Belgian sludge/doom combo A Thousand Sufferings could never be accused to doing things half-heartedly. Sludge has always taken the nuts and bolts of Black Sabbath and slowed it and heavied it’s very essence to it’s logical extreme. A Thousand Sufferings, at first, seem to go one better, as even ‘Once In A Blue Moon’, a spoken intro, appears to adopt the sludge/doom ethos, as the band take what would have been a brief sample from TV drama ‘The Americans’, but play it back at half speed. The effect of hearing synth music, the sounds of helicopters and human voices played back at a much slower speed can be unsettling. The fact that one of the characters is halfway through a monologue regarding the chain of nature and mortality makes it all the more disquieting. It makes for a very slow and potentially quite grim three minutes. With this intro, the band builds tension in a really obtuse manner and the three proper tracks which follow – sprawling across over half an hour – are just as oppressive.
DEBUNKER – The Invisible Disorder EP
In the late 80s, thrash metal was king. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and (slightly later) Sepultura ruled the scene, but there were literally hundreds of other bands languishing in the second division whom churned out records that have stood the test of time: Testament, Kreator. The UK’s Metallica obsessed Xentrix, Annihilator…the list goes on. With a great musical blueprint, thrash never seemed to get old…and then at some point in the early 90s, as far as the likes of Metal Hammer were concerned, it kind of burned itself out.
PEARL HANDLED REVOLVER – If The Devil Cast His Net
Chances are, you’ve previously read something about Pearl Handled Revolver that likens them to Tom Waits. If you have, just forget it. Their frontman Lee Vernon posses the vocal stylings of a few old souls, but comparisons to Waits are pretty much right out. There’s very little heroin and drink addled shouting in his delivery, nor is the music his voice fronts in any way obtuse enough to be derived from absolutely anything in the Tom Waits catalogue, especially post 1983. There are swathes of music on this – Pearl Handled Revolver’s third album – that culls huge influence from The Doors, explores the darkest corners of Love and even shows allegiance to the more contemporary sounds of Mark Lanegan, but those coming looking for a direct influence from Waits will be disappointed. Waits, too, being ever the contrarian, might even be put out that his name is being banded about in places, simply because an album includes work by a vocalist who has probably had a snifter of whiskey. In short, it’s typical lazy journalism to wheel out the Waits comparisons just because a vocalist has a darker sound in his delivery – and it’s usally almost exclusively the practice by hacks who’ve seemingly never heard a Tom Waits LP.
New split 7″ from Sun Voyager & The Mad Doctors available now
Forget the overhyped Record Store Day, there’s only one piece of vinyl you need in April 2016.
Brooklyn favourites The Mad Doctors and Sun Voyager have teamed up and issued two new tracks on a split 7″ release. The release marks the eve of yet another spell on the road for The Docs, while for Sun Voyager, it should get those ears ready for the promised full length waiting somewhere in the wings.
IMPERIUM – Titanomachy
Formed by ex-members of Trigger The Bloodshed and The Bridal Procession, Imperium came together in 2010 to unleash a brand of tech-death metal upon the world. A debut album quickly followed, but their momentum was then shattered by a huge split, leaving only guitarist Mike Alexander to pick up the pieces. A new band was formed around Alexander in 2015 and ‘Titanomachy’ presents the first fruits of the rejuvenated line-up.