Sludge metal is a topic near and dear to my heart, as it’s one of my personal favorite genres, Sludge metal emerged in the in 1984 with California’s Black Flag on their album (My War) by combining the slow tempos of doom, hardcore lyrics and sludgy and thick sounding guitars. This genre was however popularized by Washington band (The) Melvins being the first. Melvins also popularized adding stoner rock to that, which in turn would eventually lead to bands to scrap the tempo of doom and just play fast as they want, High On Fire, and (early) Mastodon. It was all this that led to now, with British sludge metal act Raging Speedhorn who takes a fun
Raging Speedhorn 5th album “Hard to Kill” is a pretty good take on the genre. Clocking in at a miniscule 32 minutes, it combines the speed of High on Fire, the blues-yness of Down, Twin vocalists Frank Regen and Daniel Cook scream their hearts out in a way that’s just so inviting. It’s harsh enough to turn off people not used to screaming, but not harsher even that it sounds like garble words. As soon as the first song “Snakebite” takes off with “We..have… no… reason… to… die” you know damn well you’re in for a ride. “Doom Machine” is easily my favorite song on the album, the riff is absolutely killer, the production is crisp enough to hear each instrument and the fact that it’s not layered so heavy handed makes it a great listen. “Spitfire” starts with a nasty bass riff that after a few moments is picked up by the guitar. The vocals are fired off with a gusto of step off vibe, just listening to it makes me want to just beat people down. “Hard To Kill” starts with a great drum beat that just lures you in. The bass is downright nasty, that I just can’t stop headbanging. Lyrically the song is roughly about how our “narrator” is hard to kill, and shit it made me feel that badass too. The sudden lull in the song followed by that chorus is just such a fun moment in the song. “Hammerdown” is quite honestly the only part on the album that I just dreaded everytime after my 3 listen. The song is slow, it’s boring, the riff/hook consistently failed to get my attention. There is just honestly nothing about this song I can say I like. “Hand of God” opening riff reminds me of something I’d heard from crossover/thrash legends Power Trip. The entire song has these weird breakdown sections, which are luckily eclipsed by the catchy main riff, and the insane bass work done by Andy Gilmour. “Brutality” follows, and true to its name we’re back at just that, with an uptempo guitar work, complimenting drum work. It’s basically the same idea as “Snakebite” a great sounding track but absolutely stands in the shadow of the former. “The Beast” is an excellent homage song to Louisianian sludge, slow as hell, and distorted guitars. It’s pretty much one main guitar riff throughout the whole track, but it’s a damn good one. Everytime I visit this album whether it be my 1st or my 17th I catch my head grooving along to it. The album ends on a strange as hell note, a sludgy take on 70’s glam rock band T.Rex’s song “Children of the Revolution.” The first time I heard it it gave me such a double take because of how change of pace it was from the uptempo demon the album had been so far. It’s a decent cover that I can appreciate for what it is, but it’s not winning any awards from me (or making my cover song playlist.)
Final Thoughts
All in all I recommend Raging Speedhorn’s 5th album “Hard To Kill”. It’s got a lot of fun headbanger-y moments that overshower the flaws to give the short album enough of an identity to stand out from the other small bands in the current sludge genre. 8/10
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