Sludge metal

Sludge metal (also known as sludge doom^[1] or simply sludge^[2]) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The genre generally includes slow tempos, tuned down guitars and nihilistic lyrics discussing poverty, drug addiction and pollution.

Sludge metal
Other names	Sludge sludge doom
Stylistic origins	Hardcore punk doom metal
Cultural origins	Mid-1980s, California, Washington and Louisiana
Derivative forms	Post-metal
Subgenres
Sludgecore
Regional scenes
Georgia Louisiana
Local scenes
New Orleans Seattle
Other topics
Beatdown hardcore crust punk groove metal Southern rock stoner rock

The sound of sludge metal has its origins in California hardcore punk bands in the early-to-mid-1980s like Black Flag, Flipper and Fang, who began slowing their tempos and embracing the influence of Black Sabbath. This sound was expanded upon by the Melvins towards the end of the decade and the bands they influenced in both the Seattle grunge scene, and in Louisiana with Eyehategod, Crowbar and Acid Bath. In the 1990s and 2000s, the sound of sludge diversified: bands including Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna helped to pioneer post-metal, while Baroness and Mastodon fused the genre with progressive metal, and Dystopia and Grief did so with crust punk.

Characteristics

 

The Melvins were one of the earliest and most influential sludge metal bands

The key characteristics of sludge metal are a slow tempo combined with down-tuned, heavily distorted guitars.^[3] However, some bands do make use of tempo changes into faster sections. The key element that differentiates sludge from other doom metal derived styles is its influence from hardcore punk, particularly the genre's use of high aggression and screamed vocals, though the genre can include sung vocals.^[4] Many sludge bands also make use of elements of industrial music,^[5] southern rock^[6] and blues.^[7] Bandcamp Daily writer Noah Berlatsky described the genre as "visceral and ugly".^[8]

Sludge metal's lyrics explore real-world themes, while often also making light of the darkness of these topics.^[9] Drug addiction is a common theme, while discussion of poverty and pollution are also prevalent.^[7][10][11]

Sludge bands who lean more towards hardcore are sometimes called sludgecore by music historians including Garry Sharpe-Young and David Pearson.^[12][13] New Orleans is the birthplace of the sludgecore movement,^[14] with Eyehategod being this style's frontrunner.^[12] More recently, sludgecore bands like the Abominable Iron Sloth, Admiral Angry, and Black Sheep Wall have emerged.^[15]

History

 

The B-side of Black Flag's My War (1984) featured some of the earliest sludge metal tracks

Since its inception in the late 1970s, the sound of hardcore punk was primarily defined by its high tempos. However, by the early-to-mid-1980s, a crop of bands, particularly California groups Black Flag, Fang and Flipper, began to play slower tempos as a way of antagonizing many in the scene.^[16] As early as 1982, Flipper's Album – Generic Flipper made use of dirgey, low tempos and expansive song lengths in the case of "(I Saw You) Shine", to create what, in his book Monolithic Undertow In Search of Sonic Oblivion, writer Harry Sword credited as the "genesis of sludge metal".^[17] Furthermore, Los Angeles band Saint Vitus, one of the forefront groups in the still emerging doom metal genre, released their self-titled debut album through SST Records in 1984.^[16] The album's title track, merged the band's usual doom metal style with elements of punk to create a mid-tempo hardcore track which writer J. J. Anselmi described as "the first sludge metal song on record".^[18] However, it was the three track B-side of Black Flag's My War (1984) and its embrace of Black Sabbath influence, that is generally accredited as beginning the sludge metal genre.^[16][19]

Early on My War's influence took a particular hold on Seattle, Washington's burgeoning grunge scene, inspiring some of the scene's earliest bands like 10 Minute Warning and the U-Men.^[20] The Melvins, formed in Montesano, Washington in 1983, were one of the most prominent bands in the scene to embrace the influence of both My War and Album – Generic Flipper, and would go on to be described by publications such as Revolver as the band that "invented sludge".^[21] Beginning their career by playing hardcore, the band began playing "slow and heavy riffs" after seeing Black Flag in Seattle in 1984, to form a dirge-like music that inspired much of the subsequent sludge and grunge bands.^[22] The grunge scene became sludge's most commercially successful moment, with groups like Soundgarden and Nirvana achieving widespread mainstream success in the early 1990s, playing music that merged the genre with alternative rock.^[8]

