ninehertz

This is how all sludge demos used to look and sound – I’m lifted by the nostalgia before even pressing play, and what follows has me positively beaming. Acid Reflux are from Glasgow and Religion is the Opiate of the Masses appears to be their debut EP release, a short four tracks of filth and despair.

This is grimy sludge from the get-go, glorious for it too. After the opening riff of Stigmata pulls you in, the vocals arrive taking the song with it towards a Dystopia direction. Then the riff changes into something even better barely a minute in and we’re at it anew, now in the rough and ready pits of the likes of A Horse Called War (whose artwork for their EP Good for Glue has a lot of similarity with this). The vocals temper towards the sludge/stoner rock border, the whole track full of little changes and twists that keep it alive.

After that excellent start, they turn to something more drawn out – eked out in fact, of the old Eyehategod school and even in the spurts of energy provided by the guitars on Self Sufficient Sabotage, the New Orleans influence is keenly felt.

I’m smiling throughout. This is exactly how rough and ready sludge demos should sound and it is a delight that music like this is still being spawned on our isles.