Stone Machine Electric – Stone Machine Electric

Stone Machine Electric – Stone Machine Electric

Self released / Dewar PR – 2020

Rock, Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Jazz

Rated: ****

Are you still spinning the shit out of Darkness Dimensions Disillusion that came out on Sludgelord Records last year? Well, to commemorate their first ever live gig which happened on March 26 2010 opening up for Wo Fat the Stone Machine Electric duo will now release a seven inch featuring two early recordings. Walking Among The Blind and Mushroom Cloud bring forth their very own style of heaviness to a very sludgy degree. Both tracks are powerful and pack a mighty punch, but opening track Mushroom Cloud does seem to blossom more into its own in regards to that second track. It’s dirty and explosive, it’s machinal and harsh! And it’s exactly what we like about Stone Machine Electric. Now let’s hope they get to perform live again soon and let’s hope we can celebrate more decades of Stone Machine Electric!

(Written by JK)

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The Ditch and The Delta - The Ditch and The Delta

The Ditch and The Delta - The Ditch and The Delta

Sludgelord Records - April 2020

Sludge, Noise, Progressive, Post-Metal, Doom

Rated: ****

Come April, Salt Lake City's sludge outfit The Ditch and The Delta will bring their self-titled and second full-length to bear, and it's a monster. The trio combine harsh, grinding sludge with a heady mix of post-metal, noise, and prog to create a filthy sound as crushing as it is complex. There's no hand holding here either, as opener "Maim" bursts out with throaty screams, grimy low end, and titanic drums, a highlight of the band's sound. Between the ground-shaking bass drum, head spinning rolls, and twisting rhythms, the drumming is the second coming of Dale Crover, and is a driving force behind The Ditch and The Delta's unrelenting attack. Winding, discordant guitar occasionally pierces the sludge in angular stabs, particularly in cut "Aesthetics of Failure", whose violently grinding riffs bring the title's downtrodden feel to life. The following track "Molt" is an album highlight, beginning with a screeching eastern melody before shifting into an all-out avalanche of lightning fast drum fills and divebomb guitar that would make Torche proud. "Bleed the Sun" brings even more suprises, with a brilliant use of off-kilter dual vocals that feel dangerously unpredictable, and a post-metal wash to slowly end the assault. The Ditch and The Delta's latest is a showcase for melding more than a few styles into an individual sound that's both varied and cohesive, and the resulting seven tracks create an intricate experience that's jarringly heavy.

(Written by Shastabeast)

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Wallowing – Planet Loss

Wallowing – Planet Loss

Sludgelord Records – 2019 (September 13th)

Sludge, Doom

Rated: ****

Brighton's premier purveyors of Misery & Disgust offer up their first full-frontal lobotomy of an album with "Planet Loss". 6 crepuscular, cancerous tomes of abject horror and loathing ooze from an abyssal cavern of noise, angst and turmoil. 'Earthless' lurches with leaden Doom: a glacial, feedback-laced snarl of contempt. 'Phosgene' hits the gas pedal with grimy, grinding Sludge of repellent fury. The crawling horror of "Hail Creation" reeks of Despair whilst 'Vessel's dark primal riffing throbs with an unsettling air of Death. Wallowing have created a bleak tundra of noise, blizzard and peril and dare you to cross it....

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

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Rowsdower - The Michael Jordans of Suicide

Rowsdower - The Michael Jordans of Suicide

Sludgelord Records – 2019 (August 2nd)

Doom, Sludge

Rated: ****

LA Doomsters Rowsdower bring their own inimitable OUCH! style of West Coast Doom to the masses with their new release The Michael Jordans of Suicide: Ten sludge - infected stanzas of suppressed anger delivered with true vehemence and vitriol. "New Old" is a jaw-breaking sucker punch of down-tuned desolation, "The Hit" is a crawling, misery-steeped slab of Doom which is both languid and laconic...."Men II Boyz" interjects a juxtaposition of electronic samples and quirky beats, heralding the arrival of "PCP Homeboy (I Am A Black Wizard)" which bleeds from an open wound of vile, black - blooded misanthropy. Rowsdower's sound is gratingly slow and gutteral: an echoing dark canyon where sounds ricochet and distort from its bleak walls, finally crushing you under the impending avalanche...a terror - filled trip through the Valley of Death. Marvellous!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

