sludge metal

The Nine Circles Audio Thing: Primitive Man’s Ethan Lee McCarthy on new album Immersion, their mind blowing live experience, being louder than anyone else, early influences, and so much more!

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PRIMITIVE MAN

Denver Colorado’s Primitive Man have been banging out the sickest and gnarliest sludge/doom jams since 2012 and have risen to the top of this heap in very short order. No light, no hope, ear smashing, and soul crushing are all things this band has been doing with aplomb since their debut Scorn. And now, with their third full length Immersion, the band is poised to slaughter eardrums and souls worldwide. They’ve figured out exactly how to build tension and let it simmer to the boiling point and have also figured out how to make it explode into a cauldron of hatred so nasty that many will have a tough time looking inside.
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Profile: Jason Higson of Australian Sludgesters Yanomamo

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Yanomamo

For a band that takes their name from an indigenous Amazonian group that is somewhat known for ritualistic endocannibalism, Yanomamo are on brand with slimy sludge and doom ridden psychedelics. Listening to their upcoming fourth EP, No Sympathy For A Rat, it’s hard not to conjure images from movies such as Cannibal Ferox and Green Inferno, right at the moment the subjects realized their fate would be sealed but with the twist that everyone stopped right there and smoked bowls before the atrocities began. It’s abrasive at its core and methodical in its riffs with just enough slow stoner metal thrown in to amplify the dreadful atmosphere they create. Ahead of the album’s release we had the chance to pose our set of Profile questions to guitarist Jason Higson so head directly below to see how it went down and be sure to visit the links contained within to show them some support. Continue reading →

Album Review: Adzes — “No One Wants To Speak About It”

Charles Randall1 Comment

Adzes - No One Wants to Speak About It

If the opening thirty seconds of No One Wants To Speak About It by Adzes doesn’t immediately hook you, I don’t think we can be friends. Nothing hits the spot like heavy Isis-inspired riffs brutally nailed to a cross of harmonization and beauty. Sludgy and dark, angry and unforgiving, and bearing the unrelenting anti-capitalist and anti-fascist message, it is everything I want in my home-grown one man metal projects.

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Album Review: -(16)- — “Dream Squasher”

Chris Voss1 Comment

16 - dream squasher

So many people taking the sludge route forget the immense amount of swagger that separates the truly great from the rest of the imitators out there.  The pocket may be damp and muddy, but it is first and foremost deep, and if anyone is doing it better than -(16)- at this point, I don’t know them.  I also don’t know a more aptly named album than Dream Squasher, which ably demonstrates that four years gone only made the riffs more gnarly, the groove baked deeper into the foundation, and the content as harrowing as the times it finds itself in. Continue reading →

Album Review: Ashtar — “Kaikuja”

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Creatively captivating black/doom duo hailing from Basel, Switzerland, Ashtar, has returned after five years with their sophomore album Kaikuja.  The band has been in the studio since the summer of 2019 developing their sound and creating this darkly impressive work of art.  The rich and idiosyncratic tracks of this album are layered with intricacies giving each listen new discoveries and appreciation. Continue reading →