Outside of a few key releases from Inter Arma, Lord Dying, Seer, Nightfucker, Fange, and Lord Mantis 2019 wasn’t such mind-blowing year for sludge metal in terms of releases or popularity. Also, there aren’t a ton of independent sludge metal labels that send me promotional material. As such, I will be fairly inclusive here in terms of bands that stretch beyond what any sense of the ‘classic’ sludge metal sound pioneered in the 90’s. I do my best to find compelling and powerful albums stacked with riffs and memorable songs here, but a few of these will be less traditional weirdos for the sake of showing a few out-of-the-box thinkers with the homes that they’ll find a home as hidden gems for sludge metal fandom today. Don’t focus on the ratings, I’m keeping it brief with most of these lists this year. Make your own judgments.

I’ve compiled this list not as a “best of” for the wide blanket of sludge metal in 2019 but to illustrate what sludge metal is/was beneath the surface in 2019… And where I think it was most interesting [or, sometimes terrible] yet overlooked. From my own point of view these albums were overlooked, underrepresented, and/or passed by quickly by media outlets and many for very valid reasons. So, here are some bands that stood out to me (for GOOD and occasionally BAD reasons) as I dug through sludge’s innards throughout 2019. There are a few great bands that I wouldn’t mention here which I’ve already reviewed or put in my Top 50 for this year so, hit the search icon to see if I’ve already covered something vital, otherwise let me know what I’ve missed!

Artist	Throatsnapper
Title [Type/Year]	About the Dead [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp! | Consouling Sounds

The first five or six of the records I’ve included on this list are some of the higher quality sludge metal released this year but I’d never had time to fully review. This full-length debut from Antwerp, Belgium based Throatsnapper is a brilliant study in bringing viable melodic post-metal structures to the shaking, anxietous HEAVY heap that sludge metal is meant to be and they achieve as much without ever sounding too frail or disconnected. Winding, dreary and voluminous as a whole-and-moving beast ‘About the Dead’ sorts the details in motion and avoids flourish for the sake of starkness. No doubt this will not be ‘post-metal enough’ for some and not riff-heavy enough for others but I enjoyed that balance of beauty and heaviness, it feels like they earn their biggest ‘shouting from atop a mountain’ moments (“Wintermoon”). I was really sold on this once I’d heard Side B, as I really loved the sort of death/doom/sludge feeling of “To Hades”.

Artist	Alltar
Title [Type/Year]	Hallowed [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Alltar aka A//tar are (what I’d consider) a ‘true’ atmospheric sludge metal band from Portland, Oregon featuring members of Hound the Wolves. What do I mean by ‘true’? Well, all I’m implying is a generational gap between atmosludge and post-metal; The line drawn between is thin but I draw it where shouted vocals and big guitar riffs reign. Nonetheless this quintet strike upon hints of the sound that Neurosis pioneered in the late 90’s as they’d grown the roots of post-metal. In fact ‘Hallowed’ feels like it pulls its core vision from old Cult of Luna more than anything else, and there are a few Isis-isms (“Induction”) for folks who love the post-rock thing all the same. For this style of music I’d say the production is almost too clear where the bass is tightly controlled and the actual sound of it seems more fitting for a doom metal band, or an act that is more prone to experimental noise and guitar effects. Some of it ‘breathes’ beautifully whereas some of the guitar work feels a bit bare in the mix. Apparently this album was delayed by the dissolution of their original label so they’ve put it out themselves, through the same channels as Hound the Wolves.

