SLUDGE

I wasn't sure what to make of "Lava" by Switzerland's SLUDGE, except to note that it is loud, ugly, distorted, and jam-packed with enough nerve-fraying sounds to knock an elephant off its feet. If nothing else, it made me recognize the fact that Denmark's Mighty Music has released some real face-breakers this year, including recent efforts by VICIOUS ART and THORIUM. That the act is led by SAMAEL guitarist Makro (who also produces) also piqued my interest.

So what to make of "Lava", that's the question. Despite the name, the style is not sludge, and yet there are elements of the genre in the way some of the slow tunes scrape across pavement through clouds of distortion and aural acidity. The crawling monolith side of the equation, the one that sounds as though the members of UNSANE experienced bad acid trips at an AmRep reunion party that CELTIC FROST crashed, begins in earnest with the title track. Pardon the pun, but it really does come off like a threatening lava flow down the side of a volcano, as the band sprinkles weird spoken bits and effects to go with the screams of a man who is apparently in the midst of immolation. The deft use of space between tremors on "Below" makes it notable. But it is on the eight-minute epic "Inquisition" that the gnarly needle slams into the red and breaks off, the track coming off like a distortion bleeding nightmare with the down-tuned guitars and menacing bass lines seeming to corner the listener until fear induces shock and ultimately death. It is most appropriate that the album closes with a lumbering instrumental track called "The End" with its chilling use of piano during the first section before the guitars, bass, and drums fill up more and more space until suffocation occurs.

Then you've got the quicker tempo side of the equation. The album begins with a mid-paced, straight-ahead crusher called "60 MM" followed by the quicker-paced "Idi Na Hui", which in a way sounds like fucked up crust punk played through a bottom-heavy distortion filter. "Carnivore" is another mid-tempo bull in a china shop that also happens to have its fare share of audio oddities. It is on these tracks where the ENTOMBED references that you'll read in the press releases do make some sense, largely because of the motoring style, the threads of the Sunlight sound, and the sheer terror of it all.

"Lava" does not sound like anything else I've heard this year, or last year for that matter. While SLUDGE may not be the new kings, the album does intrigue. And boy, do these guys really know how to bring the ugliness.