Sludge Metal

Downfall Of Gaia, Silhouettes Of Disgust (Metal Blade 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

German post-black metal band Downfall Of Gaia warp the continuum on their new album, Silhouettes Of Disgust.

Since 2008, Downfall Of Gaia has been growing and changing in both their sound and compositional attitude. Described in many different ways from sludge to crust to atmospheric post-black metal, their music is deeply rewarding to those who can hear it. They have released five full-length albums before Silhouettes Of Disgust, with a couple of splits, an EP, and a demo along the way as well. The band is Dominik Goncalves dos Reis (vocals, guitar), Peter Wolff (guitar, vocals), Anton Lisovoj (bass, vocals), and Michael Kadnar (drums).

Talking about the new album, dos Reis tells us, “With this record we wanted to return to our roots and the earlier days, but without taking a step back. We wanted to incorporate both worlds into our new album, where we came from – the DIY/crust punk scene – and the direction things have taken over the past few years, organically growing from release to release.” If you are a fan of Downfall Of Gaia, that will make perfect sense to you.

“Existence of Awe” leads the way with a direct and immediate assault on your senses by battering percussion and trilling riffs. Melodic elements can be heard operating over the same period but on a different cycle. The pieces together are like layers in an oil painting. You do not necessary hear every bit discretely at any given moment, but you do experience them all simultaneously. “The Whir of Flies” offers slapping percussion, which is quite visceral and intimate. After significant dosing, the tempo shifts and the music breaks off in a different direction, then speeds and slows throughout. At the halfway point, the song drifts into space, then sinks into a cavernous depth toward the end. It is quite a journey.

Over the course of the set, many ideas reenter in both the same and in differentiated ways. Brutality tag-teams melody, and the reverse. Songs are never one thing. Each is complex with numerous features and reflections. Every song is an example of this, but “Bodies as Driftwood” does it especially well, to my ears, because of its compactness. The final word on the album, “Optograms of Disgust,” will attract your notice, too, for its unshakeable dark beauty, its strength and resilience. Recommended.

Silhouettes Of Disgust is out now through Metal Blade Records in may forms. Examine the possibilities at the links below.

Links.

Downfall of Gaia website, http://downfallofgaia.com/

Bandcamp, https://downfallofgaia.bandcamp.com/album/silhouettes-of-disgust

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/DownfallofGaia

Metal Blade Records, https://www.metalblade.com/europe/artists/downfall-of-gaia/

© Wayne Edwards

Downfall Of Gaia, Silhouettes Of Disgust (Metal Blade 2023)

Primitive Man & Full Of Hell, Suffocating Hallucination (Closed Casket 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

The first studio collaboration between Primitive Man and Full Of Hell is Suffocating Hallucination.

Denver’s Primitive Man is Jonathan Campos (bass), Ethan Lee McCarthy (guitar, vocals), and Joe Linden (drums), and I have always positioned them in my head as a doom band. Full Of Hell, on the other hand, who is peopled by Dave Bland (drums), Spencer Hazard (guitar), Dylan Walker (vocals, electronics), and Sam DiGristine (bass, vocals), comes to the my consciousness as a noisier band. That’s just what is in my head. Both have been around for more than ten years and both have been quite prolific, publishing a large number of releases, including many splits with other bands. This one, though, Suffocating Hallucination, is not a split where each band contributes their separate tracks. No, this one is a collaboration between the bands where the music was created jointly by them both.

Primitive Man
Primitive Man

Side A starts with “Trepanation for Future Joys.” This song leaves no doubt about what the album will be like. It is not misleading. It is a head-on confrontation at the confluence doom, sludge, and noise. I had to look up what trepanation means. It’s drilling a surgical hole in your skull. Yes indeed. The sounds you hear are overwhelming. “Rubble Home” is the place where mystery dwells. It is uncertain in what direction the narrative will run at any given point. There are rough and ready riffs at times and chaos elsewhere. It is a perilous journey. “Bludgeon” is less than half a minute long. It is like a painful, sudden emission.

Full Of Hell

On the flip side we have “Dwindling Will.” The music begins cautiously, or so it seems at first. As you listen, you start to become uneasy, and you realize it is not caution so much as evidence of the aftermath of something awful, something that cannot be remedied. This track overall is quieter than the others, and that somehow intensifies it in the context of the rest of the music. The last twitch is “Tunnels to God,” the longest piece of the set. It appears to begin in space, or possibly an adjacent dimension. As we approach the center of actionableness, the clangs increase in number and volume, as do the sounds of the vortex. Discernable string instrument sounds enter about four minutes in with massively distorted riffs, followed by steadying percussion. In due course vocalizations and even wider guitar work joins and pushes the music forward in a seemingly endless crescendo that ultimately breaks into noise for the final two minutes. It all makes sense. Recommended.

