Sourvein

All hail the new wave of sludge, as bands like Weedeater, Fistula and Sourvein are taking the traditionalist sludge sound laid down by the legends of the genre like Eyehategod, Grief and Buzzov*en and keeping it alive. If we're being honest, there are no new ideas on an album like Black Fangs, and that works just fine, given the nature of the genre at hand. Between the crashing, frayed-nerve production, the oppressively slow tempos and the more upbeat, stoner riff-drenched songs (relatively upbeat, that is: see extremely memorable opener "Fangs" and album highlight "Gasp" for the "fast" moments) there's really nothing new at all actually. But it's done to perfection, every pained vocal, resonating crash cymbal and drawn-out riff working its magic, Black Fangs standing loud and proud as one of sludge's great moments of 2011, hands down.