Melvins – Pinkus Abortion Technician

Author: Sammy Fröbel

Band: Melvins
Album: Pinkus Abortion Technician
Genre: Experimental, Sludge, Noise Rock
Label: Pias UK / Ipecac
Release Date: April 20, 2018
Listen & Buy: JPC, Amazon, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes
Social: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Live: –
Website: melvins.net

There are so many ways to describe the great Melvins and none of these words will ever describe them more perfect then “restless”. The combo around Buzz Osbourne cannot let a year go by without releasing a new record – their newest masterpiece is called “Pinkus Abortion Technician”. To realize it, the trio got Butthole Surfers bass player Jeff Pinkus involved. We know the Melvins’ line-up with two drummers or two guitar players, but two bass players are something innovative for the band. The record itself is a variation of new songs and covers. The opener “Stop Moving To Florida” is a combined cover version of the James Gang song of the same name and the Butthole Surfers’ song “Moving To Florida”. A Beatles track is as well part of the album as the band’s own songs, which breath the well-known brute-noise sound of the Melvins. Even if you’re not a fan already, you should definitely check this record out and become one.

May 9, 2018 Add Comment

Leechfeast – Neon Crosses

Author: Felix Hölter

Band: Leechfeast
Album: Neon Crosses
Genre: Sludge
Label: Dry Cough Records, Rope Or Guillotine, Hellas Records
Release Date: March 30, 2018
Listen & Buy: Bandcamp
Social: Facebook
Live: –
Website: –

Three years after their unholy split with legendary Meth Drinker, Leechfeast offer some new music that crawls through your ears like mud. One cannot even imagine how this piece of extremely slow, harsh and heavy music called “Neon Crosses” was born. Leechfeast let you suffer from their deepest, drone-like riffing containing steady and epic melodies. The vocals alternate between reverberant screams and deep clean passages, which create a sacral feeling. All in all, Neon Crosses is one of the must have releases in Sludge music this year. Get it and sacrifice some herb while listening to this record!

April 23, 2018 Add Comment

UR – Grey Wanderer

Author: Meredith Schmiedeskamp

Band: UR
Album: Grey Wanderer
Genre: Sludge / Doom Metal
Label: Droneburg Records
Release Date: November 1, 2017
Listen & Buy: JPC, Amazon, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes
Social: Facebook
Website: –

The Grey Wanderer’s journey leads through barren deserts, rifts and mountains. From time to time he can rest and meditate amidst the landscape’s panorama, but traveling across the wilderness always means to overcome obstacles. The music of UR is deep, mainly slow and vibrating. Like walking through wasteland and climbing on rocks, it won’t work without patience and the will to inner contemplation. Cloaked in Sludge/Doom Metal, this guys from Leipzig are drawing their own vision of an atmosphere mentioned above. The postish-clean guitars and rare, but haunting growls complete a sonic experience, that really engrosses.

March 4, 2018 Add Comment

Iron Walrus – A Beast Within

Author: Tamino Freitag

Band: Iron Walrus
Album: A Beast Within
Genre: Sludge
Label: Redfield Records
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Listen & Buy: JPC, Amazon, Spotify, iTunes
Social: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Website: iron-walrus.de

This band from Northern Germany has been around for only five years, yet „A Beast Within“ is already their third album, following huge tours and festival appearances. Deep sludgy riffs meet infectious grooves and a real bull of a vocalist – combined, this is a record you really want to have in your collection. If Iron Walrus continue on this path, they could count themselves as some of the bigger players in business, soon – not because they would be mass-compatible, but because they are brillant at what they do! Great band, great album! Also, don’t look up the term “Iron Walrus” on Urban Dictionary.

February 15, 2018 Add Comment

Amenra – Mass VI

Author: Felix Hølter

Band: Amenra
Album: Mass VI
Genre: Sludge, Post-Metal
Label: Neurot Recordings
Release Date: October 20, 2017
Listen & Buy: JPC, Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp
Social: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter
Live: ADTicket
Website: amenra-official.tumblr.com

After five years since “Mass V”, Belgium’s masters of heartbreaking Sludge Amenra released their fifth studio album in October 2017. And again those guys clench your neck and drag you to your own personal hell. On “Mass VI” Amenra are following their own style of sludgy Post-Metal again: slow and clean playing with spoken words and clean singing plus the probably heaviest slow riffing of Europe in 2017. There is nothing really new about “Mass VI” – but after some listening sessions, you will get the details, which make this album Amenra’s masterpiece. Even the most sceptic music snobs will lose their minds after listening to the intro of “Solitary Reign”.

January 18, 2018 Add Comment

KER – Buried At Sea/Comfort The Blind (EP)

Author: Felix Hølter

Band: KER
Album: Buried At Sea/Comfort The Blind (EP)
Genre: Sludge
Label: Self-released
Release Date: November 6, 2017
Listen & Buy: Bandcamp
Social: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Live: –

KER, based around the Bodensee in Southern Germany, are one of that great experiences, you must not ignore. Although this band has only a few released songs on their Bandcamp page, you should definitely check them out. Their style is rooted in Amenra and Neurosis and takes you on a dark sludgy Doom Metal trip. Their singer Alex sounds more pissed than ever, guitars and bass are even more hypnotic on this two song EP and fuck, I don’t know what is wrong with their drummer and his passion for unstoppable floating rhythms. With „Buried At Sea/Comfort The Blind“, KER show how ambitious they are. Both songs were recorded in their basement, which definitely went well, but not good enough for their planned full-length record. Both songs were mixed by Goblin Studios in Cologne and mastered by Monoposto Mastering in Düsseldorf. The entire EP can be downloaded for free on Bandcamp.

December 4, 2017 Add Comment

The Moth – Hysteria

Author: Meredith Schmiedeskamp

Band: The Moth
Album: Hysteria
Genre: Doom Metal, Sludge, Stoner Rock
Label: This Charming Man Records
Release Date: November 10, 2017
Listen & Buy: JPC, Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp
Social: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Live: –

The loudspeakers are shaking from the first second of this album, the likeable trio from Hamburg has recorded this year. Although the Stoner/Sludge scene offers an enormous variety of bands these days, The Moth are really one of a kind. Between the driving rhythms and punching fuzz-riffs, there’s frequently a place for memorable two-voiced vocal lines and fragments of melodies. Check out the utter dark in „Blackness“ and the lighter, but not less heavy side in „Loose“ or „Fail“, but don’t be surprised, when your windows break and the neighbors collapse.

November 6, 2017 Add Comment

With The Dead – Love From With The Dead

Author: Tamino Freitag

Band: With The Dead
Album: Love From With The Dead
Genre: Doom Metal, Sludge
Label: Rise Above Records
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Listen & Buy: JPC, A mazon, Spotify, iTunes
Social: Facebook
Live: –

The follow up to With The Dead‘s 2015 debut requires patience, time, and the right mood to fully appreciate it. The song itself is often hidden under tons of heavy, slow riffage and none of the tracks are easy to digest. But as avid Sludge lovers, we know that the riff reigns supreme and there is no need for catchy choruses. What this album offers it sluggish, unrelenting and heavy music that crawls forwards slowly but steadily, crushing everything in its path. What the band has managed to perfect is the art of balancing heaviness and eerie atmospheres. At just the right times, the band hits the breaks or throws in a chilling melody that sends a satisfying shiver down your back. An album for one of these days.

November 2, 2017 Add Comment