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Seven Sisters of Sleep – Opium Morals

Bringing loads of massive, heavy riffage into your metal-bound hardcore, the new Seven Sisters of Sleep album, Opium Morals. The band really emphasizes ferocity over, well, everything. See if you can handle it.

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Torche – “Keep Up”

Florida’s Torche is back with a band new single which will be getting a vinyl release via the Volcom Entertainment Vinyl Club. Stream the track above, and check out a review for band’s last full-length, Harmonicraft, below:

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Beastwars – Blood Becomes Fire

Hailing from New Zealand, Beastwars is a four-piece metal band specializing in the sludge variety and incorporating doom and stoner influences as well. Their sophomore LP is titled Blood Becomes Fire, and the first half of it is available to stream above via their Bandcamp, where you can also purchase it in its entirety.

Beastwars’ mission statement is simple: “obey the riff.” It’s a statement that certainly defines Blood Becomes Fire, which employs its guitar and bass to emphasize chugging, rumbling lines over thudding albeit somewhat sparse percussion. Atop these riffs is vocalist Matt Hyde’s versatile voice, which can range from melodic and subdued to soaring and gritty. What these elements combine to create is straightforward yet assured, a testament to the potential power of focusing on one basic maxim.

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Cough – “Athame”

Stream: Cough – “Athame”

This is just filthy, absolutely dirty, 18 minutes of rolling around in sludge and now I need a shower, desperately.

As you can imagine the song builds at an incredibly slow pace, but when the guitars start swirling and the vocals repeating about black altars and sacrifice the atmosphere is dark and can completely changed your mood. As the song goes you can hear the pure passion behind the vocals and the guitars start screeching, it’ll make you sweat in the best way possible. And don’t expect it to end anytime soon either.

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KEN mode – Entrench

On its fifth record Canada’s KEN mode continues to translate the sounds of post-hardcore and noise rock with some sludge metal chic.

WATCH THE REVIEW

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Primitive Man – Scorn

A physically crushing doom metal album from Primitive Man here. The LP is titled Scorn and it’s out now via Throatruiner Records.

Not much light creeps into the dark, depressing place where Primitive Man makes their music, I imagine. This album is nothing but bass-heavy, distorted riffage mashed with primitive drumming and harsh death metal vocals. There are a few noisy interludes as well, which only takes the album further into inaccessible territory.

Though there’s not much on this album in the way of incredibly original writing, Primitive Man has a really massive sound. The band sounds overwhelming while moving slow as molasses or as fast as a hardcore punk band.

While there is some definite variety on this LP, Scorn is ultimately going to appeal to those who like their metal relentlessly dark and heavy. Enjoy!

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Dope Body – Saturday

The recording quality on Dope Body’s new 7″ EP might not be the best, but more nasty, sludgy psych rock is just what the doctor ordered.

WATCH THE REVIEW

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Nails – Abandon All Life

On Nails’ sophomore release, the band makes a series of slight improvements to their already extreme sound.

WATCH THE REVIEW

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Dope Body – “Leather Head”

Baltimore band Dope Body drops a new track and video titled “Leather Head.” The track comes from the band’s new 7″ EP on Drag City. The title: Saturday. The track brings the band’s usual combo of psych rock, punk, and sludge; however, the party attitude that I enjoyed so much on their last full-length seems to be swapped out for something a little darker.

Check a review of the band’s last full-length right here:

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Neighbor – Self-Titled

I like my sludge guttural, nasty, dirty, and bearded. I’ve never seen Louisville band Neighbor in person, so I can’t vouch for the band’s choice in facial hair, but those other three things are definitely there.

The recording here is grimy, heavy, and somewhat lo-fi. Metal is clearly what Neighbor set out to make with this album, but elements of rock ‘n’ roll and psych rock show up to add some extra flavor as well. Enjoy!