Let's Get You Started with... Sludge

the first in a series, perhaps

Sludge or sludge metal is just what it sounds like; it’s music that flows through you like sewage through a pipe. The origin story of the mini-genre has been done to death, but its contours are simple and important: where a lot of hardcore bands were speeding up, the bands that became known as sludge pioneers were slowing down. Sludge is slow and also low, one of many subgenres of heavy music where the guitars are often tuned down lower than standard tuning. Like its close cousin stoner metal, sludge is fundamentally about rhythm, but where the archetypal stoner sound might be riffy grooves ala Kyuss, sludge is the sound of distortion c r a w l i n g up your spine. It’s still groovy, but a little less riffy, and a little more droning. I find sludge to be excellent background music. As low and loud as it is, it’s music tailor-made for contemplative and serene moods. Sludge is also a genre where many of the bands don’t use dragon voice, which can be a sticking point with heavy music for many people. (I don’t always like it myself.) And if the riffs are simple, the tempos and time signatures are often unusual enough to bring some real sonic complexity. No, you don’t have to be stoned.

With the caveat up front that there will inevitably be territorial fans who reject some or all of what I’ve chosen, here’s some tracks to get you started.

Progenitors: Melvins, “Grinding Process”

You’ve got to start with Melvins, who are widely and rightfully acclaimed as the fathers of sludge. They are, in fact, the progenitors of many great things in the world of heavy music, a band that managed the remarkable feat of releasing a major-label album with great commercial appeal without ever losing an ounce of cred and underground respect. As the story goes, they were into the hardcore scene but were turned off both by the relentless drive to play faster and by the suffocatingly pious politics. So they did their own thing, tuning their guitars down to rumbly new lows, avoiding overtly political music, and getting niiiiiice and slooooooow. I’m going with a track from their first album here rather than the one that really defined sludge, Gluey Porch Treatments, but if you find yourself digging this stuff that’s a must-listen.

You can certainly argue that Sabbath made the first sludge music; you can always give Sabbath credit for inventing something in heavy music. But Melvins set the template. They invented and refined the sound, right from the very beginning.

Further study: Many Melvins fans consider their album Lysol/Lice All/Melvins to be their definitive statement, and there’s plenty of sludge to be had in songs like “Roman Bird.” For the record, if you like your music a little more conventional there’s plenty of Melvins to suit your fancy, most obviously their record Houdini (linked above), the greatest grunge album ever recorded.

Core to the Genre: Eyehategod, “Blank”

Along with Melvins, Eyehategod is a band that absolutely has to be on any sludge list. They’re sometimes referred to as “sludgecore” because their hardcore roots are a little more apparent than some other sludge acts. But they’re about as central to the sludge story as any other, especially given their roots in New Orleans, which is often referred to as the nexus of sludge, in much the same way that Florida is seen as the home of death metal. Eyehategod has the screamy vocals typical of hardcore and post-hardcore and often (but not always) play faster than what you might expect of sludge. They also use more pentatonic/blues guitar sounds than you’d find in Melvins. For people who find a lot of sludge a little too slow or meandering, Eyehategod is a good choice, as they wear their hardcore roots on their sleeves.

Further Study: The above track is taken from what’s frequently regarded as their best and most indicative album, Take as Needed for Pain. If you dig it, Dopesick is a great next step.

Influence on a Major Act: Nirvana, “Negative Creep”

I don’t care what anyone says: this is a sludge song. A little fast, yes, but the classic emphasis on the churn churn churning guitars and the deep, hoarse, druggy vocals really sell it for me. I think people don’t like to put Nirvana in these smaller genres because they’re Nirvana and it’s not really cool to include them in such things. But that guitar line is sludge in an elemental form, and the strangely low and dragging vocals are used to express lyrics right from sludge’s loser heart. And, given that this album has almost certainly outsold every pure sludge record, this may well be the most well-known sludgy song.

Further study: Bleach is definitely the sludgiest Nirvana album in general. “Dive” also has some proto-sludge roots and is underappreciated, as is true of “Scentless Apprentice” from In Utero. Nevermind is too candyass for sludge.

Are They or Aren’t They Band: Saint Vitus, “Ice Monkey”

Saint Vitus is a band that I always thought of as sludge, first and foremost, and was a little surprised to find that they’re often named a straight-up doom metal band. (For example on Wikipedia.) Those genre lines of course are blurry and the constant categorization squabbles are fully ridiculous. Still, doom is definitely a separate thing from sludge; if you’re unfamiliar with doom, think of the immense, crawling low riffs at the end of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” from Abbey Road, for a reference most of you will recognize. Perhaps I thought of them as a sludge band because I first discovered them through this album, V. (That’s pronounced “five,” I believe.) V is considered the sludgiest of their records. Sludge metal or doom metal, Saint Vitus is the band in this little list that puts the most emphasis on the metal part. There’s a little Led Zeppelin (and a little Spinal Tap) in Saint Vitus, with guitar leads and vocals that would feel right coming out of a Metallica album. Those vocals, I must say, I can sometimes dig and sometimes not; as with Kyuss the singing can be a little… on the nose, for me. But Saint Vitus is beloved in the scene and have influenced a ton of sludge acts.

Further study: You can’t go wrong with their self-titled debut, Saint Vitus.

The Inevitable Stoner Crossover: Sleep, “Antarcticans Thawed”

Sleep is a stoner band, there’s no question. With apologies to Electric Wizard, they’re probably the stoner band. Perhaps only Kyuss has done more to set the template for that subgenre than Sleep. But Kyuss was always a little faster than Sleep, and riffs a little more intricate and up-tempo; there’s a good deal of ZZ Top in Kyuss. Sleep, on the other hand, helped define stoner rock in a far sludgier direction, slowing the tempo, establishing the droney rhythms and weedy repetition. The resulting head-nodding crunch helps make Sleep a welcome addition to any sludge starter pack, as well as one of my favorite bands, period. Their 2018 record The Sciences found them in top form.

Further study: With Sleep, all roads lead to Jerusalem/Dopesmoker.

Some additional sludge and adjacent acts to check out: Crowbar, Acid Bath, Down, High on Fire

You could also listen to later Black Flag, but… I don’t like Black Flag. Sorry.