Suffocating Hallucination is out now through Closed Casket Activities. You can pick it up at the many links below.

Primitive Man photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://primitivemandoom.bandcamp.com/album/suffocating-hallucination

Primitive Man website, https://www.primitivemandoom.com/

Full Of Hell webstore, https://fullofhell.bigcartel.com/

Closed Casket Activities, https://closedcasketactivities.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Primitive Man & Full Of Hell, Suffocating Hallucination (Closed Casket 2023)

Witch Ripper, The Flight After The Fall (Magnetic Eye 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Seattle sludgers Witch Ripper let loose with their second long-player, The Flight After The Fall.

Witch Ripper is a metal band from the Pacific Northwest, formed in 2012. They have released an EP, a split, and a full-length album prior to the new one. They are typical called a sludge band, I’ve noticed, but when you hear The Flight After The Fall, you might think of them as progressive metalers.

The narrative content of the new record is described in the prerelease material as containing “ a mad professor, his dying wife, cryogenic chambers, a black hole as well as themes of love, failure, loss, and acceptance.” That is pretty exciting – fertile ground indeed. The band is Chad Fox (guitar, vocals), Brian Kim (bass, vocals), Curtis Parker (guitar, vocals), and Joe Eck (drums).

“Enter the Loop” is the first of six tracks on the record. The quiet dissolve is a slow build that pushes into a proggy arrangement. Hooking melody follows, surprisingly, cracking off in a gruff direction afterward. I am getting a little dizzy listening to the music. This is a fascinating choice for an opener. “Madness and Ritual Solitude” is next, breaking out in percussion to set up a big guitar riff. This one lays on the doom side of the field, with additional activation from the drumming. The composition does turn more technical, but the tone remains serious, the instrumentations are more muscular. Very good. “The Obsidian Forge” is ponderous, drawn more in an intellectual, or at least contemplative, space. Meditate on this one and see if you can find deeper meaning.

“Icarus Equation” is my favorite track outside of the gigantic closer. It offers beautiful, bewitching frontmatter before laying out heavy tones and celestial ideations. But the big story is “Everlasting in Retrograde Parts I and II.” Running almost seventeen minutes, it fits right in as a two-parter since the other songs average about half that mark. What especially appeals to me is the periodic heaviness that exceeds earlier levels, placed in contrast to melodic outpourings. Truly, you could listen only to this final piece and be satisfied, although it does have a greater impact after the rest of the music has been ingested. This is not what I thought I was going to hear, but I thoroughly enjoyed the album. Recommended.

The Flight After The Fall is out on Friday, March 3rd through Magnetic Eye Records. Listen and buy at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://witchripper.bandcamp.com/album/the-flight-after-the-fall-2

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Witchripper/

Magnetic Eye Records, https://us.spkr.media/us/Artists/Witch-Ripper/Witch-Ripper-The-Flight-After-The-Fall.html

© Wayne Edwards

Witch Ripper, The Flight After The Fall (Magnetic Eye 2023)

Mammoth Caravan, Ice Cold Oblivion (2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

The new record from Mammoth Caravan has the weight and pace of an ancient glacier of doom: Ice Cold Oblivion.

Mammoth Caravan is from Little Rock, Arkansas. They are a doom band, and they don’t sound like anything I heard when I was last in Little Rock. Huge riffs and inventive constructions surround variegated vocals and flaring guitar to produce fantastic results. The band is Brandon Ringo (bass, vocals), Evan Swift (guitar vocals), and Robert Warner (drums).

The odd tinkling sounds that open the set on “Ice Cold Oblivion” give no clue that titanic riffs will follow. Neither do they hint at the gravely vocals which align perfectly with the other instruments. Mystical, freezing doom is what this is. “Nomad” is a clomping continuation, a revving up of the premise established in the opener. With a tighter pace and steady drive, much ground is covered, and a tasty lead guitar break is introduced, opening the way for huffing vocals that might have come from an actual mammoth. “Petroglyphs” is a melancholic spellcaster, a cratered celestial body of ancient wisdom. The beautiful wind-down is haunting.