Artist	Opium Lord
Title [Type/Year]	Vore [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here we go, this is an actual fucking sludge metal band! The Sludgelord really nails it when they grab a big release and ‘Vore’ is it (alongside ‘Champ du Sang’). Opium Lord aren’t the first band to have reported a difficult time debuting on Candlelight Records, but it sounds like they only dawdled around for four years because of a raw deal (plus, hey the e-mail ignoring label never sent my Absu pre-order shirt back in 2011, Fuck Them!) I’d initially felt like this was a post-metal record just based off of previews and while it could rightfully be called as such… I’m digging the thought that they’re nearly a noise rock band, but the riffs are squarely in the realm of mega-sludge sized crater metal when they hit (“Centurian”). Their resemblance to Thou persists in some sense but their whole sound is more cued into the Khanate and Hydra Head side of things, a bit of a hardcore attitude that spits at you once in a while for effect. This is one of the best sludge records ‘of the year, I just didn’t make enough time to review it in full.

Artist	Shadow Limb
Title [Type/Year]	Burn Scar [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

It’ll take about ten minutes to fully kick in but Chico, California quartet Shadow Limb have put together a solid melding of progressive rock and post-metal influenced progressive stoner/sludge metal on their debut ‘Burn Scar’. Think somewhere between the stoney weight of more recent Yob records and the irreverence of Witch Ripper in terms of the dynamic headiness that ‘Burn Scar’ leads with but, the greater rub of their sound comes through best as they shift gears throughout. Definitely check this one out if you were feeling Elder‘s last album, or Lord Dying‘s album earlier this year, but wanted some of their heavier side to fire up more often. Immersive stuff with an ethereal gloomy quality.

Artist	Warcrab
Title [Type/Year]	Damned in Endless Night [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

British death-sludgers Warcrab are essentially a modern sludge metal band that write fairly straight-forward mid-paced death metal songs into their otherwise NOLA sludge influenced sound. The gigantic production sound is more effective when those death metal moments are happening, as it begins to touch upon death/crust style on certain songs. When “Abyssal Mausoleum” strides in with what I’d consider an Eyehategod-esque dirge the mix erases a lot of the dynamic that those bigger doom riffs need. The balance isn’t perfected yet but that combination of 90’s sludge and mid-paced death metal is great all the same, the vocalist even kicks the album off sounding a bit like mid-90’s Jeff Walker on “Halo of Flies”. The best song here is probably “Magnetic Fields Collapse”, as it brings the full death/sludge dynamic into something that makes sense of how those sub-genres might work well together. I would probably recommend this to a sludge fan before a death metal fan in terms of who’d get the most out of the riffs.

Artist	Torpor
Title [Type/Year]	Rhetoric of the Image [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

London continues to be a brilliant sludge factory as we see more and more bands that aren’t so reliant on hardcore to stand out, case in point being ‘Rhetoric of the Image’, a colossus of a post-metal record. The experience is a tonal piece, a collage of monolithic riffs, experimental noise and spoken word pieces that glom into one imposing barrier for the mind. None of the ambiance tries my patience but the balls-out djent-loud guitar riffs are delivered in such measured amounts that I’d feel myself anticipating them amidst the spaces in-between. Despite that fixation it’d be the quiet moments within ‘Rhetoric of the Image’ that hooked me in most, and I’d say the best of them was the quietest, “Mouths Full of Water, Throats Full of Ice”. I dunno if many combinations can compare to that of Bear Bites Horse Studios + a James Plotkin master, their touch absolutely takes ‘Rhetoric of the Image’ to a next level of quality and ‘cinema’ that post-metal needs.

Artist	Witchden
Title [Type/Year]	Deus Nihil [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

The quest for truly misanthropic and viably (er, tastefully) extreme sludge metal lands squarely upon its target with Minneapolis, Minnesota quintet Witchden, a blackened death metal conscious sludge metal band and a damned good one. ‘Deus Nihil’ is their third record though it was my introduction to the band, as I listened through their discography the provenance was invaluable as I’d seen them go from a pretty average sludge metal band on the first record, a bluesy sludge band with death metal vocals on their second album ‘Salt the Earth’, and now they’ve hit upon a sound that is still purely sludge metal but manages to weave in occult and post-black metal flourishes and driving pieces that aren’t a huge leap away from a band like Feral Light or Wolvhammer. There are some full-bore dives into what I’d consider post-black metal, such as the eye of the storm on “Craving Agony”, but that ‘post-‘ tag is too hard a line to draw in this case as the mood isn’t necessarily sentimental. Black n’ roll High on Fire? Something like that anyhow, a great full listen.

