“No one plays sludgy hardcore grind quite like the UK’s Mastiff. Not that many people play sludgy hardcore grind to begin with, but if they’re out there, they don’t play it like these Kingstun upon Hull lads. True to their canid namesake, which, if you saw them casually out for walkies in your neighborhood, would illicit a “Jesus Christ, that’s a big dog” exclamation, Mastiff shock with the weight and size of their sound.” Toothsome and clawsame.
“First, 2024 gave us NASCAR-themed heavy metal, then shortly thereafter Mortal Kombat-themed heavy metal. In this world of extreme tunes and extreme niches, artists look even more granularly into their fascinations for artistic inspiration. In turn, Arthouse Fatso, chooses Orson Welles—acclaimed and controversial American filmmaker—as its hammering theme for an industrial deathgrind adventure. It’s not often that such a grimy genre finds a muse in a figure that’s not a serial killer or something fictional and equally macabre. But Fatso seems ready to revive Welles as an industry outsider fit for patch-vested punk fixation .” Citizen Pain.
“It has taken some time for me to warm up to Big|Brave’s brand of noise/drone/doom. I didn’t love 2017’s Ardor, but it did pique my interest. Minimalist formalism in music doesn’t offend me the same way it does others, but their single-chord experiments didn’t resonate at the time. Still, the pairing of Robin Wattie’s waif-ish vocals with heavy drone was something new, so I kept an eye out for them. I warmed up to the stark elegance on follow-up A Gaze Among Them, but it wasn’t until Leaving None But Small Birds, their collaboration with The Body, that the appeal became revelatory.” Bigly braveness.
“Sludge metal has been a frequent bedfellow of serious, art-y post rock almost since the beginning of the genre. I’m not exactly sure why, but as a product of multiple art schools myself, I can confirm that I and other likeminded insufferable wanks folks are generally drawn to the resulting aesthetic thanks to its confrontational formal elements. Seminal groups like Neurosis and Isis built a template of harsh elegance decades ago that many contemporary bands, Cult of Luna, for instance, are happy to follow. Meanwhile, acts like Vile Creature, The Body, et al up the esoteric factor by injecting drone, noise, or electronics for downright disconcerting sonic textures. New York’s HUSH fall somewhere between these two approaches.” Suave sludge.
“Neptunian Maximalism took the metal world by storm last year. Éons was an absolute monument of an album, fusing drone, jazz, and psychedelia into one of the most evocative listens in recent memory. It spoke to something primal, something ancient that lived at the bottom of a listener’s subconscious, and snuck its way into my year-end list at number 2. Conjuring the likes of Sunn O))), Sun Ra, Swans, and Miles Davis, it was a concept album regarding the fate of Earth and its inhabitants, resulting in mass extinction and planetary destruction. Only nine months later, we’re treated with a new offering; can Solar Drone Ceremony continue where its predecessor left off?” Maximal effort.
“Synths are the future. It’s only logical now that the guitar, an antique device used by nostalgic, decrepit moshers in back-alley dive bars, is disowned. The guitar is dead. Long live the synth. Long live, especially, synthpunk and noise rock which, in the wake of that new, hip arcade game Cyberpunk 2077, is the in thing. In the satellite station of Aarhaus, Denmark – 166 cosmomiles north-east of Copenhagen – a young band by the name of Hiraki corrupt data by producing an abyssal synth-punk noise that takes influence from the likes of Daughters, Street Sects, and The Body.” Wall-E-core.
![Sightless Pit – Grave of a Dog [Things You Might Have Missed 2020]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sightless-Pit-Grave-of-a-Dog-768x768.jpg)
“Lee Buford of The Body and Dylan Walker of Full of Hell provide an alternative angle of attack: harsh, industrial and nasty. Grave of a Dog, described by Walker, is “about the anonymity of struggle, the darkness of a lifetime wasted warring against nature, god and everything else, only to be defeated… nothing… the end.” Into the dog pit.
“Trumpeting Ecstasy’s untempered viciousness and surprising experimentation was a breath of putrid air amongst the usual Cherd-bait of 2017. Had I been employed by this hallowed site at the time, I would have seriously considered slapping a 4.5 on it and endured the cries of ‘Overrating bastard!’ hurled at me from my superiors. So when I saw follow-up Weeping Choir pop into our promo bin, I jumped on it faster than Game of Thrones’ quality tanked once it outstripped the books.” Hallowed grind.
“I’m naturally drawn to tags that promise something slow and heavy, so when I saw “blackened doom” next to the name Nibiru, you’d forgive me if visions of another Indian danced in my head. In reality, Salbrox, the sixth full length by these Italians, would be better described as spoken word noise/drone metal. This curve ball may have knocked some reviewers off balance, but bitch, I went to art school.” School is way out.
“First impressions, man. For all the hyperbole and word-saladry people spin about them, they do serve their purpose, regardless if they’re a fully accurate summation of whatever it is they’re representing. Since this is a metal blog and you, dear reader, aren’t here for dating advice, political commentary, or anything else that you couldn’t find in abundant supply over at Facebook, you can correctly guess I’m about to discuss a debut. German then-trio Eremit are plunging their swords into the Earth, hoping to stake their claim as new heroes of all things slow and sludgy with Carrier of Weight, bombarding you with all the glory and power that three guys can possibly pack into three songs… totaling around 68 minutes.” Eremit the Bog.
