A long, long time, before all the homework and social expectations, I would eagerly hunt through Bandcamp and various music blogs looking for the most unforgiving, nasty, relentless music I could find. Oftentimes, these searches came up fruitless. It would be one of twenty death metal bands claiming a “progressive” or “old school” feel while religiously ripping off Carcass, or some sludge band who found one blues riff and was far too ecstatic about it. However, every once in awhile, all of my patience and determination would be rewarded and I would find a gem. Such was the case when I stumbled upon Sloth Herder‘s undisputed masterpiece of a debut, Abandon Pop Sensibility.
The record, to put it simply, lives up to its name. Sloth Herder never falls back on pop hooks or choruses, but instead chooses to conjure massive, misanthropic atmospheres in all of their songs. In doing so they may blast through crusty, grinding sections during one moment, then launch into sludgy, haunting post metal sections in the next. The styles may seem drastically different, and realistically are, but Sloth Herder always manages to tie it together with a slew of death metal riffs and a vocalist that wouldn’t sound out of place in a black metal band. Truly, they proved themselves to be a chameleon of sorts on their debut and on their follow up, No Pity, No Sunrise, they only continue down that path.
Below you can find the exclusive streaming link to the crushing second track from their record, a record that I highly recommend peeping.