 

Eyehategod are one of the defining bands in the New Orleans sludge metal scene

By the 1990s, Louisiana developed one of the largest and influential sludge metal scenes, with bands like Acid Bath, Crowbar and Eyehategod.^[23] Eyehategod were one of the first sludge bands to form in the state at a time when the majority of local bands were fast. The band purposefully rebelled against this, embracing the influence of Black Sabbath and Black Flag, as a means to antagonize their peers.^[24] In the following years, Eyehategod became one of the defining and most influential bands in the genre:^[2] their second album Take as Needed for Pain (1993), inspired a multitude of bands to form or change sounds;^[25] and Eyehategod's members would go on to be a part of other defining New Orleans sludge bands including Soilent Green, Crowbar and Down.^[26] In a 2009 interview with Decibel magazine, Down vocalist Phil Anselmo stated "Back in those days, everything in the underground was fast, fast, fast. It was the rule of the day...But when the Melvins came out with their first record, Gluey Porch Treatments, it really broke the mold, especially in New Orleans. People began to appreciate playing slower."^[27]

The 924 Gilman Street punk scene in Berkeley, California produced a sizeable sludge metal scene in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, which included Neurosis and Noothgrush.^[28] Neurosis' transition from playing hardcore to a droning, ambient and progressive style of sludge metal helped pioneer the post-metal genre, then joined by Boston's Isis and Umeå's Cult of Luna in the following years.^[2] Around the same time, Orange County, California's Dystopia released their debut album Human = Garbage which merged sludge metal with crust punk and grindcore,^[29] a fusion Boston's Grief were also taking part in.^[30] In the United Kingdom, both Fudge Tunnel and Iron Monkey were prominent bands in the 1990s who embraced the influence of the Melvins and nascent sound of sludge.^[23]

Damad formed in 1991 in Savannah, Georgia, releasing two studio albums Rise and Fall (1997) and Burning Cold (2000) which showcased both sludge and grindcore influenced punk.^[31] Damad's influence led to Savannah developing a significant sludge metal scene in the 2000s which included Baroness, Black Tusk and Kylesa. Bands in the scenes' equal parts influence from punk, metal and rock led to writers like J.J. Anselmi referencing a "Savannah sound".^[32] Baroness' progressive take on the style, which also incorporated elements alternative rock gained significant commercial success in the 2010s.^[8] Mastodon from Atlanta similarly merged the genre with progressive elements. The band's first two albums Remission (2002) and Leviathan (2004) were cited by Kerrang! as two of the most important sludge metal albums of all time, however as the band progressed, they became increasingly indebted to progressive metal and less to sludge.^[2]

