TOP 16 ALBUMS: The Sour 16 for February 2017

Let it be known fellow Sludgelordians, “The Sour 16” returns.  The Sludgelord presents the very best riff based music to pour scorn on this desolate day and strike upon us the might of the riff, to inject our veins with sin and guide us on journey of subservice to doom, an act that goes against the very laws and teachings of populist culture, and for those that wish to come with us on our quest, kneel with me as we embrace the thunderous din that is, “The Sour 16”.

You know the drill by now, each month, you the reader are unwittingly compiling a list of the top 16 records of the month, covering all genres of metal.  Is it not a chart, in which reviewers or contributors extol their opinion about their favourite music.  To put it simply, “The Sour 16” are the records that have been trending the most at Sludgelord Headquarters.

The results are compiled based on page views alone and calibrated into the list below.  All reviews can be viewed by clicking the artwork and we have included album streams wherever possible. (Total views since their publication are highlighted in red)

16). Morta Skuld - "Wounds Deeper Than Time" (579)

15). Crystal Fairy - "Crystal Fairy" (629)

14). Woe - “Hope Attrition” (660)

13). Weltesser - "Crestfallen" (711)

12). Grey Widow - "II" (720)

11). Dread Sovereign - "For Doom The Bell Tolls" (739)

10). Brutus- "Burst" (820)

9). Wiegedood - “De Doden Hebben Het Goed II” (924)

8). Psychedelic Witchcraft– “Magick Rites and Spells" (979)

  

7). Darkest Hour - “Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora”(1011)

6). Death Alley - "Live At Roadburn" (1023)

5). Cult of Occult / Grim Van Doom - "Split" (1096)

4). Sleep - "The Clarity" (EP) (1437)

3). DOOL - "Here Now, There Then" (1439)

2). Unearthly Trance - "Stalking the Ghost" (1526)

1). Widows - "Oh Deer God" (1705)

A big thank you as always to our amazing writers, your dedication knows no boundaries and for that I am truly grateful. February’s  “Sour 16” features reviews by:  Victor Van Ommen, Ben Fitts, Theron Moore, Brandon Green, Charlie Butler, Chris Bull, Jake Wallace, Conor O’Dea & Grim Trashcan

ALBUM REVIEW: Wiegedood - “De Doden Hebben Het Goed II”

By: Conor O’Dea

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 10/02/2017

Label: Consouling Sounds

I cannot find any fault with this album. It is a rending and harrowing masterpiece, and I recommend it without reservation. At first, I found myself missing the longer songs of the debut, but the stripped out agony that this tighter piece represents is just brilliant...and gutting. Get it

“De Doden Hebben Het Goed II” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Ontzielling (07:32)
2. Cataract (11:11)
3. De Doden Hebben Het Goed II (08:29)
4. Smeekbede (06:13)

The Review:

There is something sublimely overwhelming about Wiegedood'sapproach to black metal; listening to “De Doden Hebben Het Goed” for me felt like slowly being battered to death by waves while simultaneously being dragged down by undertow. The sublimity here, however, comes from the sense of willingly letting go and being carried down into death by those black oceans. And why not? "The dead are faring well," as Wiegedoodtell us.

“De Doden Hebben Het Goed II” refines and enhances this sense of black metal rip tides and heavy, perilous gravity. More sparse than the debut album, but retaining the same pummelling undercurrents layered sinister melodic whorls and eddies, this album feels like a titration and distillation of the bleak poetics of Wiegedood'searlier work. This album is short; 33:25 in total length. But it has a definitive narrative arc that is compelling and elegantly structured. Opener “Ontzielling”rushes out at the listener, tsunami-like and unrelenting. This is the first immersion into violent, dark and frigid waters. “Cataract”conjures both the sense of the rushing flow of these waters and the deepening of that darkness through encroaching blindness. This track crescendos, then crashes and ebbs into the resignation and resolution of “De Doden Hebben Het Goed II.” Deep solemnity pervades the title track on the album, itself in: let yourself go, do not fight this drowning, the dead are doing well, join them. In the end, we return to deep grief and tragedy: supplication, pleading, begging – “Smeekbede”. This final song feels like the mourning and keening of those left behind by this death; a final howl, an agonising cry.

I cannot find any fault with this album. It is a rending and harrowing masterpiece, and I recommend it without reservation. At first, I found myself missing the longer songs of the debut, but the stripped out agony that this tighter piece represents is just brilliant...and gutting. Get it.

“De Doden Hebben Het Goed II” is available to buy/preorder here

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