Bongripper - Miserable (2014)

Chicago's Bongripper Miserable contains the tunes that Satan listens to as he eternally torments the souls in hell. Endless starts with straight into the face riff that takes you into trance for 17 minutes.
Into Ruin is half an hour face-meltdown with nothing but punishing riffs of doom. I cannot imagine if it can get any heavier that this.You can write stories not reviews while listening to Bongripper. You can feel the strum of the palm to the guitar as the song progresses. The song takes surprising turns like turning into a full-black-metal riff, giving up absolutely nothing away from it's heaviness. Given the magnitude and heaviness of the songs you just listened Descent needs no introduction It's long, not blasting like Into Ruin but still Bongripper reminds us the demons we all feared that were under the bed are real and kicking under your bed. They are whispering that the time of doom has come.

Check Bongripper 's info on;

Bandcamp
Facebook
Website 

Pelican - What We All Come to Need (2009)

Filled with melodic riffs, affects and fluid compositions Pelican's What We All Come to Need is a timeless album that you will come to back to listen to whenever you are inspired. I have been listening to this album for about a year now and I never get bored of listening to it. The songs like The Creeper , Ephemeral, have very catchy riffs that you can easily memorize whereas Specks of Light, Strung Up from the Sky have longer tunes. No matter which song you are listening to Pelican creates calming sound monoliths that everyone can listen. An Inch Above Sand and What We All Come to Need shows the magnitude of Pelican's song writing capability. It is very diverse and effects gives the guitar uniqueness of Pelican sound.
Final Breath is the only song of Pelican that is with vocals.

Released from Southern Lord in 2009 , Pelican also streams the album on Bandcamp. Although all of the album is not available on Bandcamp there are several ways to overcome this:) The internet is swarming with reviews of Pelican so I am not going to any further. Enjoy the tunes.

Bandcamp

Sludge - Lava ( 2008)

A side project of Samael's Makro, Sludge offers a blend of heaviness for the fans of death metal. I came across Sludge when I was listening to Samael. The first song I ever listened to was Lava ,  a long song with a slow intro that is escalating into very depth of hell. Idi Na Hui , a fast Dismember-like song with a fast pace packed with 60 mm , a song with a bullet to the head. It also has an excellent video clip. Below, follows the footsteps of Lava, with scary riffs and heavy atmosphere. Although the band name does not deliver the sludge as its name suggests, it sure can deliver the mind-blowing, old-school death metal atmosphere and it does not disappoint. Sludge's Lava is an interesting blend of death / doom metal. Check them out.

                                                                   60 mm - Sludge



Reviews about this album:
Metal-Archives
Global Domination

Reverbnation
Facebook
Web


Ersin

Brunt - Brunt

It has been some time since I bought the digital album of Brunt. The album was rusting in my folder so I had a give it another listen to write about. If you are  into instrumental sludge Brunt is a band that you don't skip. The Facebook page of Brunt is run by Elliott Mariess who is also the bass player of Brunt. Brunt also offers great footage on Youtube if you purchase their album on Bandcamp. So grab your drink enjoy the warm-fuzz of Brunt.

St. Felix of Nola kicks off with a slow-head banging riffage with a slight hint of an effect. It has a little Southern sludge feel to it. Instead of bashing your head to the walls, Brunt also takes the approach of variety in their songs.  Raw Goat starts with a nice guitar riffage than it elevates skull banging riffage that makes you want to ride a giant goat in the endless fields of wherever while spitting fire! Elliott got very heavy bass tone in the songs. The bass presence is heavily felt. I do not like listening an album from beginning to end so I skipped to Out of Paper, it is a bonus demo track of Brunt. Although the song is raw , it gives the feeling of solitude, lonileness and the vast lands of desert. The sound of Brunt makes simple riffs sounding heavy.  In addition to that the songs are well structured. I can play The Tale of Hideous Tricorn all day long on loop without getting bored. Rabbit of Cannabong , my favorite song of the album starts off with Motörhead-like riff and quickly comes back to the good old riffage of Brunt; fuzzy stomps of high buffalos jumping up and down in the vast lands! This song is definitely one that I would love to listen live. A Concise History of Swob Monster Pt.1 (Birth of Fuzz) again shows us the magnitude of riffage that Brunt is capable of. There is nothing to say really other than the wonder about what these guys are reading about when they name their songs. I got nothing on "swob monster". Really. I don't even know what that means but there is one thing for sure; As a guitarist I would love to jam with these guys one day and exchange some riffs.

Check out Brunt's music and pay close attention to  Guernsey Islands where Brunt spawned. Elliott just informed me that Terrorizer is writing an article about this place. Well...we just have to wait and see who sacrificed their soul to Satan in exchange for some riffs.

