An entire anthropological study could be done on how the region a band comes from affects the sound of any given genre.
England’s Swamp Coffin approaches Sludge with almost Hardcore-like aggression. The band stomps into the riffs on their album Drowning Glory (APF Records), a much different approach from the Southern-fired Sludge of America.
American bands take a more bong-broiled attitude towards it. Sludge is really what happens when punks try to play Doom. This theory is further nuanced when considering the differences between when it’s tackled by crust punks vs. Hardcore kids who grew out of the scene.
The Hardcore leanings are more noticed when the pace picks up on the second song, which is Sludge in guitar tone only. Even then there are a few riffs with more of a lumbering groove.
A shadow of melody haunts the oppressive gloom of the title track, which gives it more in common with Entombed‘s Wolverine Blues than Neurosis.
The band’s dynamic approach to songwriting is showcased on the title track, making it one of the album’s best songs. The guitar solo also leans it in a more Metal direction. The vocals carry more inner turmoil than straight-up anger in their throat-wrenching snarls. There is enough drive to the chug of “Hypocritical Mass” to show they mean business. On the other hand, the fuzzed-out squeal of guitars is more deliberate than not.
“Chapter & Hearse” hits hard, before gaining more atmospheric depth with a sample the band simmers under. “Terminally Cursed” carries more of Hardcore’s crushing sports. It delivers a great deal of blunt force trauma with the overt hammering to your ears.
They shift into a mega-heavy breakdown that is a very effective use of dropping into halftime on the drummer’s part. The coarse vocals find rhyme and reason on this album often locking into purposeful chants.
The last song is driven by a riff that takes on more of a technical grind. It has a robotic staccato moving with the same kind of angular math that also possesses Weston Super Maim on their most recent album.
The vocal chant, “this time no one is gonna fucking save you“ is one of the band’s more self-affirming messages. Sludge might not be the bandwagon bands are writing these days so fewer albums seem to be coming from the genre, which would there have not been a ton of high-quality Sludge albums coming out these days, this one is going to be a happy surprise for fans of the genre as it should be numbered among the top Sludge releases you have heard so far this year.
Swamp Coffin certainly stakes their place in the bog, as a force to be reckoned with.
Buy the album here:
https://swampcoffin.bandcamp.com/album/drowning-glory
9 / 10
WIL CIFER