TITANOSAUR gets in The Swamp! Fuzzy Cracklins and The Swamp Records are excited to announce the sludge metal solo band is bringing their music to The Swamp Krewe with a new album coming later this year.
Before we get started, can you spot Fuzzy in the album cover?? Right on!! Go check out the artist Paul Winck at https://www.instagram.com/paulwinck/
Things start right with some nice distortion and feedback, and then a heavy bass riff drops, the screaming commences, and it just gets heavier from there. Bass riff? Yea, Seum doesn't bother with guitars. It's all bass, baby. Listen to the pre-release single "Silence et Crasse" on Bandcamp:
BTW, "SEUM" means Venom in Arabic and is French slang for disappointment and frustration. Matches their music perfectly!
Fuzzy is always saying how much he digs foreign language songs. So many great stoner bands sing in Spanish, and The Swamp's GREEN HOG sings in Russian while DEATHGANG sings in Indonesian (!!), and Seum sings "Silence et Crasse" in French. Dang, I didn't realize French could sound so dirty! Which is to say, I love it! Isn't French supposed to be the language of love? Not when Seum has their way with it.
Up next is the eponymous track "Seum" which carries forward the bass-heavy riffs, sludge vocals, albeit this time it's back to English. Which sounds just as good as the French, so no worries there.
#3 is "Super Tanker" which slows things down, but keeps it just as heavy. This one is a real slow burner that picks up the pace as it goes on. Great stuff.
"Diplodokush" gets us past the halfway mark and features the dirtiest vocals on the album. This song is a "sludge ballad" with it's focus on the vocals and drawn-out riffs. By now, either you are in a mind meld with Seum, or else you miss the guitars and this ain't the band for you. For me, Seum has found a killer sound with their bass-only formula. Check out the video for Diplodokush on YouTube:
It was while listening to "St. Catherine" that I realized something about Seum that I like so much. I've always had a thing for 2-piece bands (check out my comp "Sticks & Strings vol. 1") and in a way, Seum is a 2-piece band, in the sense that the music is the 2-piece, and then they add on the vocals. I love the raw energy of a 2-piece and this band takes advantage of that.
"Raining Bricks" ends things with some downright funky groovy riffage, and I gotta say, this album ended waaaaaaaay too quickly. I'm definitely going to be hitting the REPLAY button a lot on this one.
Let's wrap it up: Fuzzy digs this band! Ultra heavy, quick riffage, and totally nasty. Right on!
Fuzzy's favorite track: I gotta go with Super Tanker, although the French in Silence et Crasse is pretty damn great too. No weak tracks on here.
SWAMP KREWE PROMOTION PACKAGE!! Fuzzy has over 125 super fans in The Swamp Krewe subscription on Bandcamp. Send album codes to fuzzycracklins@gmail.com and if your music is KILLER then I'll share them with The Swamp Krewe. They have a lot of their own followers, so your album will get into the collections & feeds of many Bandcampers very quickly. It's FREE! Contact fuzzycracklins@gmail.com
CD OF THE MONTH MAILERS!! Fuzzy mails out over 75 CDs to super fans in the USA every month. They love to hear about new bands and new music, so send Fuzzy your stickers, printed album codes, promo CDs, whatever you want. Any number is good. Fuzzy is already paying the postage, and The Swamp Krewe loves swag and frequently posts to Instagram, so contact fuzzycracklins@gmail.com to make it happen! Bands, labels, podcasters, radio show DJs, bloggers, reviewers, get at me! It's FREE!
Greetings from The Swamp. Fuzzy hopes this review finds you safe and practicing social isolation. Each of us has to protect those around us.
The PNW strikes yet again with its special blend of heavy psych music. This time it's the debut album from Seattle's SORCIA. This trio puts the "heavy" into their music with generous head-crushing dollops of sludge, grunge, stoner, and metal. Oh, let's not pass over the tons of doom and blues. Too many tags? Not when it's this good. On top of all the bone-crunching heaviness, the vocals on this beast are as mind-boggling as they are soul-destroying. We've got not only a variation of styles by the main vocalist (and guitarist) Neal De Atley with some sludge, some clean, and some blues. But we've also got the blending with bassist Jessica Brasch who mixes in her soulful and haunting singing. Check out SORCIA s/t:
When an album delivers this much great tunage, it's not cool to pick out some favorites, but let me just say that the vocals on "Coffin Nails" are so satisfying that it's hard not to hit that single-repeat button. But let this ripping album finish to the end where more delights await your hungry soul.
"I know what Hell is and I won't be a slave .... When you know the truth, you know the lies."
The Mrs. Cracklins' mini review: "I bet this band delivers a great live show." Indeed. And hopefully Sorcia will be able to hit the road again sooner than later.
Sorcia band is from Seattle with the members:
Neal De Atley: Guitar/Vocals
Jessica Brasch: Bass/Vocals
Bryson Marcey: Drums
From the band:
SORCIA hails from the Snoqualmie Valley in the Eastern outskirts of Seattle, Washington. After solidifying their lineup in 2018, SORCIA hit the ground running, releasing a two-song demo in January 2019.