Check Brunt on :
Facebook 
Soundcloud
Bandcamp
Youtube   ( Check out the live songs!!!=

Cheers

Ersin

Sardonis - II

Sardonis is a two-piece band from Belgium that excels at writing riffs for gravediggers.
I can just imagine the tunes that shake the soil as the dead bodies hit the moisty hole in the ground.
Just sit back and slide into the mass graves full of piles of dead bodies as you listen to Sardonis...These guys deliver the utmost the heaviness that you can expect from a doom band. No clean production, just heavy music for the sick-minded!

Burial of Men starts of with a doomy intro that makes warms you up to the song and then speeds up quicky.
Followed by Warmonger, my favorite song of the album, consists of a slayer-like riff. Sardonis took a very simple approach to their songs; Finding a riff and play it until your hands feel numb! Drowning takes the tempo down but it does not giving any concession from eerie sound. The album then proceeds to Emperor with a nice acoustic intro than quickly comes back to thrashy-doomy riffing again. The album gets better with Torch and the Bearer, Entering to the Woods with the doomy riffs numbing your ears
Sardonis made a good balance between the fast and the slow riffs in this album.

II is an instrumental album and most of the songs are based on war and death in a doomy way. Sardonis lets the listener imagine what to make of their songs and I like that. I have recently had the pleasure of seeing Sardonis live at Desertfest Berlin in April and I will advise anyone who is interested in doom / sludgy metal to take a look at Sardonis.

Favorite songs: Warmonger, Entering the Woods, Burial of Men, After of Battles, The Torch and The Bearer

Follow Sardonis on;

Facebook
Bandcamp



Ersin

Elder - Death Roots Stirring - 2010

Elder is a band that when you hear them for first time you immediately recognize that you stumbled something good and heavy. You know it for a fact that when you listen the same songs over and over again but you want more. Songs with diverse riffage makes you want to listen it again and again.

Hailing from Boston,  Elder is a three-piece band. They released Death Roots Stirring in 2010. I was able to grab their album at Desertfest Berlin along with 20 albums that I bought .

Gemini starts with typical sludgy entry and consumes the listener with the intensity of their riffage . The vocals are also not your typical sludge metal roars but I don't really care about that. I love it.
Dead Roots Rising starts with a nice bass intro and it is  followed by excellent guitar work.
Dead Roots Rising is so catchly to the ear I can just mumble it to my future children when they sleep.Because I will be listening to these songs for many years to come!
III is an instrumental track that starts with a nice acoustic arpeggio. It is by far my favorite song and it is followed by The End and Knot. The guitar work as well as the vocal are very striking in this album.

I think this album adds to the diversity to the sludge / stoner scene. These guys did not leave one good riff unattended in their songs. All of them blends in with the great production work and guitar tones.

These guys also released two more songs on bandcamp. Check the links below.

Bandcamp
Facebook

Ersin

YOB- Live at Hellfest 2012

YOB sounds like mega-shockwave giant that every stomp is a riff that shakens the land, crushes the green pasture. Then the fist of the giant crushes the woods and stones followed by a deafening roar! As the giant opens it fiery eyes of fire it catches a glimpse of an old enemy in the far distance up in the mountains. Then  it proceeds to the direction of the enemy , crushing the trees and shakening the very foundations of the forest.  As the animals run away in terror the ones which are unlucky are caught by the stone-hand of the giant and the forest is sprayed by the blood and bones of the unlucky creatures crushed by the merciless giant....

From the youtube comments I see the playlist is:

1 Prepare the Ground 
2 Burning the Altar 
3 Adrift in the Ocean 
4 Upon the Sight of the Other Shore 
5 Grasping Air


Cheers

Ersin

Black Shape of Nexus / Kodiak Split-- VIIIe

I have no idea what VIIIe means but it sure sounds like a great soundtrack to the world's ending and demise.
Edit : Black Shape of Nexus just explained what VIIIe means. Here's the quote;

"VIIIe: as this is a combination of a regular doom track (which we numbered in the past with roman numbers from I to VIII) and a microbarome drone track (which we number by letters) the trackname is also a combination. So "VIII" plus "microbarome e" = "VIIIe". It's drone doom algebra"


I came across this song while surfing through the Internet. I was listening to bands like Kodiak and Black Buddha Rising  but this mighty song got stuck by me all the time. I became so addicted to this song that I listened the same tune over and over again for the next week. Although it does not sound foreign, it never sounded this deliciously heavy and crushing. The song will go on until nothing remains but dust and puddle of meat covered by broken bones...

Prepare for 22 minutes of  heavy riffage and drone.

http://blackshapeofnexus.bandcamp.com/album/split-w-kodiak

Cheers

Ersin