ninehertz

Don’t worry, we’re in safe grounds here – there’s three lions with beads and sunglasses smoking a bong in a crack den on the cover. Surely this will be good.

It is. The expectations of a fun ride based on a daft artwork alone are confirmed on the first song Summoning of the Slugzilla, as the bass-only Barendhate dive straight into a sludge punk splurge. It sounds as if literal filth could make music, bouncing along in a rampage, a fair groove nestled into the grime too. It is a world where the sludge of Weedeater and the doom of Dopethrone are co-opted into a crust punk outfit. The riff in the middle is glorious and they lean on it for a decent period too, as they should.

It is sludge in its scabby, grotty skin, but as if on a treadmill, the pace a notch faster than the usual due to the innate punk running through its veins. On Cursed, this combines in a buzzing guitar and drum pattern that is full of drive and intent yet turns surprisingly to a psychedelic spiralling chamber of colourful doom. Barendhate state they wish to soundtrack your trip – this passage the only one which won’t necessarily push you into the fear.

Sickening is of a purer sludge construction, with its tectonic-plate shift of shuffling, barraging gargantuan riff noise, while We Will Teach You Suffering brings the album to a close with one final release of sludge and punk in grimy harmony. Estonia, named after their homeland, is as fun as the artwork promised, but it’s a serious sludge proposition too.