Doom and Drone, Sludge and Stone Part 5: The Sludge.

Well it’s 2010, and we hope you’re prepared for an onslaught of awesomeness from we here at Lack of Command. More on our developments as they…well as they develop. In the meantime, let’s start of off 2010 by getting our hands dirty with another DDSS lesson. REAL dirty.

Sludge.



Sounds nasty right? Metal’s sub-genres often have a degree of rebellious dominance in their nomenclature. Thrash Metal. Power Metal. Death Metal. Hardcore. Even Stoner and Doom metal has some semblance of a “fuck you” power to the names. But Sludge Metal? Isn't that the crap (literally) that forms at sewage treatment plants? What in the name of all that is good and holy could sound like that?

Well…something like this:




That’s right, we return to the Melvins. That’s off of their very first album, “Gluey Porch Treatments. Bringing the tones of west coast punk and hardcore to the lowest of low tones. The Melvins really do deserve a whole post on their own. Not just there historical and musical influence, but because trying explain The Melvins to anyone who hasn’t heard them can be quite the chore.

During the death of punk’s wave across the country starting in the west, The Melvins managed to roll it’s way to the south. I’ll paraphrase what Phil Anselmo (Pantera, if you don’t know, you really should) said “While kids everywhere else were listening to Slayer, we were listening to Gluey Porch Treatments.” Like gasoline to the fire, when you combine the low and slow metal to drunk and stoned southerners, what happens is immediate combustion. Actually in this case, it’s more like coagulation. A pissed off bunch of hillbillies with names like Acid Bath, Crowbar, EYEHATEGOD, and Harvey Milk made sounds like this.



You think it’s the low quality of the Tube, but don’t be fooled. Eyehategod is really that dirty. This was the first song I heard when somebody wanted to show me sludge metal, and to this day I think it’s definitive of the genre. It has all the characteristics, guitar feedback, a bass so down tuned the strings are falling off, and as slow as the current in a Louisiana swamp. As you can see, they speed it up for a little bit, but then they get tired and have to slow it down even more.

Fat. Drunk. Lazy. That’s the Southern sound my friends. CT, frontman from Rwake and KMBT Dj has a documentary coming out about the southern sound. Here’s the trailer. Watch for Hank Williams III, Phil Anselmo, and Jimmy Bower (southern sludge superhero of bands like Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Down) offering CT a hit of weed.



The south is and always will be the land of the oppressed. It’s oppression that is either attached or self-induced. From the bankruptcy of the Civil War defeat to the victims of Jim Crow and to it’s tragic devotion to an unforgiving church. That oppression is what fascinates the rest of the country. We can see the agony and the ecstasy of the struggle for freedom. Sludge metal is a good device for demonstrating this. It shares the same spirit of struggle that comes with American music.

Sludge isn’t the only example, but it’s another chapter in the discourse of music from a region that birthed us rock and roll. It’s lyrical content ranges between cosmic wars, to hard drugs, to raising a family. But it’s the music that makes it unique to their region. Soul. Sludge is the icky sticky soul of metal.



You read it right folks. The band’s name is Alabama Thunderpussy. It’s like Lynyrd Skynyrd covered Black Sabbath.


That sludgy shit has laid the ground work and loosened the soil for some of the best bands in the game today. Punk gave us the means to do it ourselves, but sludge gave us an overdrive!


First Command Image for 2010: COMMAND-O'S!!!!