See also

• List of sludge metal bands
• Crust punk

References

1. Piper, Jonathan (2013). Locating experiential richness in doom metal (PhD). UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations. University of California, San Diego. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
2. Slessor, Dan (June 16, 2020). "The 13 Most Essential Sludge Records". Kerrang!. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
3. King, Ian Frederick (2018). "Sludge Metal". Appetite for Definition: An A–Z Guide to Rock Genres. Harper-Collins. pp. 404–405. ISBN 978-0-06-268888-0.
4. Robinson, Matt (April 29, 2010). "1980s heavy metal explosion: a guide to sub-genres". Retrieved September 24, 2023.
5. "Sludge Special". Terrorizer. No. 187. August 2009. p. 45. ISSN 1350-6978. Punk and metal may have gotten together to create sludge, but they were an infertile couple. Someone else had to provide the turkey baster that would lead to the resulting offspring of the clash of seemingly disparate genres, one that even if it shouldn't be labeled can still be seen as a distinct, unique musical entity. 'Honestly in the beginning it was like, old Swans, SPK. That's where we got the feedback and shit and the noise,' explains EyeHateGod drummer Joey LaCaze on said baster. 'The industrial side, the sampling, like the first album and all the Manson shit we did on Take As Needed for Pain,' continues Mike IX Williams, 'that was like Throbbing Gristle influence you know.'
6. Sharpe-Young, Garry (2005). New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Zonda. p. 97. ISBN 978-0958268400.
7. "On March The Saints: The Evolution Of New Orleans Metal". The Quietus. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
8. Berlatsky, Noah (October 5, 2017). "Sludge Metal: Doom's Filthier Sibling". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
9. Anselmi, J.J. (2020). Doomed to Fail. Rare Bird. p. 145. Because sludge is slow metal often written by people who grew up playing punk, there's a sneering irony you won't find in doom. Instead of depicting that most epic battle between good and evil, or reaching for spiritual truth, sludge is typically more grounded, delving into life's negativity while laughing at its absurdity.
10. Travers, Paul (May 21, 2020). "Crowbar's Kirk Windstein: "Your friends have been calling and freaking out, you've been on some cartoon called Beavis And Butt-Head"". Kerrang!. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
11. Anselmi, J.J. (2020). Doomed to Fail. Rare Bird. p. 172. Even when the punk influence is more buried than it is in Melvins or Eyehategod's music, sludge bands often focus on social ills like economic disparity, humanity's incessant drive to poison the earth, and widespread addiction. They typically provide snapshots without solutions: "Look at this shithole, here's music to match it."
12. Sharpe-Young, Garry (2005). New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Zonda. p. 137. ISBN 978-0958268400.
13. Pearson, David (2020). "Ch3-The Dystopian Sublime of Extreme Hardcore Punk". Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0197534885.
14. Bukszpan, Daniel (2012). The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal. Sterling, New York. p. 91. ISBN 978-1402792304.
15. Heilman, Max (March 3, 2021). "Album Review: BLACK SHEEP WALL Songs for the Enamel Queen". Metal Injection. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
16. Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. p. 41. Side B is just three tracks, each over six minutes long, played at a menacing crawl. It's post-Sabbath sludge-metal or proto-noise rock, depending on how you wish to retroactively consider this stuff against the underground rock history that came before and has transpired since. What's clear is that Greg Ginn and his close confidants were paying attention to the tiny but autonomous doom-metal scene that was fracturing away from the power- and thrash-metal movements (not such a reach considering that the new movement's progenitor, Saint Vitus, had just released its debut full-length on SST a month before My War came out). Black Flag wanted to raise the bar set by fellow exploring hardcore colleagues Flipper, Void, and Fang. And, as with Flipper, part of the motive for such a drastic shift was the desire to aggravate narrower minded hardcore patrons who showed up to see Black Flag rip through a bunch of two-chord, minute-and-half burners a faction of fans and bands that had, unfortunately, grown into a nationwide movement majority by 1984. My War polarizes Flag fans to this day, but there's no debating the mark it left on later trailblazers like the Melvins, Drive Like Jehu, Unsane, Mudhoney, and Nirvana-not to mention the influence it had on the seriously heavy and slow metallic rumblings of Kyuss, Sleep, and Earth.
