ninehertz

Originally self released in October of last year, I only happened across this now as the label Iron Corpse has granted it worthy of cassette output, and you can see why. The label description is best summarised by the line "the 90s called and wants its sludge back" which of course had my attention as it should yours. Plus - look at that impeccable album title.

After an intro of anti-capitalist, anti-work and George Carlin samples, the title track shows they're not kidding - this is good old Grief and Eyehategod sludge, but not purely in deference to a specific band's sound, like some others can fall into the trap of, more of an era, a sound so full of crud and gunk it feels buried within, just how it should be. It's sludge with a pulse and a fair momentum, fed by the riffs that swing with abandon. It is lovely stuff.

The album barely relents. There are nods to Sourvein and Bongzilla here and abouts, changes in tempo - Ruin for example, with its enticing, grubby sounding opening which almost collapses in on itself, so overburdened with its squalor, a mania driving the first half, before succumbing in its second, much slower and darker, funereal doom. If anything it gets stronger towards its end, the haunted atmosphere cloaking Abyss of My Worth and best of all the closing Slow Burn, a sound so muddied it's practically the swamp wastelands of death-doom, claustrophobic with it too, in the same way Ramesses' lashed outwardly on their Misanthropic Alchemy masterpiece.

I've talked often how Finland's doom and sludge scene doesn't necessarily get the same international renown as their death and black peers, but that it appears from afar to be as vibrant, especially dense, and often innovative. Hollow Corpse may not bring too much in terms of innovation, but it is of the highest quality for sludge. If, like me, you missed this first time around it's time to correct that error, for this is a well rounded, top notch album as good as you'll hear.