| Thee plague of gentlemen (CD) | 2001 | Tilleherte Records |
In this short but powerful demo, the band displays its many virtues. Imagine the relentless heaviness of Warhorse, the psychedelic atmosphere of Electric Wizard and vocals that range from more 'normal' ones to psychotic screams like those in Burning Witch. The occational calmer parts with psychedelic effects reminded me of Unearthly Trance, another promising underground band in the same style. The groove is -of course- Sabbath all the way. Some furious accelerations like in the last track of this demo, distinguish them perhaps from the aforementioned bands.
All in all a promising demo from an interesting underground band. Now I'm waiting for their webpresence and hope that they are able to do some promotion to make their name better known among the fans, which certainly wouldn't do any harm.
Band contact: email to serpentcult26@hotmail.com or hellfiller@hotmail.com.
1. Motown misfortune
2. As cold as they come
3. Ghostic revelation
4. Razorpollen
Approx. 33 minutes
| 4 Way Split 12 Inch LP (LP) | 2002 | Painiac |
With that being said, Sloth was supposed to start off the split with just that theme: Suicide. I'm saying 'supposed to' because while the tracklist lists this track first, it's actually the second one on the LP. It's hard to know exactly what's going on in the track with the loud keyboard and unrecognizable hissing vokills. For some reason the band appears on three different places on the split with three different sludge tracks. They're the least doomy ones on the split, but their unflattering view of 'Benefit Shows' is clearly one of the funniest in the genre. To summarize, these tracks are quite straightforward sludgecore with a strong focus on doomy elements, strange keyboards and a big, fat middle finger waving around.
The one's who's really the first band out is Thee Plague Of Gentlemen, even though they were supposed to be second. Their incredibly heavy, slow, and soul depraved doom/sludge cover of Winter's 'Eternal Frost', borders on being funeral doom in both pace and nihilism. The music shares a lot of common ground with bands like Corrupted, though they focus a little less on the filth and a little more on bass. A big belgian frown.
Then there is Wuzor, a band which plays doom/sludge with strong old-school tendencies. Bands like Grief and Eyehategod both come to mind. Fuzzy guitars, punky vokills and a very straight out anger. It's the band with the least airtime on the split, but makes up for it with a classic example of a good doom/sludge track.
Finally comes the longest of the tracks, an 16 minute long lump of doom by D O M, a band with one of the most intriguing logos. It looks like a mountain on one side and two pines on the other side. They both bend inwards to shape an 'O' surrounding a celestial object which is either the sun or the moon. Not much has been released over the years by this finnish project, thus this track is a rariety of it's own. 'Hypnoz' lies somewhere between Sunn O))), Bunkur and Corrupted; monotonous bass riffage, guitar whine and drums plod along with some occational faint vokills being screamed in the background. It's hard to figure out what's being yelled, but the music sure sounds like an existensialist crisis gone into apathy.
This is perhaps one of the best underground doom/sludge splits. It grants you a lot of heaviness for your money as well as a taste of many different sides of the genre. There is only 400 copies out there and you'll probably only find used copies. Still, it's worth looking for and there is a decent chance that you'll find it cheap.
Thee Plague of Gentlemen:
1. Eternal Frost (Originally Done By-Winter-1989)
Sloth:
2. Success at Suicide
Wuzor:
3. Beneath An Angry Sky / Fall into The Sky
Sloth:
4. Benefit Shows
D O M:
5. Hypnos
Sloth:
6. Pez
Approx. 52 minutes
| Primula Pestis (CD/LP) | 2005 | I Hate Records |
Although I am not so much into this stuff, the amazing riffing and the dark atmosphere of the album drove me to listen to it again and again. Everything that anyone could expect from a sludge record can be found here. The difference is that TPOG has the ability to create to-the-point music even when they become slower than hell or when they get into those electric fast breaks enforced by screaming razor-vocals. I actually prefer their slow parts and, believe me, they really know how to fill them with great riffs.
Well, what else can I write? Pray to your sludge demons and go for this record now!
1. Greek Fire
2. Your Love Is King (Of The Dead)
3. The Ocean Has No Sides
4. Pressure & Time
5. As Cold As They Come
6. Motown Misfortune
7. The Hidden Elixir
Approx. 43 minutes