Millions - Failure Tactics

Seventh Rule Recordings have released the new album by

Millions and it fucking kills.

Post-hardcore/noise rock is the order of the day and the band

have upped the ante from the 2009 "Gather, Scatter". Shared vocals

give an urgency to the dark lyrics which are laid over meaty, chord

led riffs.

The music is dense and loud, chaotic but controlled with a tension

that threatens to burst out in violence. The two guitars sound as

if they are at war with each other as they trade aggressive riffs

but they are underpinned with the very solid drumming and

the fuzzed up rumble-monster that is the bass.

The record was produced by Chicago’s Andrew Ragin 

(THE ATLAS MOTH), mastered by Kyle Spence (HARVEY MILK)

and the result is a sonic barrage of taut songs that will make you

play again and again.

This is a fantastic album that will be in my "best of list" this

year without a doubt and could well be the album that makes

people really take notice of Millions - Recommended! 

Get CD/Digital version from Seventh Rule Bandcamp

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Kadavar - S/T

Kadavar hail from Berlin and are a hard rocking 3 piece. They take the early sounds of Sabbath, Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Witchfinder General etc and make them their own. 

This is certainly a beautiful record. Big riffs and a great sound, what more could you possibly need? If you like your rock to actually rock then these cats are most certainly for you.

Physical needs
Vinyl
CD

Well well well. Look who has arrived

Hello. Some of you may remember me from the late VeinsDriedOut (and brief stint at ThroatBurnedOut). Since the feds ruined megaupload and a spattering of other file hosting websites I lost a lot of interest in blogging and I sort of just wandered around like this...

But I'm alright now. 

 Hopefully I've still got it and I can contribute some excellent music for all of your ever awaiting ears. 

High regards, ZoSo)))

Asidefromaday - Chasing Shadows

Band request from France (thanks Aurélien)

Asidefromaday play post-metal but add an almost hardcore

spin on the sound to produce a satisfying album that is dense and

powerful. Monolithic riffs drive the songs along and have enough

diversity to stop them blending into each other.

The vocals are growled and pissed off but are still able to convey

emotion. The rhythm section are very much to the fore in the mix

and this really brings the song arrangements crashing out of 

your speakers. The guitars are razor sharp, enabling picked

strings to resonate before slamming back into chords. This is

a good solid release which please a lot of people.

Bio: With a sound firmly rooted in postcore, ASIDEFROMADAY relies just as heavily on ambience, atmosphere, and power as it does complexity, aggression and raw emotion. An original entity, ASIDEFROMADAY deliver music that consumes the listener with massive and hypnotic waves of sound. The band has played more than 250 shows all over Europe with such as band as Gojira/Envy/Baroness/Russian Circles...

All formats available from Bandcamp

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Robot(A) - Crush! Stomp! Roar!

Robot(A) live up to the title of their EP as they crush/stomp

roar and in general just fucking kick shit out of the genre

termed digital hardcore.

I have wandered into this sort of music by mistake in the past

and have always been met with tinny, pre-set patterns that

have attempted to resemble something approaching hardcore

but fail dismally.

Robot(A) have come up with something that gets my head banging - 

meaty pounding drums, throbbing bass, dirty distorted guitars and

vocals that veer from powerful to brutal. The difference that makes

these guys stand apart are the arrangements. The writers have

a clear sense of how song passages are constructed meaning

there is a real flow to the tracks which give them an identity.

Rather than just random arpeggio generators being the main source

of keyboard sounds, there are banks of sounds that compliment

the guitars and add depth to the attack.

Don't take my word for it - give it a listen!

Get digital/cd/posters from Bandcamp

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Metal Machine Music - remix

In the last of my sonic experiments into making people feel

like they have taken bad, un-tested drugs, I present my

Metal Machine Music remix.

I have taken Track 1 and recorded it in the left hand speaker. 

Then I have taken Track 2 and recorded it in the right hand speaker. 

In the middle I have put some drones and trumpet loops and samples. 

What do you get when you overlay 2 different songs from the seminal white noise album? 

Please do not listen if driving, operating heavy machinery or suffering from mental health problems.

4 tracks spread out over a double album, this had no 

drum or vocals or indeed any songs, just feedback guitar 

drones looping over and over, with electronic squalls 

of generated tones and noise........ of course it is common 

knowledge that track 3 is the best! Are those hints of 

tunes buried down in the mix? 

This is either: 

Lou Reed getting out of his record company contract 

and a big fuck you to the hired suits 

or 

A noise terror experiment in sonics and volume 

which 15 years later would influence bands like 

The Swans and Sonic Youth etc.