Side two offers first “Megafauna,” a temperamental tune that rattles you and brings on an itch. “Periglacial” is a fascinating piece, with unexpected drumming and vocals, that latter being clean and clear at the front, creating an epic metal expectation and delivering something off to the side of that. It is one of my favorite tracks on the album. The set closes on “Frostbite,” an eleven-minute creeper that is so entrancing you might forget to breathe. I love this song. The entire album has impressed me, clocking doom as it does and ploughing a course all its own. Recommended.

Ice Cold Oblivion is out on Saturday, February 25th. Listen and buy at Bandcamp through the link below.

Band Photo by Kurt Lunsford.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://mammothcaravan.bandcamp.com/album/ice-cold-oblivion

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/MammothCaravan

© Wayne Edwards

Mammoth Caravan, Ice Cold Oblivion (2023)

Onhou, Monument (Tartarus 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Dutch doom lords Onhou further the devastation with their second long-player, Monument.

Onhou came together in Groningen, Netherlands in 2016. They play sludge and doom metal accentuated with synth auras. They loosed a self-titled EP on the world in 2018, and then their debut full-length album, Endling, in 2019. Somber, cold, and devastating, Onhou’s music demands your attention. According to the Metal Archives, the band is Henk (bass), Arnold (drums), Alex (guitar), and Florian (keys).

There are four long tracks on the new album. First is “When On High.” It starts with heaving guitar indulgences, adding in growling vocals atop the monstrous rhythm. The keys show up later in prominence, slicing like heavy, sharp swords. Moments of reflection are howls in the void. “Null” is more veiled in its threat, more sinister in its tone. Like a lurking monster on the edge of the shadows, impossibly large and unstoppable. Death and black metal vocals are echoing insinuations that are realizable in any given present. In the release notes, this remark is made: “Whereas the band intended for their debut to be uncomfortable, Monument drags you ever deeper into dark, withering worlds where time is gruesome and unforgiving, and the echoes of what once was have long since been lost and forgotten.” You feel that deeply on “Null.”

Side two opens with “Below.” When the music begins, you strain to listen. As it grows and builds so does your apprehension. The music is claustrophobic, dungeon-like. The doom guitar riffs drop at about the two minute mark and all hope is lost. The vocals are torturous, sometimes disembodied. Disturbing is not a strong enough word to describe this music. The set ends on “Ruins.” The feeling of a lost ancient place is palpable as the music surrounds you. You are in a spot that was devastated in the past by you know not what. The worry is: has it gone? The composition is some of the most haunting music I have heard in a great long while. Indeed, the entire album is an unforgettable experience. Highly recommended.

Monument is out on Friday, December 9th through a joint venture between Lay Bare Records and Tartarus Records. In the US, Bandcamp is the place to get it.

Band photo by Richard Postma.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://onhou.bandcamp.com/album/monument

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/onhouband

Tartarus Records, https://shop.tartarusrecords.com/

Lay Bare Recordings, https://laybarerecordings.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Onhou, Monument (Tartarus 2022)

-(16)-, Into Dust (Relapse 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

California sludge masters -(16)- face the blurring void on Into Dust.

The story begins in 1991 when the early moments of -(16)- coalesced. Their music is usually referred to as sludge metal, which it certainly is, but it also exists in a confidence interval that includes hardcore, punk, and stoner inclinations, to name only a few. Over the past thirty years, they have made a critical ascent. During this time, they have released a formidable amount of music, with multiple EPs, splits, and nine full-length albums, including Into Dust. The band is Bobby Ferry (guitar, vocals), Alex Shuster (guitar), Barney Firks (bass), and Dion Thurman (drums).

“There’s a story arc in the lyrics that start with an eviction notice served amid the ruins of Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys, to running aground metaphorically and drowning in midlife, bearing witness to the modern suffering of hunger and poverty on the Mexico California border,” Bobby Ferry says about the latest record. That covers a lot of ground. When I listened to the album the first time, I got involved with each song separately, and the arc did not sink in. That is not meant as a criticism, but rather as a declaration of how compelling each individual element is.

The first track is monster, “Misfortune Teller,” leaning heavily on the rhythm and regiment to put you on the path. There is more of a presence for the lead guitar on “Dead Eyes” and, especially, “Ash in the Hourglass,” where we get a tasty groove, too. “Scrape the Rocks” downshifts a might and has a sorrowful feeling to it as a result. It is also quite grungy. In the very next space, “Null and Eternal Void” tugs the eclectic ear and hits grating and coarse elements hard. You really feel it all coming together by now if it hasn’t hit you before.

