sludge

Iron Monkey, we hardly knew ye. England’s answer to Eyehategod released two full-lengths, a self-titled debut and Our Problem, then broke up in 1999. Earache recently collected these records into a 2-CD set along with bonus tracks and extra liner notes. House Anxiety Normally I have little patience with Eyehategod clones. But Iron Monkey had […]

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/3CHY0xOvPbE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0 Above is a trailer for Slow Southern Steel, a documentary about Southern sludge metal. Rwake vocalist CT and David Lipke are directing it. Shooting is still occurring, so perhaps the trailer is premature. (Scheduled are a May ’10 festival debut and ’11 DVD release.) But it has me excited for the film, even though […]

Click each to enlarge “I’m Better Than Everyone Records was created with the goal to resurrect the experience of listening to music as it was intended. We believe that music should be an organic experience, where one is welcomed to participate in the artist’s vision at creating their art both sonically and visually.” Indeed, this […]

Culted Moving time for me is fast approaching. To lighten my load, I’m giving away 25 sludge/stoner/doom metal CD’s. These subgenres have become independent scenes, but they overlap in sound enough for me to lump them together. “Slow and heavy” is all the “scene” one needs, no? These CD’s consist of demos, promos, and finished […]

Here’s another band that strangely remains unsigned: Stonecutters. They’re sludgy yet technical, like early versions of Kylesa, Baroness, and Mastodon. But Stonecutters are thrashier and more shredtastic. The Louisville, KY band includes guitarist/vocalist Brian Omer, who was in a ’90s hardcore band on Century Media called My Own Victim. Christhammer Their second full-length, Christhammer, is […]

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/YWAEyj0r7QE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0 Bottling the coffee-and-cigarette grit of Harvey Milk isn’t easy. Graphic designer Stephen O’Malley proves so on a brown digipak with Khanate artwork. But Chunklet editor/publisher Henry H. Owings prevails after four years of compiling material from Athens, GA’s bluesy trio. He doesn’t hesitate to brag about the process — the liner notes push past […]

New Keepers of the Water Towers are evidently the world’s only band whose lyrical theme is “Dwelling Beasts.” Chronicles (MeteorCity, 2009), the band’s full-length debut, has songs about a “Giant Subway Beast,” “The Strafing Lobster,” and “The Knowledgeable Kangaroo.” “The knowledgeable kangaroo is resting in his den / The evil scientists have come to claim […]

It’s interesting how hardcore punk colonized sludge/doom metal, starting with Neurosis. Then came Isis, Old Man Gloom, and the late-’90s Boston/Hydra Head/Deathwish, Inc. scene. The result was bands that sound metal, but that probably have short hair. Europe got this bug hard — see Cult of Luna, Callisto, Knut, Burst, The Ocean, and so on. […]

You should know about Tee Pee Records. The label is a protest against soulless, mechanized, Pro Tools music. It specializes in new things that sound old: psych rock, stoner rock, doom metal, spaghetti western soundtracks. Tee Pee means tube tones, analog recordings, and big, warm sounds. Its ambit is wider than this site’s. But we […]

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/s5i9v8jaOJ4&hl=en&fs=1& “Old people and metal” never gets old. One such gem on YouTube is Episode 11 of Breakfast at Sulimay’s, a video series. In it, three seniors, Bill, Ann, and Joe, critique contemporary popular music at Sulimay’s, a diner in Philadelphia. In Episode 11, they take on Harvey Milk (reviewed here). Their reactions are priceless. […]