Sludgelord - Interview

There are so many music blogs available - some good, some obscure - 

a lot of shit and pointless ones, so when you find a great one, it is

bookmarked and saved. The ones that really hold your interest are read

daily and Sludgelord falls into that group. Reviews, interviews, band

compilations - they are going from strength to strength and I know

that you, my faithful download monkeys would like to know

what makes them tick!

1. The obvious first question has to be - what made you start Sludgelord?                                     

Hi dude. What made me start. Well nothing too exciting. A mate's band – Sorry For Nothing - needed their new album reviewing and I said I would do it. As I used to write for another blog that went under as soon as it went up. 

To make the blog more appealing to viewers. I added a few more articles like Bands To Check Out and Free Legal Downloads. I wrote review of their excellent new album and left it running for a couple days to see what interest their would be. 

Quite promising after a few days. Got a few hits. Then I kept on doing it. Other reason I started was I was sick of hearing shit music on Radio and TV. Nothing catered for my tastes. Sludge, Stoner, Doom and Post-Metal. So I thought I could do this as a little hobby. Now this hobby has taken a life of it's own.

2. To be honest, I only found your site after Sludge Swamp bit the dust. Did that have an effect on you in terms of new visitors? I personally now get most of my information about heavier new albums from you!

Thanks for the kind comments dude. Follow your awesome site as well. 

I don't know if it had an effect. I was a big fan of the Swamp. A lot of people were. I took inspiration from that blog. But I wanted to do my own thing. So I focused on reviews and free legal downloads from underground bands. Bands that need publicity. 

I got more viewers as time went on. Probably from June 2011 the hits started getting more bigger. I don't take notice of figures at first. I just did Sludgelord because I enjoyed it. 

I am amazed with the hits we have now. Coming up to 390K hits. Not bad for an amateur I suppose. 

3. With the blog name, it is quite evident as to the type of music you cover - do you get sent wildly inappropriate genres sent to review? 

Sludgelord came about as every name I wanted was taken. Plus Sludge is one of my all-time fave genres. It was going to be called Lord Of Sludge. But that sounded stupid. So Sludgelord stuck. 

Yeah dude – I get sent a whole load of genres which I don't publish. As they don't fit the blog's image. Brutal Goregrind is one example. Too extreme even for me. Classical Metal, Operatic Metal. So yeah I have had a few genres sent to me that I didn't even know it existed. But they do. 

So what we publish is stuff we mainly feature in the realm of Doom, Stoner, Sludge, Post-Metal and even Black Metal. 

4. Your reviews are always positive - I review albums that I genuinely like - how do you deal with the odd one that is terrible or just something that leaves you cold?                                    

Yeah they are always positive. Maybe too positive. But that is my style. Not going to change. My original view for the blog is we only publish the good stuff. No bad stuff. Why give a bad band free publicity. They can go elsewhere for that. 

It' s a view that we still hold to this day. If the album leaves me cold then I just don''t publish it. Simple as that. But there have been times when I thought the album was utter shit and it would never be published on the blog. Only for a few listens later and I think the album is superb. Then review gets published. 

You have to give each and every release a few listens to get the full effect. But there is lots of stuff I don't publish to this day.

5. The interviews really bring a new dimension into play - have you been pleased by the amount of bands that have agreed to participate?

Am I pleased. Fuck yeah. I am pleased. What started off for two bands that I originally done Mediocracy and In The Company Of Serpents has became one of the most popular items of the blog. 

Interviews are cool way of getting in touch with your musical heroes which I have done a few times already. Bands and artists that I have admired for so long have asked me to interview them. I never knew that would happen when starting the blog. Never in a million years. Now we are featuring some great artists and bands. 

Aaron aka Doomentor loves doing interviews. He is on a fucking roll at the moment. I do them when I can but I have to focus on free downloads and reviews as well for the blog. 

Aaron runs the Facebook Sludgelord Page side of things. While I am more day-to-day running of blog. But we do have some cool interviews coming up. 

6. Every time I go to your blog, you seem to have a new contributor! How do you allocate the reviews etc - I know Aaron does a lot of the interviews. 

Aaron does reviews as well. Just that he is doing interviews at the moment and sorting out the reviews to the Sludgelord Team as well. Labels and PR contact Aaron mainly. 

I deal with bands who send their stuff to my email address. I tell Aaron what I have to review and promote. While he has his own big bag of goodies which he shares with the team. 

Well we do have a lot of contributors at the moment. Things are that busy and people have been kind to help. Like Teabag Stallone, Furious, Strolling Astronomer. Plus we have regular help from Aaron's band of helpers who are all doing a great job. 

Most of these helpers are involved in the scene. Hosting radio stations and some appearing pretty cool well known bands as well. Sorry For Nothing, Abrahma, Caravan Of Whores. 