Other tracks that stay with me after the second time through are “Never Paid Back” for its dark and elegant gloominess, and the comprehensive closer, “Born on a Barstool.” It opens with quiet flittering lounge jazz then splits your skull with a titanically heavy drop about a minute in. It brings the proceedings to a finish a in a way you won’t forget, back at that jazz bar. Recommended.

Into Dust hits the streets on Friday, November 18th through Relapse Records. Touch the links below.

Band photo Chad Kelco.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://16theband.bandcamp.com/album/into-dust

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/16theband

Relapse Records, https://store.relapse.com/

© Wayne Edwards

-(16)-, Into Dust (Relapse 2022)

Down Photo Gallery, Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2022

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Down website, http://down-nola.com/

Blue Ridge Rock Festival, https://blueridgerockfest.com/

FFMB article on Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2022, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2022/10/06/blue-ridge-rock-festival-alton-virginia-september-8-11-2022/

Ryze-Up Magazine feature, https://www.ryze-up.com/ryze-up-magazine-current-issue/ryze-up-magazine-october-2022/

© Wayne Edwards

Down Photo Gallery, Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2022

Lust Witch, We All Die Alone (2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

Indianapolis doom band Lust Witch unleash a sludgy new EP, We All Die Alone.

The band is Taylor Hoang (bass, vocals), Ian Gernhardt (guitar, vocals), and Mason Plummer (drums). The music they play is a doom/sludge integration that leans into the heavy riff and presses it to the blackout stage. We All Die Alone is their first album.

There are four songs on the EP, each labeled with a word from the title. “We,” then, is first. It offers a disorienting stance in the opening couple of minutes, with disconcerting staccato chants hurled that are surrounded by a sputtering generator of surges and recessions. A more ordered and persistent thrumming sets in and pushes toward the conclusion, leading into “All.” The second track is more cinematically dreary, like a Hammer horror movie with deep, rich tones. The pace accelerates and the vocals broaden in profile throughout the first half. The fatal chop returns and the listener faces enpummelment.

“Die,” the longest track on the album at nine-and-a-half minutes, continues the litany. The initial tone here strikes me as melancholy. The constant reminder of awaiting eternity bears down on you here, too, and by now it is really getting under your skin. In whatever tempo shift or transition we might find ourselves, there is that constancy waiting for us at the end, altogether unavoidable. And, ultimately, we face it “Alone,” as the final track drives home. Truly, these songs form a suite that is easily, arguably, a single piece. The final movement is smoothest around the edges and also the saddest because of the singular inevitability it describes.

This music was recorded live in the studio, and the band must have been channeling the ethereal muse because they have created a memorable, fundamental slab of doom. Give it a listen and then go see them live. Recommended.

We All Die Alone is out now. Pick it up at Bandcamp – link below.

Band photos by Wayne Edwards

Links.

Bandcamp, https://lustwitchdoom.bandcamp.com/album/we-all-die-alone

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Lust-Witch-110221191691214

© Wayne Edwards

Lust Witch, We All Die Alone (2022)

Morbid Evils, Supernaturals (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Morbid Evils unleash a quadrangle of doom on their third long-player, Supernaturals.

Doom trio Morbid Evils began in Finland in 2014, and released their first full-length album the very next year, In Hate with the Burning World. Next there was a split and a live album, record number two hit the streets in 2017, Deceases. After this massive flurry of recorded activity, the studio went quiet for a lustrum. The silence is now broken with what might be the band’s most accomplished work to date, Supernaturals. The musicians are Keijo Niinimaa (vocals, guitars, bass), Jarno Virkki (drums), and Tuomas Varila (guitar).

There are four huge tracks on the new album, averaging about ten minutes each. First up: “Fearless.” The song begins with loud, low drones, distortion, and funeral doom riffs. The vocals are titanic howls, and a guitar line follows along with them for added emphasis. Three minutes in, the pace snaps to a heavy groove and the vocals clarify slightly. A dangerous heaviness continues to abide. These movements trade off to the finish. With “Anxious,” there is a similar set-up, but it is not as dreary. Still brutally heavy, the beast has lifted its head and now sways it like a pained metronome. The slowest moments are deeply haunting; the lead work, revelatory.

“Tormented” opens side two. At less than nine minutes, it is the shortest song in the set, and it has a notably different vitality compared to the ones that have come before. More aggressively hopeless, the lead guitar line breaks into chaos alongside the vocals at midway, then the song resets for the long slope toward the finish. The final song is “Supernatural,” and it is oppressively bleak. With a segment of good death metal chops followed by dark tonal passages and a resolution in devolved hopelessness, this track is the one where the deal is sealed. Supernaturals is an exceptional doom album that will live in my queue for the foreseeable future. Recommended.

