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

ALBUM REVIEW: Pissboiler - "In The Lair Of Lucid Nightmares"

By: Chris Bull

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/12/2017

Label: Third I Rex

Sweden's Pissboiler have crafted a brilliant album of terrifying proportions, creating a sense of tension and foreboding and pummelling the listener with sledgehammer riffs.

“In The Lair Of Lucid Nightmares” CD//DD track listing:

1. Ruins of the Past
2. Stealth
3. Pretend It Will End
4. Cutters

The Review:

There are 3 types of heavy bands; those which employ speed and ferocity, those whose use of atmosphere creates a tension and sense of foreboding and those who are slow and forceful, pummelling listeners with Sledgehammer riffs. On 'In The Lair Of Lucid Nightmares', Sweden's Pissboiler take the latter 2 and craft a brilliant album of terrifying proportions.

Creeping from the murky chasms, 'Ruins Of The Past' is 17 minutes of funeral procession-esque death/doom. Vocalist LG (no, not that LG) produces a guttural roar that sounds like it's bellowed from the 7th later of hell and the riffs saunter with My Dying Bride like misery in tow. The production from band member Karl Wijk enhances each element with each instrument clinging to their own space while bleeding nicely into others. 'Stealth' comes as a bit of a surprise with it's lonely jazzy bass riff dripping with chorus and reverb and, at under 3 minutes, is the album's shortest track by far. The respite is short lived as 'Pretend It Will End' is utterly harrowing. Blood curdling growls and piercing shrieks team with suicide inducing, slow riffs before the bells toll and things take a slight turn with a riff reminiscent of Burning Witch. A very disturbing sample from a doctor talking to her patient, sets the tone for final track 'Cutters'; the atmosphere builds slowly with cavernous growls and swelling guitar drones and never stops the barrage of depressive doom. Some harsh screams burst through the bass heavy droning making for a truly unsettling experience.

For a fairly unknown band to create something this comprehensive (and very impressive) goes to show the talent that lurks in the darkest corners. If Sunn 0))) had released this, it would make the top 10 end of year lists of several well known publications, but for those of us who judge things on merit, it will most definitely be a contender, regardless of their standing.  

“In The Lair of Lucid Nightmares” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Woman's Ditch - “Seo Mere Saetan”

By: Ernesto Aguilar


Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 27/08/2017

Label: Third I Rex

Dead Woman's Ditch have composed a genre-bending journey of music and words, that is certain to create an atmosphere you will not soon forget.

“Seo Mere Saetan” CD//DD track listing

1. The Ugly Truths

2. Failed To Rot

3. We Are Forgiven

4. Break The Mind

5. Mr. Kipper

6. Crusade

The Review:

It is hard to be truly unique as a black metal group on the scene. So many far afield concepts, music and vocal styles make being an original artist unusual in what is already a subgenre of metal that pushes boundaries and buttons aplenty. Consider a few black metal innovators, such as Deathspell Omega, Ruins of Beverast and the Meads of Asphodel among many others. Each of them pioneered elements that were in many cases never quite repeated or else became part of our contemporary canon. Enter Dead Woman's Ditch, a worthy successor to these artists.

Now on their second full length – though technically its their fourth record, following two demos and a full length before this – Dead Woman's Ditch composes a genre-bending journey of music and words. As with a lot of metal, there is a lot of conceptual vision happening, yet it is a stunning sound that is far more exciting. The quartet, composed of guitarist/vocalists George Rhone and Glenn Charman (known for his live work with Electric Wizard), Chris Rust on bass and drummer Robin Corbet, is certain to create an atmosphere you will not soon forget.

The release, intended to tell the darker stories of the settlement of Somerset, UK, comes at you with a fresh dual-vocal style. With the opener, "The Ugly Truths," the listener gets one part sung or shouted and the other side with a growl most associated with death metal, but increasingly with black metal today. You hear this attack throughout the recording. It is jarring at first, but spellbinding going forward. It is the equivalent of a knife in the boot – it is not flashed every song. Just enough to remind you it is there, and to fill the air with menace.