Then you have two Geordie idiots (Aaron and myself) running the blog with their great help. So it's a pretty cool line-up. Aaron has been a big help since he joined in April 2012. We now have more Facebook readers and a Twitter Feed. So we are slowly joining the 21st Century. Mainly due to Aaron's work on Facebook. 

7. You recently posted a compilation of band tracks - what was the reaction to that and will you be doing another one?

Yeah – Lullabies Of Despair. Been a great success. Reaction has been great. People seemed to like it I think. We will definitely be doing another one. Hopefully on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. It takes time to get band's permission and choosing the right tracks. 

Am going to make the next one a more team thing. I did the first one by myself to see what the reaction would be like. But 600 hits later it's definitely another cool thing to be involved in. 

8. What would be in your top 5 albums so far this year - sorry ...... That's probably gonna be a tough one! 

Fuck. That's a hard one. The thing is my top 5 of 2012 changes all the time. As we get so many brilliant albums to review. But for the interview here are my Top 5 so far. 

1. Adrift For Days – Come Midnight 

2. Summoner – Phoenix 

3. Carrion Mother – Koronis 

4. Conan - MONNOS 

5. Bearfight! - Gnarmageddon 

But mentions should goto Wizard's Beard, Undersmile, Red Desert, Baroness, Sardonis, The Sword, Indian Handcrafts, Galvano and TITAN. The list goes on an on. The top 5 might change but that is it for the time being.

9. Which blogs do YOU read? 

Blogs I read. I read them all on the my blog list on Sludgelord, Doommantia, Temple of Perdition, Black Insect Laughter, Stonerobixxx, Heavy Planet Stoner Rock. The list is endless. Apologies to people that I have missed out. 

But I do read all on my blog list on a daily basis.

10. I feel blogs like yours help to spread the word about the music we love and in a small way, help to promote bands that have put time and effort into producing records - it can sometimes be a thankless task (not always, just now and then) - what drives you to keep the blog going?

Thanks for the kind words again dude. Much appreciated. I think we do need as many blogs we can possibly get. As the mainstream will always look down upon our genre. 

Their might be a breakout band now and again. But they are usually forgotten about until the next big thing. But us bloggers are always here to show our support. 

Anyway – What keeps the blog going. People keep coming back and bands releasing great music for all of us to check out. There have been times I want to shut the entire thing down. But a band appears and blows my world apart. I feel I have to tell people or the whole world about this great band. 

That's why I do it. Promoting great music. And giving the mainstream a big UP YOURS as well. 

Another main reason. I get to interview great bands/artists such as Alaskan, Adrift For Days, Andrew From Torche and Tilts, Al The Yeti Bones and Jimbob Issac. Plus all the other great bands I have interviewed. 

Until then my main objective for Sludgelord is to banish shit like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift for good. It's a simple dream but probably an impossible one. 

11. What do the next 3 months hold for Sludgelord? 

Next 3 months. Damn I don't know. To carry on as normal. Sludgelord is a part of my life that I put a lot of time and effort into. 

Hopefully more cool album reviews, free downloads and interviews which we are always currently working on. 

Possibly the compilation download will carry on with more great bands to promote. 

Other than that I don't know. Hopefully people will still be visiting both of our great blogs. And the other cool ones out there. 

Cheers. 

Steve aka The Sludgelord.

Thanks for your time Steve and keep on doing what you do!

Art As Catharsis - free doom & post-rock

Lachlan, the hardest working man in Australia, has

just given you the chance to get some more free music

from his label Art As Catharsis.

Dear Art As Catharsis pals, I come bearing gifts of new Australian music.

'Stargazing under Southern Skies' is a new, curated collection of Australian post, ambient and shoegaze music.

With sleepmakeswaves being nominated for an ARIA, you might think we've all been transported to Bizarro World. Or perhaps the movers and shakers are catching onto the fact that we've got more than our fair share of incredible bands here in Australia; and not all of them are soulless Indie cut-outs disinterestedly muttering lyrical abstractions.

Well, we Art As Catharsis have long known this. This year has seen a plethora of incredible releases from Australian groups; many of which have outperformed and out-delivered their international counterparts.

That's why we're very pleased to bring you our new compilation: Stargazing under Southern Skies; a specially curated selection of our favourite post, ambient and shoegaze artists.

Be dazzled by the virtuosity of Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, drift away on a wave of elation provided by sleepmakeswaves, survey the cinematic soundscapes of Dumbsaint, bask in the gorgeous melodies of Brian Campeau, and let Pirate do your physics homework. 

'Stargazing under Southern Skies' also features splendid sounds from We Lost The Sea (who are soon to release the best post-metal record of 2012), Melbourne post/prog veterans Mushroom Giant, Squat Club, Nuclear Summer, Solkyri, The Matador, Adrift for Days, Lander Configurations, race to your face, and Captain Kickass and the Awesomes.

