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!!!!

Doom and Drone, Sludge and Stone Part 1: Origins

Don't get me wrong, I loves me my speedy, ear bleeding metal. There is some sort of primal satisfaction I get while listening to some fast, harsh, metal. Amon Amarth makes me want to take up arms and join my fellow vikings in arms and have a Ragnorok up in someone's shit.

But for my money, I think that the Doom and Drone of Candlemass or Boris and the Sludge and Stone of Acid Bath and Pentegram are the creme de la creme of metal. So this is the first in a series of posts of why the DDSS (abbreviated for my sake) is the best kind of metal.

Let me provide a quick disclaimer: I am not a musician, I won't be breaking down the intricacies of the G major as opposed to the F Flat or whatever. I am also not a music critic, to be honest I don't understand how one becomes a music critic. I am simply a music fan, I know what I like (which is a lot.)


It is the closest kind of metal to stay true to the roots.

While there are many an argument to who is the greatest metal band of all time, there can be little argument as to the origins of metal, Black Sabbath. The British Invasion is often cited as the birth of modern rock and roll. The Who, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. have all had profound effects on the rock and roll culture at large, yet for some reason Black Sabbath is rarely mentioned in the same breath. I never really understood that, I mean they came along at around the same time, but what they played was something darker than "I Wanna Hold You Hand," something more epic than "Can't Explain," and something more original than "Satisfaction." And that's just the bass player.

When guitarist Tony Iommi tuned his guitars down to make them looser because of an injured hand, nobody could've predicted that metal would be born. To this day, they're one of only a few bands that are metioned with any sort of reverence from accross the music spectrum (Slayer and Metallica being on that list.) Not even metal godfathers Iron Maiden are taken so seriously (Sorry Maiden heads.) I still defy anyone to name another band that has been covered by almost every metal band in existance. From Cannibal Corpse to Hed(pe) (sure they count) everyone has taken on a Black Sabbath song of some sort.

Yet of all the "different" genres of metal that grew out of the Black Sabbath seed, the metal of DDSS has remained the most true to the sound of Black Sabbath. The slow, methodical, focusing of the drop down guitars, the almost funky riffs.

Here is a standard Black Sabbath favorite amongst the DDSS elite.




I doubt you'll hear a Lamb of God song that sounds anything close to that. Now compare that to the Stoner metal icons of Sleep.



It sounds (and looks) like it could've been played at Black Sabbaths peak in the 70s, but this was made in the mid-90s, and they have inspired a whole new generation of Stoner rockers.

Now this isn't to say that all DDSS bands sound like Black Sabbath, not even close, but the bands that slow it down and pump the bass are closer to the spirit of Black Sabbath, whereas most other metal bands have gone the way of more modern day metal gods. For my money, I'll take bands that have a Master of the Sabbath sound, than a band that can strum as fast as Van Halen.