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Waingro – III

Waingro – III

A No List Records / Sludgelord Records – 2019 (August 16)

Stoner Doom, Punk’n’Roll

Rated: *****

Oh man, I have never heard of these guys before but with a blast of aggression and a raw as fuck stoner template, I am hooked! Waingro have produced an album that blasts along like a shotgun to the head. This is dirty punk rock’n’roll with a metallish edge that takes no prisoners. Fast Motörhead type riffs propel the songs along which have hook ridden chorus breaks, angry but tuneful vocals and heavy-as-fuck attitude. With killer solos that hurtle along but have a sweet, sweet tone to them that make me want to punch walls, this is the good shit. One album ain’t much to sum up a band but when the world ends and I am riding my open-topped convertible through a nuclear ravaged landscape, wearing clothes made from skinned dogs and wielding a baseball bat with nails in to hunt and kill zombies, this is the soundtrack I will be playing!

(Written by Tony Maim)

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Plague of Carcosa – Ocean is More Ancient Than The Mountains

Plague of Carcosa – Ocean is More Ancient Than The Mountains
Sludgelord Records – 2019
Doom, Horror, Occult Metal
Rated: *****

In the dank catacombs of Chicago, IL something is stirring... An ominous, eerie rumbling from the bowels of the earth that Men have called 'Plague Of Carcosa'. Lovecraftian and eldritch, Eric Zann and his cult of electric heathens invoke unholy rites of noise in Praise and Summoning of The Old Gods. 'Crawling Chaos' opens the ritual: Void becoming Form in waves of dark riffage, manifestly evil and gibbous, a morass of twisted sound at catatonic velocity. 'Madness at Sea' eschews ritual and plunges deep into the oceanic maw of R'lyeh: cavernous, infernal booms of sonic dread etch infernal glyphs on lightless walls, welcoming the Mariner to his demise… Plague of Carcosa open the portal to Ancient apparitions of Glory and Doom and we watch, recoiling, flinching but unable to turn away as the tentacles writhe through the rift...

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

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Stone Machine Electric – Darkness Dimensions Disillusion

Stone Machine Electric – Darkness Dimensions Disillusion

Sludgelord Records – 2019

Rock, Metal, Doom, Psych, Stoner, Jazz, Space

Rated: ****

It never stops to amaze me how freaking good a duo can sound. And the two of Stone Machine Electric and their very own style of Doom Jazz deliver the goods every time again. On their new release Darkness Dimensions Disillusion they bring forth their Doom Jazz in a highly funky way. It’s brings light and air to the spacious darkness and depth to their metallic rock sound. It also keeps you on the edge of your seat and biting your nails; scared that their weird approach to doom will turn into some freak out craziness that will only serve the experimenters themselves. But it never does, it just becomes this audio orgasm on the verge of blowing its load. But stamina and control brings out the effortless delay until that very final track. For it is in Purgatory that we find release; aided by extra guitar work of Wo Fat’s Kent Stump the track begins with slow control and a lovely keyboard ditty and then seems set on delivering the goods fast and easy; after which it turns into a majestic maelstrom of weirdness before really and actually going berserk and exploding… Leaving us once again with a highly atmospheric keyboard jangle as a soft smoking cigarette… Aaaah, satisfaction guaranteed…

(Written by JK)

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Earthbong – One Earth, One Bong

Earthbong – One Earth, One Bong

Self-released/Sludgelord Records – 2018/2019

Doom

Rated: ***

Hazy wisps of smoke permeate the atmosphere with a villainous odor and a poisonous spirit. And there you are, on a worn down couch drinking lukewarm beer; sitting and just waiting for something. Something ominous and creeping. And those twisted moments when one needs aromatic fumes to distort reality also needs slow heavy metal to set the pace. Three-piece Earthbong from Kiel, Germany self-released their One Earth, One Bong record December last year. It is the perfect soundtrack for such a night. And it now becomes available through Sludgelord Records as well. On it are four tracks that will have you hypnotized and zoning out through a seemingly endless array of slow riffs and intense drums. Only to be awakened by the beastly growls or an accidental and minute, speed-up. Those never last long and soon you will drift away again on those majestic doom clouds. This is doom! Slow malicious doom. And what’s not to love about that?

(Written by JK)

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