Combining blues-laden groovy riffs into the raw heaviness of doom metal with the added dynamic of dual vocals, they deliver their own method of Pacific Northwest heavy stoner sludge metal. Since release of their demo, SORCIA has been performing live shows nearly non-stop around the PNW, with an increased abundance as we fully dive into 2020.
Check out the digital and CD & shirts from Sorcia on Bandcamp, and remember now is the time to support the bands you love as much as you are able to:
I have been called the Swamp Lord, so when I spied this sludge psych metal masterpiece on Bandcamp the other day, I had to check it out. Masterpiece? Only if you dig hard fuzz with slow riffs and vocals that stand out from the typical sludge fare like the flame from a methane burst. Check out the debut album from SWAMPLORD:
The guitar solos on this beast are unreal. They veer right into pure psychedelia, and they float around the fuzzy riffs like evil demons trying to infect your brain. And yet the vocals are eerily angelic. Well, demons are fallen angels, right? So I guess that makes sense. Evil angels. Angelic demons.
There is definitely a psychedelic element to this sludge metal. Sludge psych metal.
Definitely it's the vocals with their layers and effects and general trippiness that make this album stand out. Don't get me wrong -- the heavy doom psych is killer. It just becomes super killer with the vocals piled on. Check out SWAMPLORD!
I'm finally catching up on my reviews after the holidays, but I was listening to a lot of music and one album that got a lot of spins in The Swamp in December was the self-titled debut album from Chicago's FARSEER. This album sounds way beyond the typical debut effort and it delivers 47 minutes of a mostly instrument mix of progressive psych and sludge metal with two different singing styles added onto a few of the songs. I really dig this album. Take a listen:
I picked "Mouse Utopia" as one of Fuzzy's Fresh Picks on last month's show on Par9noid's Metal Underground so I guess that's my favorite song from the album. It's got a nonstop pounding rhythmn combined with guitars floating over the top, and vocals that kick in at just the right time. But it was not easy to pick a favorite from this album because it mitaintains a nearly perfect blend of progressive psych and sludge for the full 47 minutes.
The vocals do not dominate this album. Half the songs are instrumental, and when the vocals kick in they blend so seamlessly with the music it's like they are another instrument. That being said, I really dig the two styles of vocals. "Mouse Utopia" is full-bore gritty then when it gets to "Sleep in the Sound" we have a mix of those along with more angelic vocals.
Farseer is:
Brendan McCarthy: Guitar + Vocals
Ted Ballantine: Guitar
George Burrows: Bass
Kyle Curtis: Drums
From the band:
Blending post-metal and Floydian psychedelics with crushing riffs and consuming atmosphere, Farseer is a dynamic 4-piece progressive metal project from Chicago.
Influenced by / FFO:
Led Zeppelin, Modest Mouse, Baroness, Torche, Deafheaven, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Pink Floyd, Mastodon, Pelican, Russian Circles
Upcoming shows:
January 10 at Penny Road Pub in Barringon, IL with The Darkhorse Collective show info
Man how I love it when a band I never heard of just shoots me an email and says, Hey check us out! and they are as good as sludge metal duo PSICONAUTA from Brazil. Their 2-track EP is HUNTING DAY with the first track in English and the second track in Portuguese. Both songs have the fuzzy heavy slow, relentless and unending sonic punishment that I love to hear. Check them out!
If you check out the Facebook page (link below) for Psiconauta, they will tell their influences include some familiar bands (Black Sabbath, Bongzilla) and also .... Muddy Waters! Hell yes! You can here the Chicago blues influence too, especially in Cabeça a Prêmio (Head to Award or Prize Head, get it?).
Psiconauta
Hopefully these heavy fuzz masters will drop a track on my next comp, what do you think? BRASIL IN FUZZ drops at the end of the month and it is EPIC! Already over FIVE HOURS of heavy music only from Brazilian bands. Dig it right there.
You already know that Fuzzy loves sticks & strings duo bands, right? Cuz I made a whole comp of their songs earlier this year! Check out STICKS & STRINGS VOL. 1 on Bandcamp and it's FREE to stream or download! Right on!!
I might never get out of this doom kick I am in right now. I guess once your feet get stuck in the sludge you can't pull them out. Stream and read the Fuzzy Cracklins' album review of the heavy doomy sludgy Velas Negras (Black Candles) from Argentina's Fulanno........
From the darkest and dankest corners of the underground music scene comes a compilation that only Opium Warlock could assemble. From doom to sludge to ambient and everything in between ... crawl into the dungeon, medicate your mind, and join Opium Warlock in his Dungeon of Darkness.
I'm not in the bayou this week and already I am homesick for the heavy swamp tunes. Anyone who has yet to hear Shroud by SpaceMetal is in for some heavy riffs, killer vocals, and lyrics that are way more enticing than the usual. And these fine Southern gentlemen offered up some FREE download codes to the friends of Fuzzy so read on for the Fuzzy Cracklins review of the heavy metal Shroud by SpaceMetal (and to claim your download code).......