17. Sword, Harry (February 4, 2021). Monolithic Undertow In Search of Sonic Oblivion. Orion. Predating both Black Flag and the Melvins in reversing punk's tendency towards escape velocity tempos, Flipper would extend their set into sludgy jams (venues would often have to pull the plug), distorted, beer-soaked trance-inducing mantras that led to their infamous 'Grateful Dead of punk' tag. Best known in the underground consciousness for their vital influence on Nirvana (Kurt Cobain was often photographed in a Flipper shirt while Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic briefly joined a reformed Flipper in the late noughties) they were formed by Vietnam vet Ted Falconi, with bassist Will Shatter, singer Ricky Williams and drummer DePace in 1979. Debut LP Album Generic Flipper (1982) primal. The genesis of sludge metal is writ large on the doom- laden eight-minute trudge of '(I Saw You) Shine', which pivots on a slow-creeping bassline over which Ted Falconi's guitar atonally drones while Ricky Williams wails about 'lights going out' and 'flesh stripping from bones'. An atmosphere of mental disarray prevails. 'Way of the World' riffs on eternal doom while 'Life is Cheap' brings a mournful atmosphere, almost gothic in portentous dread, as Williams offers a dirge-like mantra on the futility of existence. Shards of angular noise, off-beat, jazz-inflected rhythms and angst-ridden screams - taken at volume it becomes a power dirge that threatens to overwhelm.
18. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 73. Saint Vitus recorded its self-titled EP in 1982. Because of legal troubles SST faced, the record didn't come out until 1984. Saint Vitus takes Sabbath's crawl to a primal extreme, replacing the jazz flourish with Neanderthal simplicity. Exactly like Black Flag and Minor Threat's music, part of the LP's appeal is that it doubles as an invitation, encouraging fans to play music. The first track, "Saint Vitus," is mid-tempo hardcore doused in distortion—and quite possibly the first sludge metal song on record. Crooning like Bobby Liebling, Reager's vocals surf atop a toxic wave of Chandler's guitar and Acosta's drumming, which has its own riptide. Halfway through, a punk choir yells, "Saint Vitus / Saint Vitus / Saint Vitus Dance!" brilliantly utilizing hardcore's trope of group vocals in a metallic context.
19. Hoad, Catherine; Kahn-Harris, Keith; Hill, Rosemary Lucy (June 28, 2019). Australian Metal Music Identities, Scenes, and Cultures. Emerald Publishing Limited. p. 57. While marking definite starting points in any popular music genre is unwise, there is something of a popular consensus that Los Angeles acts Black Flag and Saint Vitus were pioneering in their combination of hardcore and metal during the early-to-mid 1980s. While typically shorthanded as the birth of slower, heavier sounds - notably sludge-metal - this L.A. moment also opened up a broader legacy whereby hardcore's separatist do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos, guitar techniques and normative masculinities started to occasionally merge with heavy metal's ever-present desire for abrasiveness, extremity and 'rebelliousness'. The hybridisation of these two once-distant poles of heavy guitar rock was far from smooth - Black Flag's slow, heavy tempos and metal hairstyles grated with punk audiences - but the hardcore touring routes Black Flag established effectively popularised the concept that metal and punk could be combined, and this idea took root quickly.
20. Michaels, Alex (July 16, 2020). "Grunge? You can thank Black Flag for that". Metal Hammer. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
21. "How Melvins Invented Sludge: "Ugly Spawn of Punk and Metal"". Revolver. October 31, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
22. Novoselic, Krist (2004). Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!. Akashic Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0971920651.
23. Hobson, Rich (July 22, 2023). "A beginner's guide to sludge metal in five essential albums". Metal Hammer. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
24. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 148. The band formed in the spring of 1988 when guitarist Jimmy Bower and vocalist Mike Williams decided to start a band that would mix equal parts Black Flag and Black Sabbath... "Eyehategod started as a way to piss people off," Patton remarked. "All the heavy music around here was fast, thrashy stuff, so Eyehategod slowed it down as much as possible and made a bunch of noise, basically. It was a way to say fuck you and make everyone hate them. And it worked, man. People fuckin' hated them. For the longest time, I was one of the few guys who actually enjoyed the hell out of it." About his band's modus operandi, Williams said, "That was the concept of Eyehategod in the beginning: to play as slow and aggravating as possible and just destroy people."
25. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 148. The impact of Take as Needed for Pain was immediate. Several Eyehategod worship bands cropped up, most of which are pretty awesome. That's how you know a band is onto something real: the bands who copy that style outright are still good. But few have done sludge so well since—except, of course, for Eyehategod.