Artist	Monte Luna
Title [Type/Year]	Drowner’s Wives [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Texas duo Monte Luna are basically a psychedelic doom metal band with the guitars cranked up to late 80’s Melvins loud and the bpm attuned to a stoned stumble on ‘Drowner’s Wives’, their second album. Are these songs really referencing a playthrough of The Witcher? Either way I’m into that and it turns out this stoner rock lookin’ thing is a great ride that manages to experiment with vocal effects, guitar sounds, and pacing to keep things interesting as they buzz through pretty straightforward sludge-rock songs. Check this one out if you’re big on bands like Domkraft and Shroud Eater.

Artist	Verdun
Title [Type/Year]	Astral Sabbath [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

French sludge metal band Verdun bring a clean and modern post-hardcore influenced sludge metal style to their second full-length. ‘Astral Sabbath’ is a crawl ‘n yell sort of post-metal album that relies on hardcorish aggression to get its point across. A high level of polish makes the album easy to sit with but even at their most buzzing intensity Verdun stick with a jogging pace that I found redundant beyond the fourth or so song. Without any really ‘big’ moments or repeatable standout tracks I’d lost interest fairly fast with this one. French sludge metal in general continues to hold the highest standards for production and sound design, I’d only wished every song on ‘Astral Sabbath’ was as impactful as “Darkness Has Called My Name”.

Artist	Charlene Beretah
Title [Type/Year]	Ram [LP/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Swiss aggro-sludgers Charlene Beretah dig a little deeper and go a lot harder on their debut full-length ‘Ram’ showing a more mature set of compositions since their debut EP in 2016 when the trio were still a duo. There isn’t a ton of depth beneath their appropriately huge and filthy sound just yet. I’d file this under the more misanthropic spectrum of sludge where a real sense of doom and general amplifier worship scrape out the ears within minutes thanks to some blackened hardcore and ‘crust’ influenced aesthetics. The trio do their best to create bleak and ruthlessly heavy songs but they often falter beyond grand and depraved atmospheric value. The lengthier songs are a bit too similar and the shorter ones don’t necessarily mesh with those bigger statements, meshing the style of “Amazing Disgrace” with those bigger chunking sludge songs would have made more sense and implicated a deeper musical personality without feeling gimmicky. It isn’t a bad debut by any means but songs bearing such simplicity must have a profound point of view to work. “Kurdes Game” is a huge groove, though, I’d check it and “Hurt” out for the trios biggest moments.

Artist	False Gods
Title [Type/Year]	The Serpent and the Ladder [EP/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This New York based quartet shifted gears in a major way between their first EP in 2016 where their doom/sludge riffs had a lighter, stoney spirit and their second EP ‘Reports From Oblivion’ where a more post-metal/atmospheric sludge edge works its way into their sound. ‘The Serpent and the Ladder’ refines this, killing more of their core groove for the sake of creating something more bleak. This third EP is pretty short at two songs and ~13 minutes but it effectively communicates the darker direction they’ve headed in with each release. The vocals are layered and pushed back in the mix while the drums and guitars buzz up front, this feels heavily influenced by early 2000’s sludge but somewhat plain songwriting means that none of it really goes anywhere just yet. The build up towards the end of “The Serpent” does pay off with some patience.

