Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Ledge - Cold Hard Concrete (2017)


Ledge is the new Sludge project from John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos). Now that Weekend Nachos has called it quits, I'm pretty excited to see that out of the ashes of the old band, rises the phoenix of another rad one. While the two bands are different ends of the extreme spectrum (Weekend Nachos = Grind/PV), these two bands differently share the same DNA, and that is quite apparent with "Cold Hard Concrete". Think of Ledge as being the slower version of Weekend Nachos, or if Weekend Nachos decided to be a Sludge/Doom band than to play d-beats and blasts. You definitely get that Weekend Nachos low end here. Nothing but slowed down detuned hardcore sludge riffage. Definitely cut from the same cloth as bands like Greif and Noothgrush. This shit is heavy as fuck, and super pissed as well. The crushing massive riffs from the strings paired with Hoffman's vocals, make this a sludge record that's going to be hard to put down. Front to back this shit is like getting beat with a sledgehammer. It packs the intensity and ferociousness of hardcore, but with that "Gluey Porch Treatments" Sabbath meets Black Flag slowness we're accustomed to with Sludge. There's little flurries of d-beats and blasts here, but it's limited and this is definitely for the slow riff fiends. Not really sure if Hoffman did all the instruments on this one, as it doesn't really mention anyone on the bandcamp page as being in the band, but evidence from other articles shows this may be the case. Either way, this album is the shit. Definitely one of my favorites from the year as far as sludge metal goes. As far as I'm concerned, this is how it's done. Dude just decided he wanted to make some Sludge Metal and he succeeds massively. Do not pass this one up, it fucking rules! -Samir


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