While you may dig the black metal touches, the beauty of the new Dead Woman's Ditch release is its diversity. "Failed to Rot" shares some psychedelic and sludge influences in the guitar work. "We Are Forgiven" has hints of doom and haunting vocal effects to ballast the track. There seems to be a great deal of thought and intention across songs, with the pairing of each truly standing out. By the time of "Break the Mind," with its blackened doom ala Barathrum, you come to appreciate how well done “Seo Mere Saetan” really is. Rhone and Charman in particular elevate the album and make it a stifling experience.

What makes “Seo Mere Saetan” additionally fascinating is the blend of gear used.  In one instance, a drum machine is looped through a guitar amp and pedals. There are plenty of subtle vocal and bass production tricks that will have you listening again to confirm what you heard. The conclusion, "Crusade," highlights many of these aural touches – intense drums, a wonderfully chosen sound clip and more that must be heard – that make the release an infernal triumph.

“Seo Mere Saetan” is available here:

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

TRACK PREMIERE: London's Row of Ashes debut "Mass Strandings"

Since its birth, underground label Third I Rex have debuted releases by some of the most incredible artists worldwide and the time has come to unveil the name of one of their new acts.

Featuring musicians from bands such as Sonance, Wild Dogs Winter, Executive Distraction Tasks and with the mesmerising vocals of Eliza Gregory, who has been performing in the past with Necro Deathmort, Ladyscraper, and Pleura, Third I Rex will release the debut full length by ROW OF ASHES,”Let The Long Night Fade" which will undoubtedly be a highlight from the UK’s extreme music scene this year!

“Let The Long Night Fade” shares a tense atmosphere which all vary dramatically in dynamics. Owing as much to a Phil Spectre-style wall of undulating, apocalyptic-noise channelled through stack amps, as to the emotional honesty of T.S. Eliot’s “Wasteland”, it could be the sonic equivalent of helplessly watching a storm develop, destroy everything around you, and finally, assessing the devastation once it has passed.

It would be usual to expect a singular modus operandi from a band who are predominantly seasoned in the heavier and less mainstream end of the musical spectrum, drawing from and playing in Death Metal, Grind, Sludge and Hardcore outfits for the majority of their careers (a rough roll call of projects you can see next to each member’s name). Yet there’s more to RoA album than the traditions attributed to these genres, as there are influences called upon way outside of their musical origins making for a highly creative milieu, and the results near-defy categorisation.

Recorded in Bristol by Joe Garcia at the infamous "Joe's Garage Studios" (Sonance, Husk, Vails, Rose Kemp, and many others), this eight tracks behemoth is going to bring fresh air to the European post-whatever scene! With the album set to hit the streets in September as a co release with The Braves Records, keep taps on the Third I Rex facebook page (here) for more news, but for now you can check the exclusive track entitled “Mass Strandings” below.  

Band info: facebook

TRACK PREMIERE: Avignon's thunderous doom dealers Mudbath deliver a riff conflagration with "Fire"

Two years after the crushing “Corrado Zeller”, Mudbath refine their particular brand of devastation with “Brine Pool”, their second album, where the band's abrasive sludge and thunderous doom are slashed into with onslaughts of black metal and treacherous ambience. Recorded and mixed by Mathieu "Mouffi" Croux (Verdun, Sofy Major...) and mastered by Collin Jordan (Bongripper, Cough, Xiu Xiu), this tempestuous record was designed as a think piece, the deafening contours of which draw a vivid portrait of our idle surroundings and today we can exclusively reveal a brand new track “Fire” for your listening pleasure.

Set for release May 2nd via GPS Prod, Grains of Sand Records, Saka Čost, Troffea Records and Third-I-Rex.  You can preorder the album using the links above and “Fire” is streaming in full below.

Band Info: bandcamp || facebook

The Sludgelord Video Premiere - Italian crust/black metallers Rest present "I"

Formed in 2014, by guitar player Alessandro Coos (already active with the post-black metal band ASHES OF NOWHERE), Rest is a crust/blackmetal project  merging together the simplicity of crust music and the dark side of black metal.

