragged down old asphalt by your pant leg (“Half Lizard, Half Lizard”). Palehorse vomit forth a sound that is a fight for survival, it could be described as fraught, like learning a bandsaw as an instrument. Songs like “Miserable Heroin Addict vs Jehovas Witness Guy” (a shoe in for song title of the year) rely on nothing so fancy as technical playing, individual notes, or articulation of the fingers; no, instead you have chords that buzz modulate like a twisted mechanical beehive. The band mixes violence, mechanical darkness, and just a retching out of pure emotional strangulation in the form of vocal delivery. The longest track, which is also the most plodding and slow, titled “Lambs to the Laughter”, is a perfect example of what these guys do best, and that's peel the layers off your brain slowly, like an onion, with the most jagged plastic knife possible.

“Looking Wet in Public” does have lighter moments, such as the first half of “The Shower”, which then deforms into a nightmarish effects driven track that will take you to many edges, musically. They suffocate with sonic intrusions and modulate you into a blob of human goo; it's well crafted debauchery given form, and slicked with production, allowing you to experience the throes of scuzz like a slow drip. With “Looking Wet in Public”, Palehorse have given outlet to a violent, raw album that should delight any fan of extreme music down to their toe socks. Enjoy without shame, as they scratch that fix for you.

“Looking Wet in Public” is available here

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp

FFO:  Ghold, Horse Latitudes, War Iron, Loinen

The Sludgelord Song Premiere - "Terrifying Japanese Coldplay Documentary" by Palehorse

By:  Aaron Pickford

“Gee, That Ain’t Swell”, a cheekily monikered debut if ever there was one, indeed Palehorse were possibly so underground during the time of the band’s debut release in 2003, the fact that 16 years later the band are calling it a day, is perhaps testament to that statement. But all joking aside, a band whose debut could be construed as a modern British masterpiece, all the while with a comparatively avante garde approach with two basses ringing distorted noise through a filter of depressive and maniacally savage vocals, Palehorse have remained at the cutting edge of the underground heavy scene.  Quite simply they have always been the one, but not Metallica

So as we approach something resembling the summer here in the UK, Palehorse are set to issue what will most likely be their epitaph, with new album “Looking Wet in Public” via Truthseeker Music.

Having recently undertaken a co-headline tour of the UK with Ghold throughout the early part of May and finishing up in Leeds, Palehorse will perform their final ever appearance and  farewell show, at the prestigious  Temples Festival in Bristol on 5th June.  As their press release for their new album attests too, Palehorse are about to leave listeners with the uncomfortable sense that something inevitable and horrifying is going to happen, indeed this will be the only time, you’re gonna be happy about “Looking Wet in Public”. 

With a little over a month to go before the new album drops, today at The Sludgelord in partnership with the good folks at Truthseeker Music, we can officially debut an exclusive stream of a brand new tune entitled “Terrifying Japanese Coldplay Documentary”.  You have been warned, this is sluggish distorted sludge at its best, so before you check it out, fix yourself a sandwich because you won't want to die on an empty stomach.

“Looking Wet in Public” has a street date of July 1^st and is available as a download and limited vinyl.  It can preordered here now, so what are you waiting for.  A full track listing and artwork can be found below. 

“Looking Wet in Public” DD//LP Tracklisting:

Half Lizard / Half Lizard

Miserable Heroin Addict vs. Jehovahs Witness Guy

Lambs To The Laughter

The Shower

Terrifying Japanese Coldplay Documentary

1893

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

The Sludgelord Exclusive Album Premiere - "Ruins of Hope" by Seven Hundredth Unicorn

Conceived in late 2012, Seven Hundredth Unicorn are a 2 piece Metal band from Milton Keynes, UK. Originally starting out as a side project, they have recently progressed and have been working hard on strengthening their sound and today sees the release of their debut album “Ruins of Hope” 

Harnessing a sound that is mainly rooted in Sludge Metal and citing major inspirations from bands such as Black Sabbath, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Baroness, Isis and Mastodon. Today The Sludgelord offer you this amazing album in full for your listening pleasure and will see the band launch the physical release of “Ruins of Hope” by playing songs from the album at the Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes with Palehorse and Ghold. 

You can check out the record  in full below and it is available to buy here. Remember in the battle of sludge vs evil....sludge always wins

“Ruins of Hope” track listing

1. Our Worlds Collide 

2. Hear No Evil, See No Evil

3. Times Waits For No One

4. Jesus was my age, when he got nailed

5. Hollow

6. Death of Glory in the Serpent's Eye

7. Johnny Shit Kicker

8. Rule of the Mob

9. Norman Kalashnikoff

10. Prey On The Weak

Band info: facebook || instagram || bandcamp