My sludgiest gems of 2021:
1. Derailment - Come Clean in Death
Noisy Australian sludge punk in the vein of shit like Fudge Tunnel, Cattle Press and Melvins.
2. Infinity Land - Honest Comedy
Like every bad day you've ever had condensed into 15 minutes of manic punk noise.
3. Fistula - Frustrations in the Key of Rust
Sludge legends Fistula covering bands like Devo, Kilslug, Post Mortem etc and putting their own spin on them. One of the coolest cover albums ever.
4. Fudge Tunnel - Sloppy Noise-Rock
This is a bunch of live material recorded in their '89-'90 pre- Earache Records days. Mandatory shit for all truefans.
5. Ride for Revenge - Feed the Infamy
I don't care I'm including this. Sounds like they suddenly discovered Grief.
6. Eyehategod - A History of Nomadic Behavior
Feedback-coated riffs, punk drumming, fat bass grooves and a snarling doomsday prophet yelling at you from the gutter. Hail the kings of sludge.
7. Engine Kid - Special Olympics
10 minutes of nasty feedback soaked sludgy noise rock, the final track being the crowning jewel. Talk about a comeback, I just hope we get a full album of this shit at some point.
8. Meth Drinker - Erosion to Grave - Live in St Petersburg
The rawness of this live recording is brutal, definitely a barrier to entry for all the wimps out there. However once you acclimatise to it, it's some of the heaviest, deadliest sludge metal imaginable.
9. HIVE - Septic Masters
Totally an acquired taste but I love these motherfuckers. Totally fucked up almost Nightstick vibes, especially when they go on slow, psychedelic, sludged out jam moments with samples playing.
10. Tenant - Live Demo MMXXI
A nice droney taste of things to come.