With a solid line up secure, Rest would record their first tracks in August 2015 at Inferi Studio, to produce an EP that is a punch in the stomach for all fans of All Pigs Must Die and The Secret, these tracks offer no compromise crust blackened hardcore and today, we can exclusively reveal the first single “I”

If you like what you hear, you can pre-order the EP through the Third I Rex bandcamp page here !

Band info: facebook

VIII - "Decathexis" (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/6/2016

Label: Third I Rex

The technical performance is often excellent, and I’d even go so far as to say that from a stylistic standpoint, VIII are on the cusp of something truly fantastic. The more they leave the Deathspell Omega worship behind and focus on the more bizarre, theatrical elements they work with, the better they’ll be for it. If they focus on what they excel at, and on those stylistic elements that very few others are working with, the sky’s the limit.

‘Decathexis’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Symptom

2. Diagnosis

3. Prognosis

VIII is:

DrakoneM | Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Synth

Mark | Drums

The Review:

VIII, and their album ‘Decathexis’ are a classic example of a band trying to find their voice. Their first and only demo, ‘Division Hate’, was punishing death metal, with programmed drums. It was well-performed but kind of rough around the edges. Then you have their debut album, ‘Drakon’ which was an abrupt shift away from the previous style into a deliberate, doom-informed take on black metal. The production was much stronger, and the songs were better written, but ‘Drakon’ was still in stark contrast with the material before it. ‘Decathexis’ represents a blending of the two, in a sense, but also taking up a very different character in terms of the songwriting style.

This time around, there’s a pretty clear cut influence from post Deathspell Omega at work. The style of eerie, dissonant chords are very similar, and even some of the rhythmic aspects sound familiar. That’s not to say this is by any means a direct rip off, but it’s sort of like trying to listen to Sacramentum without thinking of Dissection. In VIII’s case, they do put effort into adding in elements that DsO haven’t worked with, specifically including a lot of synth (including what I believe are saxophone solos), and distorted noise.

Some of the more adventurous sections work better than others. The noise/industrial sections in “Symptom” are mixed much louder than the actual black metal parts, which make it seem like the black metal is a comedown from the noise peak, when those roles should probably be reversed. Then there’s the prolonged synth break in “Diagnosis” which builds nicely, and works exceedingly well in a vacuum, but seems a bit out of place in context. It resembles something out of a Full Moon Entertainment movie soundtrack (Think ‘Puppet Master’ or ‘Subspecies’).

Though I’ve been critical to this point, it needs to be said that I think there’s a ton of potential here. The technical performance is often excellent, and I’d even go so far as to say that from a stylistic standpoint, VIII are on the cusp of something truly fantastic. The more they leave the Deathspell Omega worship behind and focus on the more bizarre, theatrical elements they work with, the better they’ll be for it. If they focus on what they excel at, and on those stylistic elements that very few others are working with, the sky’s the limit. Pair that with some adjustments and upgrades on the production front (less digital-sounding drums in particular), and VIII is going to be a band that takes the genre in some exciting directions for years to come.

You can pick up a digital or CD copy here.

Band info: Facebook

Keeper - 'The Space Between Your Teeth' (Album Review)

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 1/4/2015 (Vinyl)
29/02/2016 (CD)
Label: Crown and Throne Ltd |
Third I Rex

Keeper has managed to create a visceral listen with ‘The Space Between Your Teeth’, and it bears listening to a few times, to catch all the goodies on display. Snag this one, turn off the lights, bar the door, and ignore your neighbours as you scald the paint off the walls at high volumes.  The heavy atmosphere they generate is a miasma out of the speakers, settling like fog on a fresh grave. It's very dark and very primal in its execution.

‘The Space Between Your Teeth’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). The King (17:07)
2). The Fool (15:48)

Keeper is

Jacob Lee | Guitars, bass, vocals
Penny Keats | Guitars, drums, vocals

The Review:

When you have a 2 song album that takes forever to download, you know you're gonna have a good time! Such is life when I downloaded the new Keeper album, ‘The Space Between Your Teeth’, which is an unsettling title if you don't floss like your mom says you should.  The new offering unto the dark gods is 2 songs long, ‘The King’ & ‘The Fool’, and runs just shy of 33 minutes, making for a short fall into a black grave. 