Supernaturals is out on August 19th through Transcending Obscurity Records. Look to Bandcamp or the label’s website for the usual wide variety of versions and merch – Transcending Obscurity really is one of the absolute best record labels for collectors in terms of the extensive variety of products they offer.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://morbidevilsband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/MorbidEvils

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Morbid Evils, Supernaturals (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Crowbar and Spirit Adrift at Piere’s, Ft. Wayne, July 31, 2022

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

It was a big night of monstrous riffs at Piere’s when Crowbar and Spirit Adrift stormed the stage, along with openers Wolftooth, Blood Of Heroes, and Lust Witch.

You know The Riff Beast Tour is well named if you have ever heard Crowbar. As the headliner and anchor of the evening, they provided the biggest, most massive guitar pronouncements. There were many incredible preludes as well when the opening acts were on the stage.

First up was Indianapolis doom band Lust Witch. This trio is working on a new EP called We All Die Alone, and you’ll be able to grab before too long. I love doom metal so this was the perfect way to start the evening as far as I was concerned. The band was already playing when I got inside the venue and I am sorry I missed part of their set because I really liked what I heard.

Danville, Illinois metal band Blood of Heroes came next. Having recently signed with Dark Star Records, they have several up-coming dates to promote their presence and get ready for more roadwork and newly recorded music. They play in a heavy metal groove lane, and put out an energetic live performance. I am looking forward to the follow-up to their debut album Symbolic Voices (AMG).

Wolftooth is from Richmond, Indiana. Their most recent album is Blood & Iron (Napalm Records), and they played several songs from that set. Their record label describes their sound as “offering a colossal slab of genuine, proto-metal influenced heaviness with a deep dose of doom essence and addictive stoner riffage to boot.” I can’t argue with that. Spirit Adrift’s lead singer described them as “corn-fed Iron Maiden,” and certainly their sound can be experienced in the Iron Maiden vein. Whenever you see them on a bill, make sure you get to that show.

I have written about Spirit Adrift regularly since I saw them for the first time at Aftershock in 2019. They are a straight-up heavy metal band with killer hooks and amazing guitar work. Lead singer and guitarist Nate Garrett has an ideal voice for their brand of music, and every time I have seen them has been an occasion. I would go to festival on the strength of them performing there alone. Spirit Adrift has a new EP coming out soon with a couple of originals and a half dozen covers – expect to hear a lot more about that album in this column when it drops.

Crowbar is an iconic sludge metal band. Fronted by the legendary Kirk Windstein, Crowbar has been putting out music for more than thirty years. Zero and Below is their newest album, and it forms the basis for the current Riff Beast Tour. When I was reviewing that record, I wrote, in part, “Windstein’s vocals blast power and energy that combine with the titanic riffs and percussion to forge an instantly recognizable and unforgettable sound.” Somehow, in all my years I had never seen Crowbar live. I don’t know how that is possible, but the situation was remedied on the last day of July in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Crowbar is out for the next few weeks with Spirit Adrift. Both bands continue after that in separate directions for dozens of dates throughout 2022. Go out and see them when they enter your orbit. It’ll be a show you talk about for months to come.

Photos by Wayne Edwards.

Band Links.

Crowbar, https://crowbar.bandcamp.com/

Spirit Adrift, https://spiritadrift.bandcamp.com/

Wolftooth, https://wolftooth.bandcamp.com/

Blood Of Heroes, https://www.bloodofheroes.net/

Lust Witch, https://www.facebook.com/Lust-Witch-110221191691214/

Piere’s Entertainment Center, https://pieresentertainment.com/

Photo Galleries.

Spirit Adrift, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2022/08/06/photo-gallery-spirit-adrift-at-pieres-ft-wayne-july-31st-2022/

Wolftooth, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2022/08/05/photo-gallery-wolftooth-at-pieres-ft-wayne-july-31st-2022/

Blood Of Heroes, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2022/08/04/photo-gallery-blood-of-heroes-at-pieres-ft-wayne-july-31st-2022/

Lust Witch, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2022/08/03/photo-gallery-lust-witch-at-pieres-ft-wayne-july-31st-2022/

© Wayne Edwards

Crowbar and Spirit Adrift at Piere’s, Ft. Wayne, July 31, 2022