Author: Gruesome Greg
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TMHM – Stage Names
Now frankly, I’m not sure if there’s anything resembling a hardcore scene in Regina—I’ve only stopped a couple times at a local Travelodge on the way to Winnipeg. But this outfit caught my ear pretty quickly within the opening minutes of their full-length debut. (OK, with eight tracks in less than 25 minutes, you could…
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Devil to Pay – A Bend in Space and Time
Album number five from these Indiana stalwarts sees the band keeping with the cosmic themes of its predecessor, Fate is Your Muse. But this time, the lyrics seem more grounded in reality, including the Lemmy tribute track “Your Inner Lemmy” where Devil to Pay certainly channel one Mr. Kilmeister. This record starts off on a faster…
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Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard (Part 1)
This is hardly the kinda stuff you’d expect to hear outta Nashville. While Music Row is all caught up in producing purely putrid pop music and inexplicably marketing it as country, a forward-thinking, heavy-rock trio has emerged from deep beneath the wreckage of country music’s soul. Sonically, Howling Giant seem to be the missing link between…
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Numenorean – Home
If you’re looking for Canada’s answer to Inter Arma, look no further than Calgary-based outfit Numenorean. Their debut album Home encapsulates the epic, blackened, extended post-sludge forays of the Virginians’ Sky Burial, with five tracks spanning just shy of 45 minutes. The nine-minute title track opens the proceedings on a swirling, NeurIsian note, before the…
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Sonic Wolves – Before the End Comes
This Italian outfit includes the drummer from Ufomammut, and a bassist who’s played with Joe Hasselvander, which gives me reason enough to check ‘em out. And yet, you won’t find any lengthy post-sludge epics on this one; the longest songs on Sonic Wolves‘ debut effort clock in just over six. After a brief instrumental intro, which…
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Heavy Glow – The Filth & the Fury/Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine
With this San Diego psych trio, Heavy Glow, now signed to German imprint Kozmik Artifactz, both their last album, 2014’s independently released Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine, and their rarer 2010 EP, The Filth & the Fury, are being properly reissued. Not sure if they’re being sold separately or merged onto one recording, but…
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Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger
Richmond might have recently put Virginia on the map when it comes to downtuned doom, with outfits ranging from Cough to Inter Arma to Windhand, but the sludge seems to be seeping eastward to another college town an hour away. Beldam hails from Charlottesville, home of the Hoos, and their debut album is as gritty…
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Fistula – Longing for Infection
It might surprise you that Cleveland was recently named the most metal city in America, but it’s always had a pretty solid sludge/hardcore scene. This gritty, edgy style of music can often be found in rough ‘n tumble towns—and having seen everyone from St. Vitus to Accept to Pentagram play places like the now-closed Peabody’s…
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16 – The Lifespan of a Moth
Although sludge is usually seen as a southern staple, it also had a notable West Coast presence in its early years, with bands like Noothgrush outta Oakland and 16 from L.A., not LA. Like many early sludge outfits, 16’s discography is marked with a whole buncha splits and 7-inches, but The Lifespan of a Moth…
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Mos Generator – Abyssinia
I was a pretty big fan of Mos Generator’s last album, Electric Mountain Majesty, which was released in 2014. It was a solid blend of retro-rock and proto-doom that’s got me jonesing for the follow-up, Abyssinia. This one starts off nice ‘n heavy right outta the gate, with a great-big Swedish-style stoner rock riff in…