For fans of extreme metal, Belfast sludge beasts Slomatics are a band who’ll need no introduction. Since their inception back in 2004, they’ve been utterly committed to creating the heaviest sounds and they’ve won a legion of fans with their slow, crushing, doom-laden noise. No strangers to a split release, they’ve shared discs with Conan, El Bastardo and Holly Hunt. They kicked off 2021 by sharing a split with UK hardcore metal act Ungraven, only to return a few months later on this split disc with Aussie doomers Yanomamo.
Tag Archives: sludge
BOOZEWA – Deb EP
At the beginning of 2021, members of Pennsylvanian noise-makers Backwoods Payback formed a new side project, Boozewa, whose main aim would be to provide an even sludgier extension to their world of riffs. Their first release, the four track cassette ‘First Contact’, presented the ultimate in lo-fi metal. With three of its four recordings being so demo-like and raw it made the Melvins’ ‘10 Songs’ sound like the expensive and expansive recordings from Todd Rundgren’s ‘A Wizard/A True Star’, the cassette wouldn’t necessarily be to everyone’s tastes. However, for those who like things to sound as spontaneous as possible, it brought riff after riff in a way that made the band’s talents more than clear, even if the recording sometimes sounded as if were coming from a water damaged source played back through an old sock. The combination of Rylan Caspar’s Buzz Osborne-esque hollering, Jessica Baker’s bottom end grooves, and occasional Sabbath-isms (most obvious during an instrumental piece named after the notorious “No Name Maddox”) had already been effective via Backwood’s Payback’s own brand of stoner – a Fu Manchu meets Melvins meets TAD juggernaut – but this was something else. It was also enough for the legendary Thomas Andrew Doyle to get on board and master their follow up recording.
SEA OF SNAKES – World On Fire EP
Although ‘World On Fire’ is the debut release from Californian metal band Sea of Snakes, the musicians involved are anything but fresh faced players just starting out. The core of the band have been fixtures on the stoner metal scene for years, but with ex-Saul of Taurus vocalist Tracy Steiger joining forces with Motorsickle guitarist Jim McCloskey and The Shrine’s Jeff Murray on drums, this is a band with the potential for outgrowing its roots. Sea of Snakes’ debut EP has moments that are far more intense than the gathered musos’ previous works allowed.
SHADOW PEOPLE – Washing In Soap Opera EP
Blending elements of metal, noise rock, art rock and pure sludge, Baton Rouge’s Shadow People bring a whole new meaning to the word “intense”. Contrasting sludgy riffs, grinding sounds and retching vocals against unexpected bursts of melody within three tracks that seem to blend into each other, their 2020 EP ‘Washing In Soap Opera’ is as a careening ten minute noise-fest. Its music is almost as frustrating and broken as the era in which it was created. …And yet, there’s something about this wanton ugliness that’s potentially brilliant.
BLACKLAB – Abyss
BlackLab’s debut album ‘Under The Strawberry Moon’ was devastatingly heavy. With an under-produced and over-driven sound, the Japanese duo truly raised the bar in terms of fuzzy stoner riffs. The album didn’t reach a wide audience upon its first release, but a restructured and remixed version (released via the UK’s New Heavy Sounds label in 2018) went some way to giving the band an audience outside of their home country and received some really enthusiastic press.
Naturally, their minimalist set up of drums, guitars, vocals and three thousand distortion pedals never really allowed for a broad musical palate, so their sophomore disc ‘Abyss’ offers much more of the same, but if Blacklab appealed to you before, more of the same is exactly what you’d hope for… If anything is a little different, you might even say BlackLab have become even heavier and more intense, as ‘Abyss’ is a genuine skull-crusher.