First things first: the Sound. Keeper subscribes to blackened or funeral doom, which means the vocalist sounds like he's screaming through ripped out vocals, over a very heavy, very black metal style of guitars and production. The heavy atmosphere they generate is a miasma out of the speakers, settling like fog on a fresh grave. It's very dark, very primal in its execution. Unlike black metal, it’s fairly slow, and not very technical, so expect nothing to shred the air to, unless you like air chords. The drums have a very progressive metal sound, as the drummer loves the cymbals later on in the first song, ‘The King’, but its a backbone sound for a very tight band so no worries.

It's all low slow, and jagged, however, they don't just make one song bleed into the other, there is much distinction. Sonically, ‘The King’ has a lot more of the double guitar, with one handling the really rough, darker chords, while the other has a faster alt picking method, which goes towards the blackened sound mentioned previously. ‘The Fool’ is a bit more simple, with a massive riff handling most of the song, like a towering giant plodding towards you, unstoppable, implacable, growing until it reaches you. 

‘The Fool’, in my opinion, is very much the better (read: Heavier) track, simply because it comes off as hopeless. By this I mean the sound leaves no room for smiles, or laughter, it pulls all emotion to it like a black hole, replacing it with the sonic disturbance coming from the speakers, calling out for you to give everything up and just listen. It just really grabs me and seems the more solid of the two tracks, due to the simplicity and the aggression I get from the guitars. It's just angry and brutal, and that's what I love! Even after drinking some Deathwish coffee, this release just brings my energy down into a steady bleakness. It's true brutality, of physical and spiritual natures. 

Both songs have incredible riff breaks, where the songs just amp up the aggression and energy. The breakups keep the songs from being meandering dirges, which is easy to do, and can twist their music into strange forms that crawl inside the ear and just sit on the soul. Keeper has managed to create a visceral listen with ‘The Space Between Your Teeth’, and it bears listening to a few times, to catch all the goodies on display. Snag this one, turn off the lights, bar the door, and ignore your neighbours as you scald the paint off the walls at high volumes inside ‘The Space Between Your Teeth’. Dental Plan optional.

‘The Space Between Your Teeth’ is available on vinyl here & CD here
Band info: bandcamp | facebook 

The Sludgelord News: Third I Rex to release the crushing "Loss" album by sludge, hardcore maniacs LLNN

By:  Aaron Pickford

Self styled post apocalyptic hardcore maniacs, LLNN from Copenhagen fresh from decimating ear drums with their caustic and punishing debut album “Loss” last year, have teamed up with DIY label Third I Rex to release it on CD for the first time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the band, get set for a bludgeoning  and mesmerising mix of sludge, hardcore and sci-fi Bladerunner driven madness.  

Drawing comparisons to Converge and Love Sex Machine but filtered through the visionary mind of cult sci fi movies, LLNN’s attitude to their compositions is one of devotion to embracing a variety of genres but melding them into their own unique and outstanding personality.

Ultimately their debut album is visionary but more importantly monumentally crushing, "Loss" is a journey through lands unknown.  Equally aggressive and comfortable on stage, LLNN have performed live in support of Redwood Hill, Église, Czar, Smertegrænsens Toldere, Pyramido, Grim Van Doom, Year Of No Light, Arakk  and will soon share the stage with Cult Of Luna, Pelican, Russian Circle. 

So ask yourself the question, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”? And immerse yourself in this fantastic debut video “Rapture” from this neck wrecking genre bending Danish quartet. Don’t forget to pull the trigger and order to the CD whilst you’re at it.  The preorder begins today.  

The record is called “Loss” it is available to preorder here and you can find the track listing below:

“Loss” CD track listing

1). Rapture
2). Monolith
3). Calamity
4). Loss
5). Depths
6). Voyager

Band info: bandcamp | facebook