Author: Gruesome Greg
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Sunder – self-titled
This French psych outfit rose from the ashes of The Socks, which burned out pretty quickly after putting out their debut album on Small Stone. Mind you, that Socks debut was a fairly solid effort, which gives me reason enough to peruse what this new offshoot has in store. Sunder starts off with some haunted…
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Pigs – Wronger
These Pigs have a pretty impressive noise-rock pedigree, featuring Dave Curran from Unsane on guitar/vocals, and a bassist/knob-twiddler (Andrew Schneider) who’s produced the likes of Unsane, Keelhaul and Converge. They put out a pretty decent EP the other year ahead of this, their second full-length release. Right from the get-go, Wronger dishes out the distortion,…
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Irata – Sweet Loris
Though Irata are relatively unknown, this Carolina trio comes with some instant sludge cred—this record was produced by Phil Cope and is being released on Kylesa’s Retro Futurist Records. Oh, and they’ve also snagged the opening slot on Kylesa’s upcoming tour. I guess that comes with the territory, eh? Thus, it should probably come as…
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Kowloon Walled City – Grievances
I had read somewhere that Kowloon Walled City‘s new album, Grievances, is a concept album about office culture, workplace conflict and the rat race. You get a bit of a sense of that in the lyrics, but had I not been alerted beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on it—post-sludge often tends to be cryptic,…
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Bevar Sea – Invoke the Bizarre
When Reverend Bizarre penned their tongue-in-cheek anthem “Doom Over the World” back in ’05, I’m not sure they could have foreseen a doom outfit from India invoking them 10 years later. This is actually album number two from the Bangalore-based Bevar Sea, whose Billy Anderson engin-eared debut landed them a slot at MDF in 2012.…
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Windhand – Grief’s Infernal Flower
I’m probably one of the few doom critics who didn’t put Windhand’s Relapse debut Soma in his year-end top 10 in 2013. Not that I really had anything against that album; I just thought it tested my patience a tad, what with its whopping 77-minute runtime. Since then, I’ve seen ’em live twice, and while…
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AC/DC from the front row…and the not-so-cheap seats
Hard to tell from watching these guys that AC/DC is in their sixties. Seeing em live in 2015 wasn’t all that different from watching em 7, 15 or 19 years ago. But you sorta get the feeling it’s their last tour, and they saved their best for the occasion. Not just the obvious cuts like…
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We Hunt Buffalo – Living Ghosts
Man, what is it with B.C. bands and Bison americanus? Not only is the biggest East Van metal band not founded by Devin Townsend named after this majestic creature, but the next big buzz band happens to hunt ‘em when not playing heavy rock. OK, so their name might scream emo, but We Hunt Buffalo…
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Kadavar – Berlin
Kadavar has really cut its teeth on the road since the release of their last record, 2013’s Abra Kadavar. On their first North American trek, they blew Scorpion Child off the stage on what I can only assume was a regular basis, judging by the Toronto show. And their 2014 headlining gig at the Horseshoe…
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Grime – Circle of Molesters
As far as sludge bands go, Grime is aptly named. These Italians play a dirty, gritty blend of downtuned doom, taking the foundation that Eyehategod built, and making it even more unpleasant. Case in point: their sophomore album, which boasts a title even more offputting than its artwork. Curiously enough, the song titles seem more…