Christopher Luedtke's Picks (So Far)
Thou – Heathen
The latest offering from sludge masters Thou (on Gilead Media) has been one of my strongest contenders for album of the year. Heathen is a blistering seventy-four minute trip of mind-melting, despair ridden, philosophical anguish that has left me absolutely floored. Songs are heavy, eerie and merciless, laced with deep guitars, wailing backgrounds, thundering drums, pumping bass and vicious screams. Every dripping second of this album is a bonafide masterpiece. If you like sludge, even a little, you need this.
Tiger Flowers – Dead Hymns
The twisting, turning, blustering, blasting, booming, smashing, teeth gnashing, adjective/verb/adverb annihilating offering that Tiger Flowers has debuted with an album that has deservedly turned heads on Meltov Records. Songs bounce from thunderous to soothing without sounding generic or forced. Those that haven't heard this yet are truly missing out. Dead Hymns is probably just a glimpse of what Tiger Flowers is capable of.
Archspire – The Lucid Collective
Eight string guitars with shred like a whirlwind of broken glass and barbed wire. Despite the previous fragment of a sentence, Archspire's sophomore album, out on Season of Mist, is a friggin' work of art. The Lucid Collective is an album that manages to have a healthy balancing act of brutal shredding, sweeping, blasting, progression, and melody. Technical death metal has seldom sounded so amazing.
Indian – From All Purity
Chicago, IL noise/doom/sludge masters unleashed their fifth studio album From All Purity back in January on Relapse. Since then it's worked its way into my iPod as a “go to” album. From the thump of “Rhetoric of No” to the slow drone of “Disambiguation” this album is moody and sinister. It plays the attitude of “fuck-all” from the heart and does what it wants to do, never adhering to expectations. It's an album that can surprise and deserves much more attention.
ACxDC – Antichrist Demoncore
Powerviolence outfit ACxDC has unleashed their Meltov Records debut with crushing results. The sixteen track album is an erratic burner that practically peels your skin back. Rip with hardcore/punk tempos, relentless blasting, and thumping breakdowns, this is one of powerviolence's finest. I'm glad we finally got a full length from these dudes because it tears.
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