Artist	V
Title [Type/Year]	Led Into Exile [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

V has been around in some form for at least the last twenty years but it appeared to be a side project for most of that time as key members were prioritizing their time in Katatonia, Besvärjelsen and Afgrund among other projects. ‘Led into Exile’ sounds like a band who’ve spent years absorbing ideas and influences to the point that they’d have to come out in a quasi-progressive fashion. V are first and foremost an atmospheric sludge/post-metal band who bring a brooding and somewhat aggressive style that could be described as ‘progressive’ if only because no two songs on ‘Led Into Exile’ are exactly the same. The theme of the album deals with the purgatory of existence where an escape into nature brings its own hardships, some equal to the struggle of living within a psychotic and quickly dying modern era. “Phantasmagoria” feels like the heart of this conflict, but I think most listeners will be most captivated by the more aggressive “Illviljan”. Worth a shot if you like the steps in between atmospheric sludge and sleepier post-metal.

Artist	Fister
Title [Type/Year]	Decade of Depression [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Fister are ‘underground’ right? I mean, yeah. This St. Louis sludge-chuggers are adaptive in every sense, a fantastic balance of cutting edge and ‘just accessible enough’ heaviness on every release. I’d felt they’d really come into their own on ‘IV’ (2015) and made it real on ‘No Spirit Within’ (2018). ‘Decade of Depression’ is the type of covers album I grew up with that bands never make anymore, these are documents of influence and interest that serve as curation for folks who’d find their favorite band and wonder “What do they listen to?” — It is a chance for a band to communicate their point of view, their taste, and their own artful interpretations of songs. Anyhow, the major highlights here are probably somewhat obvious if you’re familiar with their sound as Slayer‘s “Mandatory Suicide” and Hellhammer‘s “Reaper” both have a nasty creeping lunge to their riffing that suits Fister mighty well.  Their cover of Darkthrone‘s “Too Old Too Cold” works really well thanks to its swinging central groove but the impact of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a bit lost in the crunch of everything and Danzig‘s “How the Gods Kill” similarly loses its core melodic interest. The only thing that bummed me out was the oversight of Bathory‘s “Call From the Grave” because they’ve covered it before on demos and smaller releases and it’d have been a solid highlight here. The final track is a re-recording of “The Failure” from the bands 2016 split with Dopethrone; I’d have swapped this for the Fabio Frizzi cover that starts the album but I understand why things were arranged the way they were. A solid covers album, I know licensing etc. is a bitch but I wish more bands did these.

Artist	Ground
Title [Type/Year]	II [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

A darker take on the High on Fire school of stoney groove meets aggro-sludge mayhem, Spanish sludge/doom metal band Ground find their best desert-stranded shout n’ rumble self yet on this second full-length. The duo aren’t pushing anything new or even all that catchy, I’m just fully there for a big throaty shout, a doomed groove, and some NOLA sludge influenced riffs to really set it off. I might be too idealistic when it comes to this genre in particular but this is the right level of alienation, intoxication, and big-riffed chunkiness that sludge needs to hit the right spot. I believe this is the first album with the new drummer Edu, a lot of the extraneous information on the band is pretty light, but he does a fantastic job on the record. Jump right to “Lamento” if you’re looking for the biggest ‘moment’ on the album.

Artist	Megalith Levitation
Title [Type/Year]	Acid Doom Rites [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This enormous 76 minute full-bore LSD soaked psychedelic doom metal record is tuned down to a sludging hulk and plodding its ten ton ass through four mystic-charged and death-charmed hallucinatory trips that are grotesquely satisfying. Yep, might want to be stoned off your ass for this one because it is long and certainly meditative. You’ll get hints of Saturnalia Temple, and Dark Buddha Rising for sure when things lean towards the psychedelic but the actual doom/sludge riffing is fairly simple and syncopated in a too-plain fashion. The record doesn’t have riffs but man is it a beautiful thing to sit with for an hour or so.

