If you fuse Black Sabbath and Black Flag together you basically get sludge. The vocals and faster tempo sections come from hardcore, the slow blues influenced riffing comes from doom. Melvins and Eyehategod would be the earliest bands considered sludge if I'm not mistaken. The term sludge generally relates to the slow, trudging, dirty riffs along with lyrical themes of societal decay, substance abuse etc. Sludge often gets conflated with stoner metal and post-metal but generally does not include the formers use of psychedelia or weed-worship nor the latters focus on atmosphere and texture. These genres are very closely related but in my opinion are distinct from each otther.

Eyehategod have such a nihilistic resentful sound. Its hard to describe. Definitely 1 of the best to do it.

This sounds more like what I'd expect sludge metal to be based on how some of the commenters in the Isis video described it: basically heavily distorted bluesy doom with hardcore vocals that's heavily reminiscent of Black Sabbath. Really goes to show just how durable Sabbath's influence was given that there's so many bands that have used them as a template without a ton of variation and yet it always sounds so good. Just groovy af with ultra heavy riffs. Nothing super original, but a really fun track in a sound/genre that never seems to get old or die out.

Dystopia and Buzzoven are great sludge bands you might wanna check out if you want to get more of the punk side of things. Sludge has punk roots and I see it as being kind of the slow and grimey sister-subgenre to grindcore in a way where it's a combination of punk and metal 50/50. But kinda like grindcore some bands lean more towards the punk side and some have the more metal side. Eyehategod is definitely on the punk side I would say, with some stoner metal riffs and grooves thrown in, especially later in their career. There is also the "weirdo" sludge which, well, gets more weird and "avant" in the approach, for this you might wanna check out the early Melvins material (first four albums I'd say), Big Business and Harvey Milk. For the more metal side there are bands like Acid Bath, Crowbar and early Mastodon. Isis is more of an "atmospheric" sludge band, which is basically borderline post-rock (don't kill me). Neurosis is also a great band in that vein and pretty much the originators of that style. There is also the band called Hell which is fuckin awesome but idk where exactly I would put them. Sludge is pretty diverse man haha

Everyone needs a little EYEHATEGOD in their life 💚

CROWBAR!!!! Another band from New Orleans, that could be considered as a forefathers of the genre. They've been formed around the same time, as Eyehategod. Tracks like "All I Had (I Gave)", "Existence Is Punishment", "Planets Collide", "Walk With Knowledge Wisely", just to mention a few

Appreciated your reaction and analysis. Landed here as a big fan of EHG, and this song in particular. I get the impression this is not a genre you typically choose to listen to. However, you still provided what seemed to me to be an unbiased and honestly, an appreciative analysis of this song. I suppose you're on to something that vocals aside, this music may have a lot mainstream appeal. That's an interesting take and I think I agree. Yet the vocals will turn many away pretty quickly. Despite that you had a lot of thoughtful things to say about the composition of this song, from the perspective of someone who doesn't listen to this stuff really. Thanks for the video

Still watching the video, but yeah, this fits a lot better into what I classify as sludge, it has all the elements, the Sabbath, the gritty fuzz, thre swampy feel, the punk, and a teensy hit of blues. WIth many of the bands I cited yesterday being from Louisiana, that's where the connection comes from. But looking it up, Nirvana's label used to classify their first album as "sludge pop" before the term grunge became synonymous with the Seattle sound of the early 90s. So the was floating around before, and it just got tacked on to the NOLA bands as something more fitting. And like I said, if Down or later Corrosion of Conformity are in the week's picks, you'll be exposed to the more "easy listening" end of the sludge spectrum. Soylent Green or Thou are deffinitely more extreme and experimental, and EyeHateGod would fit nicely in the middle, I guess. As a subgenre, it has a fairly wide amplitude. As for the lyrics, looking at the title, (still haven't heard your thought, writing as I listen) it might help that this was EHG's first album since Katrina happened, and like most people from New Orleans, they might have some strong words to say about that. New Orleans is also home to a huge vietnamese community. Them speaking of river banks is almost certainly them mentioning the Mississipi flooding. Edit: I missed the up and down references, which can also be about the city, as well as the actual flooding. So, generically, I'd definitely say it's a song about the chaos following Katrina and its (mis)handling by authorities.

Song is about Hurricane Katrina and the horrible fact that crime went up during it. And the aftermath that ppl living there had to deal with. And how New Orleans in general is bad on crime and it's a grimey old beat up place that's been hit by so much in 200 years and the front cover shows the Super Dome were the Saints play and that's were ppl looking for shelter stayed during the aftermath of Katrina.

Very cool you're reacting to this band much more representative of sludge metal isis is more stoner metal in my opinion also soilent green would be a great band to react to in the sludge metal genre

Sludge generally *is* slow. If you dig a bit deeper into the EHG pool, you'll find this. Their first album really helped to define the genre and featured less of the bluesy stuff. Grief is a fantastic example of the quintessential sludge band, as is Noothgrush, if you're looking for less "radio rock" sounding sludge. People often tend to conflate southern/blues influence found in the NOLA scene with sludge as a whole. What sludge really does, in it's most straightforward form, is to put occasional hardcore influenced upbeat sections in songs full of slow, doom riffs, generally with a bit of groove, and generally featuring shouted vocals.

I'm curious what bands you will check out. Could go the more mainstream direction with bands like Down, but I personally prefer the heavier sludge like Dystopia, or Corrupted, or Meth Drinker.

I agree Brian I love these pretty jazzy drumbeats and fills

Sludge = doom + hardcore. Sabbath + Black Flag. I saw another comment that said it's the vocals that are the hardcore part, but there's more to it - there are definite hardcore guitar riffs and especially drum techniques at play in sludge.

Oh yes, New Orleans! How about som Down or Superjoint Ritual

I think we've gone beyond time signatures to pure chaos

Thank you Brian ❤

Nothing clean about eyehategod 🤘😈🤘

This band is southern, bluesy, punk.

Try out "Zero Nowhere" from Eyehategod sometime, seems a little "sludgier" to my ears.

Best of the best 👌This band is far far more influential than can ever be known 🙄Soilent Green, C.O.C, Acid Bath, Crowbar, Goat Whore, Down, even Pantera would agree to name a few.... Of course some of these bands have members that have actually been in EyeHateGod 😂 This is a band that had always killed live 👌

Eyehategod are tentpoles of the genre but I have a hard time getting into them. It's the curse of the pioneer, your proteges and followers do it better, louder, more. But if you want someone to know the sound, this is the one to show them.

I LOVE GOD

Thou