Switzerland’s Sludge have been at it since the early nineties with their mixture of doom, sludge and death ‘n’ roll, and have released one EP and three full lengths so far. This month they release their fourth effort upon us, entitled Lava. I’ve never heard any of their material at all, so I was keen to hear them out…

 

The band features Samael guitarist Makro in their ranks, and for this release the band also sees a different line-up with both the vocalist and bassist replaced. The sound is quite dirty as one would expect of a band named Sludge, but they could’ve done it even worse to my liking. I think the mastering by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Converge) made them sound a bit too polished to go under the name Sludge. Nonetheless Lava features nine nice tracks which vary between Entombed-like death ‘n’ roll and heavy doom as heard on the last Celtic Frost record.

The band doesn’t shun experiments in music, and therefore there are some original touches and twists in some of the songs, making this album a treat to listen to. The combination of slow and up-tempo holds the listener’s attention throughout the entire record. For those into the modern Celtic Frost, it is definitely worth checking out Sludge I’d say. I for one would love to see them live in the near future.