26. Monger, James Christopher. "Eyehategod Biography by James Christopher Monger". AllMusic. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
27. Mudrian, Albert, ed. (2009). Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces. Da Capo Press. p. 268. ISBN 9780306818066.
28. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 176. Noothgrush came to life in 1994, arising from the punk scene that spawned Neurosis. A cornerstone of that scene was Berkeley's 924 Gilman St. venue, which has always championed progressive and anarchist politics. By then, Neurosis had already begun its (still ongoing) exploration of the unconscious mind. Noothgrush followed a route similar to the concrete poets, focusing on the most negative aspects of humanity. Inspired by Grief, bassist-vocalist Gary Niederhoff and drummer Chiyo Nukaga wanted to craft the slowest, most aggravating music they could, finding like-minded musicians in Luis Davila and Tom Choi, former guitarist of Asbestosdeath.
29. Pratt, Greg. "DYSTOPIA - HUMAN = GARBAGE". Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
30. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 172. This is a long way of saying that Grief is a sludge band. The Boston quartet began near the end of 1991, when Disrupt guitarist Terry Savastano started jamming with drummer Pete Donovan. Bassist Randy Odierno and guitarist-vocalist Jeff Hayward, both of Disrupt, became part of the fold to form Grief. Disrupt is a rancorous crust band in the spirit of Doom. Similar to Lee Dorrian, Hayward utilized harsh screams that, in the nineties, were more common to anarcho punk and grindcore than sludge, making Grief's painfully slow music even more, well, painful. Instead of the sprawling narrative arcs that undergird many doom tracks, Grief's songs are unmelodic and monotonous—musical flatlines. It's hardcore punk drowning in existential quicksand.
31. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. p. 219. Kylesa cofounder/guitarist-vocalist/recording engineer Phillip Cope played in Damad alongside the notorious vocalist Victoria Scalisi. Formed in 1991, Damad combined the biting rancor and dissonance of Dystopia with Cavity's towering riffs and raw energy. Scalisi's vocals are sandpaper to the ears, making Damad's transitions between grinding punk to mid-tempo sludge unequivocally brutal. Her screams have a dying-prisoner aura, and it's chilling. For nine years, Damad delivered poisonous sounds to small-yet-diehard audiences across the country, the musical version of that deviant who puts cyanide in candy for kids during Halloween. All the people who gobbled those Tootsie Rolls never forgot Damad. A large part of that stemmed from Scalisi's inimitable presence... From 1994–2000, Damad put out a handful of demos, EPs, seven-inches, and two acidic LPs: 1997's Rise and Fall and 2000's genre-dissolving Burning Cold. Damad's music is a head-fuck, and not in a "Look what I can play!" type of way, but more along the lines of eroding listeners' self-esteem. Burning Cold is like Dystopia's Human = Garbage, recreating the band's misanthropic worldview so well that it could plausibly push someone to build a cabin in the woods, cut off all human contact, and die alone. It's also another Billy Anderson production that redefined heavy music.
32. Anselmi, J. J. (October 11, 2022). Doomed to Fail The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal. Rare Bird Books. pp. 219, 225. Savannah's history is laced with ugliness, from unspeakable racial violence and discrimination to the struggle of transitioning from an agricultural economy to an industrialized one. Much like the Wilmington Collins described, Savannah is now performing that awkward juggling act of sustaining an economy that's based partly on manufacturing and largely on service. It only makes sense that the city would birth Blacktusk, Baroness, and Kylesa, bands that mix punk, metal, and rock in what's now referred to as the Savannah sound. But before those groups, there was Damad... In 2016, after fifteen years of recording and touring, Kylesa announced an indefinite hiatus. Not long after that, Damad confirmed a few live dates, igniting hopes for a new record. But Victoria Scalisi's death in 2017 laid Damad to rest forever, leaving holes in the hearts of her bandmates and loved ones. In the form of her music and influence on bands like Baroness, Blacktusk, and of course Kylesa, Scalisi continues to live. While Kylesa's future is up in the air, Pleasants recently started a project called The Discussion, and Cope formed a group named Oakskin. Both bands journey through unique visions of psychedelia and show plenty of promise. Regardless of what the future holds, Damad and Kylesa have irrevocably tainted the already-corrosive river of sludge.

Publications

• Bukszpan, Daniel (2012). The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal. Sterling, New York. ISBN 978-1402792304.