It's a regular gangbang of underground Australian talent! And have we mentioned that it's absolutely FREE?! Go check it out, why don’t ya?

'Stargazing under Southern Skies' is our gift to you, because we love you almost as much as we love Australian music.

Please listen, share and enjoy. The future for Australian music is bright.

A re-release of Space Bong's droning doom epic 'The Death of Utopia'

Australia can boast some of the best doom bands in the world - and the South Australian sextet of Space Bong are no exception.

Infact, I make no qualms with saying that Space Bong are one of the rawest, heaviest, and above all believable doom bands on earth -- as every bit as dark as Sunn O))), Corruptedand Kharnate, and as aggressive as EyeHateGod and Corrupted.

Space Bong effectively triggered my love of droning, down-tempo music when I caught them at a live show in 2007. Here was a band that had completely mastered the art of the doom metal epic; and had the technical ability to back it up. Their aesthetic isn't for show, either; these guys truly feel the nihilistic despair and misanthropy so evident in their weighty sludge metal sounds.

I'd like to take the chance to share with you one of my favourite heavy albums of all time: Space Bong's droning doom epic 'The Death of Utopia'. Please download, share and enjoy.

Space are currently in the final stages of recording their new album 'Deadwood to Worms', which should be out on Art As Catharsis in early 2013.

Before we are all crushed by the inevitable awesomeness of that new album, be sure to acquaint yourself with 'The Death of Utopia': it is definitely a doom metal classic.

I hope you enjoy.

Long live Australian music

Mudbath - Red Desert Orgy

Band request from France.

Mudbath play a superb mix of doom-tainted sludge that 

threatens to obliterate everything in its path. Despairing, bleak

vocals howl out a litany of fury that are always fighting to be 

heard above the fat, heavy guitar tones that are crashing out 

gargantuan riffs.

This album is made up of 3 long tracks that take you to a dark swamp,

cut your eyes with razors and leave you to slowly sink into the mire.

Passages within the songs do pick up the pace at times before descending

back into the thick, bad-drug vibe that pervades the Mudbath sound.

The crowning glory as far as I am concerned, are the outrageously 

fuzzed guitar solos that forge the psychedelic with the heavy - kinda

like Vanilla Fudge crossed with Electric Wizard. At times I find this

genre sometimes suffers from a generic template but in my eyes,

Mudbath have produced one of my albums of the year.

Highly recommended!

Name your price at Bandcamp

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Aperiodic - Future Feedback

Request from Phratry Records.

Aperiodic play a whirlwind type of head-fuck music that I

can only describe as noise-rock free jazz. 

Hey, I own "On The Corner" and "Live Evil" by Miles Davis

but this takes things into a new warped musical landscape that

I have no real experience with - I will try to review as best

I can!

Aperiodic use electric guitar, bass and drums as far as I can tell

but with so many noises being forced out of them, there could be

other instruments that are being tortured beyond human experience. Seb

Rochford type drumming holds the bursts of explosive outpouring

into some sort of cohesive structure that the bass can throb against.

Guitars are scraped, picked and mangled with unholy glee to provide

an almost percussive soundscape. Piano notes drift in and out of

focus before sounding like it has been hurled down  a flight of stairs - 

these are musicians that sound like they are playing at the top of their

abilities to produce a new language that only they can understand. 

Yes, it does demand that the listener pays attention but as the sounds

wash over you, the passages take you onto the next section of controlled chaos.

If you want to take a chance on hearing something new and different or

just to see what I am talking about, give them a listen.

Bio: Aperiodic’s sound is a meeting of Noise and Free Jazz with elements of No Wave, Musique Concrète, and Hardcore. In addition to standard western instruments they utilize world instruments such as gu qin, rudra veena, and surbahar to create freely improvised music. The end result is free, but not aimless. Guitars shift between angular riffing and textural lilt, elastic drumming, and a multi-directional low end. Not surprisingly, Aperiodic doesn’t quite sound like any other group, despite the fact that they currently share members with The Exponential and Holy Fuck (Young Turks/XL/Beggars Group), and previously shared members with Enon (Touch & Go), Lab Partners, and A Ten O’ Clock Scholar (Grass Records). 

Aperiodic began in 1997 in Cincinnati, Ohio but its members currently live in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Dayton. Up until now the group’s output consisted of a self-released cassette and a 7” single (on Generate Records), but they are now releasing their first full length LP, Future Feedback on Phratry Records (Fall 2012). This marks both the 15th anniversary of the band and the 35th release for the label. 

For fans who like Xenakis, Cecil Taylor, MEV, and the Jesus Lizard disfigured beyond recognition.

Go Here for Vinyl, CD and Digital

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