Some time ago, Relapse Records was offering a free digital download of a compilation album. Not being one to pass up free music, I decided to check it out. You can too here. As usual, I am looking for bands I would want to check into further.
BARONESS: "SWOLLEN AND HALO"
I have this album. Baroness is of course a sludge metal band in the vein of Mastodon. This is one of my favorite tracks from the album, but there is not much more to say, since I already have this.
RED FANG: "NUMBER THIRTEEN"
A band I have not heard much about. Red Fang sounds like a stoner/sludge/doom band. It's not too bad, but it's a little too similar to that Baroness song, not much more brought to the table. Pass.
BLACK TUSK: "EMBRACE THE MADNESS"
Yet another sludge band with a John Baisley cover picture. I do like this one a little better than Red Fang, but probably not enough to check them out much more. I don't know, this sludge thing is getting a bit out of hand. I am sure I am not the first person to notice that.
REVOCATION: "REANIMANIACS"
I already own this album by this upcoming technical thrash metal band. Good stuff. They are supposed to have a new album out this year. Looking forward to that.
OBSCURA: "INCARNATED"
Technical death metal band from Germany. This is another one that I already own the album from. Nothing else to say. Good stuff.
ABYSMAL DAWN: "IN SERVICE OF TIME"
I am familiar with this band, though not with this album. Abysmal Dawn is a standard death metal band from the U.S. They do not really do anything new or outrageous, but if you want solid death metal, they are certainly not a bad option.
CEPHALIC CARNAGE: "WHEN I ARRIVE"
Cephalic Carnage is another group I am familiar with, though not with this release. The Colorado grindcore band often incorporates other musical elements into their sound, including other styles of metal, mathcore, and even some free jazz. This is a bit more of a standard deathgrind song, though with a bizarre melodically vocalized part near the end that would not sound out of place in some modern rock. Pretty good actually. Not sure how this last album escaped me.
DYING FETUS: "DESCEND INTO DEPRAVITY"
One of the godfather bands of the slam scene, Dying Fetus bears little resemblance to modern slam. They are basically another brutal death metal band at this point, but they remain very good at what they do. I own this one already.
MISERY INDEX: "THE SPECTATOR"
Truly terrific deathgrind. But yet again, I own this.
HOWL: "HEAVENLESS"
Yet another stoner/sludge band. This one is not a John Baisley cover, though it certainly looks to be in that style. This is a slower, more somber track to begin with. The vocals are fairly extreme for the style. This is pretty damn good. I may have to check this band out further.
BLACK ANVIL: "SCALPING"
At last something truly interesting Black Anvil is a U.S. black/thrash metal band that I have been sleeping on of late. Not anymore. This is terrific and I definitely want to hear more.
TOMBS: "MERRIMACK"
This is a bit too post-rock for my tastes. Pass.
KINGDOM OF SORROW: "GOD'S LAW"
The band created by Kirk Windstein of Crowbar and Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed sounds, well, like the singer from Hatebreed fronting Crowbar. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. But I would still prefer to just listen to Crowbar.
TOXIC HOLOCAUST: "NUKE THE CROSS"
I have this album too. Excellent thrash/black metal that sounds like the early days of Bathory, Venom, and Celtic Frost/Hellhammer.
NOISEAR: "GLOBAL WARMING"
Short, fast, and brutal grindcore. Not quite metal enough for my tastes in grindcore though.
MURDER CONSTRUCT: "END OF AN ERROR"
More death/grind. Similar in sound to Misery Index, though a little darker, if possible. It's not bad, but I do not go for this style too often.
KILL THE CLIENT: "VICIOUS SLAUGHTER"
In my business, if I did that, I would not get paid. That's just me though. It literally took me as long to type this as the song. It's that short. Pass.
AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED: "AGORAPOCALYPSE NOW"
More grind. I still don't really care.
BRUTAL TRUTH: "GET A THERAPIST...SPARE THE WORLD"
And still more. Apparently this is a specialty for Relapse. Brutal Truth is a little better than some of these other bands though, so hurray for that I guess.
MOSE GIGANTICUS: "THE GREAT DECEIVER"
Not really metal, more of a mix of a variety of styles. I do not really care for it much so I will pass on it.
ROYAL THUNDER: "MOUTH OF FIRE"
Stoner rock/noise rock. Pass. This thing is getting a bit old.
TITAN: "WOODED ALTAR BEYOND THE WANDER"
Also not metal. This is a mostly instrumental song with a lot of elements. Not bad, but not something I am terribly interested in.
COUGH: "CRIPPLED WIZARD"
And we are back to sludge/doom. We have lapped ourselves. This one takes a little bit to get going, but when it does, it is clear that the emphasis is on doom. I quite like this and might consider checking them out more.
HORSEBACK: "INVOKATION"
And we're back to some kind of post-rock...something. Anyway, pass for sure.
CIRCLE OF ANIMALS: "NO FAITH"
Featuring members of Municipal Waste, Sonic Youth, and Tortoise, this sounds as bad as that description suggests.
DEATH: "SCAVENGER OF HUMAN SORROW (REMIX)"
We leave things with a classic. I already own this album, but at least it was a strong ending, there were times near the end that I wanted to turn this off.
So, I will be checking out Cough, Howl, and Black Anvil, but probably leaving everything else.
You are most certainly not the first person to notice the sludge overload, and Relapse is probably the source of that. If I remember right, the Decibel review for Black Tusk said something like, "Yet another sludge metal band on Relapse. And, expectedly, it's really good. But so are a lot of others." The Howl album is pretty good, but I feel about the same about it as they did about Black Tusk (hence why I didn't get BT in the first place). Plain sludge is a bit oversaturated, and even sludge/doom is getting a bit oversaturated as well (just not quite as bad, and a lot of them are doing interesting things such as Unearthly Trance and Salome). I wonder how long before Withered's blackened sludge is oversaturated.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend the Cough and Cephalic Carnage albums (I gave them 4/5 and 4.5/5 respectively). I may have to check into Black Anvil. Red Fang was on the latest Relapse podcast, and it piqued my interest, so I might have to check into that, too.