Origin of the species: Late 80s:
the Dirty South. Somewhere between the Louisiana Gulf Coast and NC towns
like Charlotte and Raleigh, this business of sludge began. Inspired by the
aggressive hardcorepunk of BLACK FLAG and the grooves of SABBATH, bands
began to fuse the feedback squeals of early COC with the crawling vibrations
of CONFESSOR and downtuning of THE MELVINS. Names like EYEHATEGOD, SEWER
PUPPET, TUNGSTEN, ACID BATH, THE SLUGS and GRAVEYARD RODEO started the ball
rolling, later morphing into more familiar names like BUZZOV*EN and CROWBAR.
By the early nineties, things began to spread to to the coasts and midwest.
Unlike many other forms of heavy music
that began to die on the vine by 1995, sludge just seemed to loom larger and uglier. It's a heavy music tofu -- it mixes perfectly with almost any genre (grind, death, black), which is why so many hybrid styles have emerged since its inception. We've tried to focus on its undiluted, original form, which by nature meanders tempo-wise between "Born Too Late" and "Spray Paint the Walls". Also look for dark, senseless movie samples, avalanches of feedback, and odes to chemical dependency.
First, buy: EYEHATEGOD - "Take as Needed for Pain", 1993 (Century Media) - In 1993, EYEHATEGOD made even the heaviest grunge stuff sound like squeaky bath toys. Listening to it now, it just sounds like punk rock. But there's no better place to start if you crave agonizing, desolate cries to substance abuse recorded in a concrete sewer. The stylistic nods to prime BLACK FLAG material jump out from the first note. But while FLAG lashed out at cops and authority, EYEHATEGOD spews disgust at violence, politics, filth, themselves, the sun, the rain, and the world in general. Ugly, swaggering riffs bubble up from the black, buzzing racket in tracks like "Blank" and "Sister Fucker (Part 1)".
The prolific tempo changes never fail to keep things interesting, making TANFP he musical equivalent to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Then buy: BUZZOV*EN - "At a Loss", 1998 (Off the Record) Along with ANTiSEEN, the BUZZOV*EN boys were one of the most intense and notorious NC cult bands of the nineties. The legendary live shows were discussed in hushed, solemn tones. While all of their hard-to-find platters are defining moments of drug-crazed gutter sludge, “At A Loss” simply kills. The band’s first full-length to include “Dixie” Dave Collins (later of WEEDEATER) on the bass features some of their nastiest, most aggressive moments. Frontman Kirk Fisher’s acidic boiler-screeches and hammering riffs will quickly turn your brain to oatmeal upon repeat listens. “Don’t Bring Me Down” could quite possibly be the
greatest sludge cover ever recorded. The real question is: will anyone ever have the kahunas to reissue this beast?
Then buy: BONGZILLA - "Stash", 1999 (Relapse) - Wisconsin’s BONGZILLA may have more in common with Cheech & Chong movies than Dukowski -era BLACK FLAG. But the remarkable hard-hitting
percussion of Mike Henry and the bellbottomed riffs in tracks like
“Grog Lady” and “Harvest” smolder with a dead-on SABS “Hole in the Sky”
vibe. How can you resist lyrics like “Load bongs, not guns” anyway?
Then buy: REBREATHER - "Half Speed Ahead", 2003 The men of Ohio’s REBREATHER forged a new brand of sludge in the late 90s by combining the melodic hooks of early HELMET with painfully heavy seismic clamor. Some maintain that 2002’s “Need Another Seven Astronauts” is the one to grab. But this collection of their early self-releases (1999’s “Die On Pot” and 2000’s “Long Play”) is some of the most compelling heavy music ever put to tape. Stickman Jeremy Koerber smashes everything in sight while vocalist Barley Rantilla screams the paint off the walls in tracks like”Southdown” and “Chew”. But the one that will leave you speechless is “Lungbrace”, its orchestral-sounding vibrations
creaking and groaning along like a sinking submarine. Not bad for a bunch of Pittsburgh Steelers fans.
Live pick: CROWBAR - "Live +1", 1994 (Pavement) Sadly, I have to admit that I was one of the first ones to trash CROWBAR back in the early days. I believe I complained about the bass tone and used the phrase “crying in their beer” to describe the lyrics. But over the years, down-tuned spinners like this live disc and the ironically titled “Time Does Not Heal” have aged remarkably well. Future BLACK LABEL SOCIETY stickman Craig Nunenmacher’s tribal beatings and the occasionally hard-panned guitars of Windstein and Thomas create first-rate headbanging delight in the live versions of “Fixation” and “Self Inflicted”. It’s no wonder CROWBAR have earned a reputation as one of the most earnest
and uncompromising acts the genre has ever known, and are still going strong today.
Rare pick: CORRUPTED / NOOTHGRUSH - split LP 1997 (Private) What happens when you put two of the most obscure and gadawful heavies of the nineties together on one EP? A grand collector's nugget that clobbers like a falling pallet of Sakrete. The gigantic sputtering riffs of Bay Area despair-core titans NOOTHGRUSH fill the air with black tar, out-sludging even the material from their excellent "Failing Early, Failing Often" compilation. Japan's CORRUPTED shifts things into an even lower gear, Hevi's black-throated croak sounding like some late 70s STAR WARS movie creature. The final track moves from migraine-inducing rumbles to gentle acoustic guitars and soft Spanish
verses. A must for the completist.
AVOID!"Crushers Killers Destroyers II", 2004 (Shifty) - The good folks over at Shifty records will always have our utmost respect. But this 70+ minute compilation of modern-day sludgecore bands sounds as stale as a pizza slice left under the front seat. Sure, the disc has a couple of bright spots (particularly Ohio noise kings SLOTH and Spanish sludge-slayers MOHO), but they are hopelessly buried in an avalanche of mediocre bands and meandering buzzery. The KING TRAVOLTA and HEADACHE tracks alone are enough to make you wanna throw the disc out the driver’s side window. Do yourself a favor and grab MOHO’s “20 Uñas”, one of SLOTH’s countless seven-inchers
(the split with ULTRA SHIT INFERNO is a pretty good choice), or even an earlier Shifty compilation and pass on this.
And in closing: Of course, the muddy rumblings of southern sludge became ingredients in the sonic stew of some well-known heavy bands (PANTERA, DOWN, COC). But as a whole, the primary perpetrators of the genre have remained buried several miles below the mainstream. Good sludge is honest, aggressive, dark, desperate, and emotionally volatile. I’m sure we probably left out your favorite GRIEF or SOILENT GREEN album, but before the emails start, keep in mind how many hybrid styles have been created from sludge. From the dueling LIZZY-style guitars of BOULDER to the grindy blasts of DYSTOPIA, sludge is a form of music that has proven versatile enough to remain relevant
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