Mars - Reign of Suns (2008)

Let me tell you that this is probably the best sludge/doom you have never heard. With a blackened vocal style and incredibly well written riffage, New Orleans' Mars give you four songs that will only be best appreciated at the highest of volumes. I cannot recount how many drunk people in Flagstaff have appreciated hearing these riffs emanating at max volume from my car while simultaneously having no idea what the fuck is playing. Dug up from the depths of the interhole by my friend Judge Shredd last year, I have played this album at least once every week and it never gets old. Reign of Suns clocks in at 54 and half minutes. While much of it is atonal guitar feedback in between the songs it is well worth your patience to hear the song develop its riffs even though all of the four songs are longer than 10 minutes. Prepare your bong. Bust out the best beer you have. This is the best sludge I've heard since Eyehategod started doing heroin and NOLA should be proud of this fine band. Highly, highly, HIGHly recommended.

See? This fish just listened to Reign of Suns and I felt the same way. Get your hands on this now if you don't.

Awwww Shit

Thergothon - Fhtagn-Nagh Yog-Sothoth(1991)

Finland's Thegothon is probably the first funeral doom band. Formed in 1990 they beat Skepticism and Funeral by a year, Esoteric by two and Mournful Congregation by three. Evoken, the US's biggest funeral doom band took their name from the third song on their Fhtagn-Nagh Yog-Sothoth demo. Thergothon is kind of a big deal.

Thergothon took the death crawl of Winter and slowed it down to a funeral march and cut out the mid paced parts. They added some slow melodic parts, clean vocals mixed in with the death vox and droning keyboards in between the dirges that make up most of the music. As slow as it is it takes great riffs and songwriting skill to keep the listeners attention and not get bored. This demo never gets stale or boring.

 Its rare to have a band that you can say their demo sounds beter than their album. Thergothon is the only one i can think of. Fhtagn-Nagh Yog-Sothoth has much more low end and clearer production than their only full length Stream from the Heavens, which is very overblown to point of flanging. Overall the music is about the same quality, but the production tips the scale towards Fhtagn-Nagh Yog-Sothoth.

"THE POWERS OF THE SEA SEA, THE EARTH, THE WINDS AND THE FIRE, CAN YOU HEAR MY CHANT?"

Inter Arma: Sundown (2010)

Well I'm a big fan of combining as many genres in extreme metal as possible as long as the outcome is heavy, dark and conducive to headbanging. Not surprisingly I am a fanboy of Coffinworm, Dragged Into Svnlight, and Elitist. Inter Arma can now welcome itself to the club with their full length release Sundown in April of last year. It combines groove metal, crust punk, southern metal, doom metal, black metal, and even a bit of blues. Each genre is pulled off well and helps keep the record's varying sound. Vocals could be described as mostly crusty or sludge-like. Plenty of solos thrown in for extra measure. Solid drumming and production value.
They look like weird indie rock or beard metal people in their band photo, but don't be deceived, this band delivers an extreme metal punch. Well worth 48 minutes of your time. This is their first full length album with only a couple demos and a split with a blackened death metal act in their native Richmond, Virginia. Otherwise the band's sound has many directions it can take.

Here is an excellent track off the record, enjoy:

blackenedsouthernsludgeycrustdoomgroove

Witchcult Today: Nigeria

African witchcraft in the United States is associated with Kenyans who crack jokes about the Special Olympics.

However, in the Niger River delta Pentecostal preachers actually cause real havoc when it comes to African witchcraft. Ever seen a priest openly admit to killing 110 children and make poor people bankrupt by killing or exorcising their children? You can here (4:47). Seen a priest make a child drink a mixture of 1/2 pure moonshine and 1/2 the priest's blood? How about a boy dunked head to toe in acid after an accusation of being a witch and dying weeks later? A grown man openly brandishing a machete for the purpose of killing a young girl thought of as a witch? You probably haven't. In fact you're probably busy bitching about some serious 1st world problems. Religious figures here at home are, at worst, money leeching pedophiles. In southern Nigeria the worst are literally baby killing, money leeching, ignorant child torturers.

When you know that this is the area (specifically the Akwa Ibom state) with the most churches per square mile in the world you that actually doesn't become such a surprising fact. One of the largest organizations of Pentecostal churches in Akwa Ibom, the 150-branch Liberty Gospel church, is notorious for branding its children as witches and wizards. The Liberty Gospel church's founder, Helen Ukpabio, also released the most doom metal film ever, and it's straight outta Africa. The film, End of the Wicked, tells the Pentecostal parents of Akwa Ibom how to be witchfinders, all in the crystal clarity of DVD. You name it: cannibalism, covens, teleportation into Satanic realms, black magic rituals and unintelligible chants, it's all there and occvlt as fuck. But don't let the coolest Christian film you've ever seen let you think people don't take it seriously. There are an estimated 15,000 children are accused of witchcraft annually and those kids are ostracized, abused, and even killed. I really thought I wouldn't find anything this week that would upset me more than this, but I did.
So in the spirit of a satanism, witchcraft, and the occult, I would like to share the Norweigan doom metal band Devil. If you think Ghost is overrated, you like traditional doom vocals and want the guitar groove of Witchfinder General then Devil's first and only full length Time To Repent is your cup of mushroom tea.

Repent before your lord and master