Artist	Trypanon
Title [Type/Year]	Demo 2019 [Demo/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Oulu, Finland based artist Trypanon label themselves black/doom and I’d say that isn’t nearly specific enough to convey their blackened doom/sludge metal songwriting. The best reference at the moment might place his work near a band like Furze, who mix heavy psych rhythms with black metal aesthetics and attack. The guitar work specifically appears influenced by modern progressive sludge which has some ringing tonal similarity to certain forms of avant-black metal so it all works quite well. These two songs are still finding a narrative voice for the instrumentation but the patterning and general skill level are high and worthy of some notice. Blackened sludge is not necessarily as popular today as it was even a couple years ago but a rabid vocalist atop a bounding sludgy song recalls the best of bands like Lord Mantis.

Artist	Beastwars
Title [Type/Year]	IV [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp

I know, nobody who listens to ‘modern’ sludge on any sort of regular basis missed this album. And hey, these New Zealanders had gotten some serious airtime/presstime thanks to the triumphant story behind the making of the album but, I still felt like it was “in one ear, out the other” for a lot of folks. A couple of talking points I felt were under-served: Anything sludge that Brad Boatright touches is golden and his master here is just pristine. The last Beastwars album was good but this one feels like it has some fire behind it, ‘IV’ brings a serious and emotional presence on a different level than anything they’ve done previous; And I say this even without factoring in the angry split of the band and bout with cancer that preceded it. The leads in this album do a lot to accentuate a most impassioned vocal performance from Matt Hyde and it all smacks of such a spirited reunion from a band that’d fractured hard after their previous album in 2016. One of the finer triumphs in sludge metal this year and I don’t see enough folks talking about it here at the end of the year.

Artist	Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean
Title [Type/Year]	Tell Me What You See Vanishing and I Will Tell You Who You Are [EP/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Hmm, a brick-heavy sludge metal band clearly influenced by Thou covering a Death Cab For Cutie song? Ugh, right? Nah, these guys are pretty good. Very loud, very abrasive, and their originals are hulking tribalistic beatings for the ailing mind. Give the second song, “Out, Brief Candle”, some patience as the second half is a good example of this bands ability to subvert expectations on each release. Send Every God and King to the Gallows is a very 2010’s take on No Gods, No Masters but hey, either way I’ll take it in terms of band slogans. A band to watch tentatively, no doubt they’ll do something freakishly great in the future.

Artist	Udskud
Title [Type/Year]	Udskud [Demo/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Goddamn if I don’t love it when a self-directed artist goes way too far and ends up making something as ruinous as this demo in the process. Udskud is mostly likely a solo project that hails from the Slagelse region of Denmark and though these are pretty rough sounding tracks I enjoyed the burly anxietous sludge and doom rhythms the guitar work brings. Very shaky quality in terms of the mix and studio monitors make this a blurry shrieking mess, but it all hits the right groove along the way. Big and gnarly Eyehategod grooves wretch across the span of these two songs. Throw in a real drummer and I’d like to hear more, could go in a Hymn sort of direction maybe.

Artist	Eartheater
Title [Type/Year]	Spirits Ascend [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Earth Eater, Eartheater, Ear Theater? No? Just Eartheater? Alright. These fellows from the very small town of Ånge, Sweden bring a psychedelic doom metal sound to a sorta mid-90’s Neurosis-esque level of pained sludge metal brutality. Stoney as the album art looks ‘Spirits Ascend’ is a shouted, crunchy sludge/doom record that is exemplified on the 10+ minute “Ritual II”. This sound comes unexpected from a band who’d played an accessible heavy blues style of music before taking on new membership and changing course towards what I’d compare with early 16. They do a fine job of wearing their own skin on ‘Spirits Ascend’ but they’ve yet to hit upon anything truly distinct.

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If I missed your favorite sludge metal album from 2019 I’m not surprised! E-mail me or hit me up on twitter if you want me to review your favorite sludge metal album. If you’re in a sludge metal band and you want a review of your latest, hit the Contact page and send me a copy, keep in mind I have a strong preference for classic sludge metal from the 90’s and some of the atmospheric sludge from the 00’s.