Sunday Sludge: In The Company Of Serpents - "Of The Flock"

My wife finally admits that she's heard the footsteps. The footsteps I've heard for years. The footsteps calling into question my sanity, making me sound foolish after a few drinks over open conversation. Let's not chew on the disembodied laughter of children who aren't there or that weird chill that never stays in one place. Right now, let's just put to rest my doubts and acknowledge that there's something here. But maybe we're all fucking crazy.

Trust your instincts? Trust perception? Neither tend to work in my favor. And expectations have never panned out, so walking blindly and avoiding disappointment serves as success. When Denver's In the Company of Serpents debuted on Heavy Planet in 2012, my response was swift and staggered. Pools of fuzz found a grooving doom on their self-titled, setting up camp in the folds of my brain and stoking my swollen heart.

I was branded. The sludge-doom duo cemented their hammy fists among 2012's favorites and a follow-up was promised. But when expectations rose, I had to smother them with a bloodied towel. I couldn't let these dudes burn me like so many others had. By the time the band's sophomore release hit my ears, there was no template and no trail of breadcrumbs. I don't have to compare Of The Flock to their debut and there's no tale of the tape as it laces up against the year's best. But let's pretend I walked in with a crow on my shoulder. These five tracks would melt any expectation and set a new standard. This is a huge step forward from a band already carving their own element.

For all the riffing sludge-doom they deliver, In the Company of Serpents here adopt a more balanced approach by stretching extremes and snagging our black denim on rusty barbs. Immediately evident on four of these five tracks is an acoustic pluck, a swampy smoothness bookending the album with the introductory Ash Swamp and the closing tandem of Untied/Culling Essence from the Void. The lonely pop and hiss of rolling static on the opener sounds like a simpler time, while Untied's cool tiptoe is far more ominous and unsettling.

To say the crash was imminent is celebrating the obvious, but Craven's abrupt lashing singes like a grease fire before peeling back layers of plug and plod. Downtuned sludge swirls with heady fuzz, steadily clubbing bystanders with slow-motion snarls. Listeners are pressed into tight corners, enveloped by this heaving, riff-caked beast. When Blood from Stone gazes into unfolding doom, answers are dismissed and more questions are revealed. Riffs and Myer's thumps work in unison for a soggy sweep of the senses, but the buzz you felt is growing to a sting. Grant Netzorg's bellow has deepened and broadened it's target, while the band's aim has steadied through patience. Exploding into a steady patch of surprise, the track surges, spitting hot ash and rising only to repeatedly plunge downward.

The disc's title track finds the band's pinnacle, peppering dense riffs and summoning a smoke cloud with repeated, passioned stomps. Evolving from southern resonance into booming sludge, you'd expect (there's that word again) the trudge to hit the dirt. You'll lose direction when the burnt-finger licks separate themselves to flare rather than flatten. It's not all bone-shaking, chest-caving galumph. In every sense, this track (and the album as a whole), abandons the predecessor while managing to build on its foundations.

The moody, mournful stew of hard hits on Untied/Culling Essence from the Void is mired in stoner repetition. Avalanches of sound drop from every mountaintop, and the groove results more from controlled command than any buoyant optimism. No jaw is spared by the full scope of devastation, and In the Company of Serpents lace thick tones with endlessly proficient songcraft.

Whatever crafted these sounds, whatever's behind the curtain is hardly important. Interpret these songs from any angle and you'll find one of 2013's heaviest hitters. Of The Flock breathes with confidence, calmly composing itself between lumbering bricks of sludge. The transitions and departures are smoother than they have any right to be, and the separation from their predecessors and contemporaries has never been more evident. Among countless cloned sheep, this wolf is simply too exceptional to blend in.

For fans of: Sleep, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath
Pair with: Third Coast Old Ale, Bell's Brewery

Facebook | Bandcamp

In the Company of Serpents Debuts New Track

"Your parole agent called. Mushrooms taste like dirt. Three minutes just passed but it felt like twenty-seven. Maine has more trees per square mile than any other state. My back hurts. I heard she dates that dude Blake from Oak Forest. Nah, man... it IS a conspiracy. It's like Grover, y'know, just without all the shit all over him. I told her I didn't care if my friends thought she was ugly, I didn't think so. Shit, what was that?!"

Denver's In the Company of Serpents return this October, dealin' five bloody stubs of stoner-doom haze that'll leave you clueless when you drop dirty. A Heavy Planet darling in 2012, the band lurches one step further toward doomination on Of the Flock,  the follow-up to their fuckin' stellar-smoked self-titled. Lick your lips and keep blinking, we've gotta wait until October for the album's release. Lucky for us, Grant Netzorg and Joseph Weller Myer have laid a bait-trail. Check out Untied / Culling Essence from the Void, a dust-born twitch that slow-picks its way into sneering, sludgy blasts of darkness. Which way is up?

Check out the track below or at their Bandcamp page. If Of the Flock can take two sniffs from its predecessor, this is gonna be nothing to miss. Sweaty, brutal, and completely validating Heavy Planet's objective, In the Company of Serpents have yet to leave us unfulfilled. Some dude said their shit would run out. The best shit always does. Hit this before your dad gets home.

Bandcamp | Facebook

SpaceGod's Top 10 - The Master Stash

2012, a year of confusion, illusion, and damnation. Our favorite crop saw legalization in 2 states in America, and it seems artists must have taken notice. There has been a surge of bands getting down to the inexplicable doom boogie, the vicious, visceral plod of thunderous music which can light a human up before digging his or her grave. It's spread is even pertinent enough for Pentagram to be played at New Years Eve Parties (yes you heard me, my party van driver on NYE was blasting Mr. Liebling.) As long as we stay away from persistently ripping off The Sword in 2013, the torch, or rather, the gargantuan L will be passed on to another year of ultimate riffdom!

10. The Sword- Apocryphon

Another intriguing entry from The Sword. It continues on the path taken by Warp Riders with sections evoking 70s rock. The Sword haven't deviated from their formula, as why this record didn't get further on this list, however, it retained a supreme sense of musicality and technicality. You can hear the fact that they have all gotten better as musicians, and they do not disappoint. Delivering great syncopated viciousness and upbeat rock, an album definitely worth one's time.

9. It's Not night it's space - Bowing but not Knowing to What

The first full-length from Hudson Valley - stalwarts It's not night : It's Space. A combination of eerie psychedelia and monolithic-sabbathian stomp, INNIS built a beast from just their fans. A kickstarter construct- and a personal favorite- these guys kicked everyone's ass with something homegrown but unique in its exploration of intrepid spiritual (or psuedo-spiritual) heaviness. The opening track, The Gathering,  is a testament to all that is right with dark psychedelia!

 8. Five Horse Johnson - Taking of the Black heart

5HJ killed us with Taking of the Black Heart. A truly awesome release, they played some straight up gritty, swampy, downright bluesy riffs. The key to all of this music inherently lies in the blues, it's great to see a band stick to those roots and lay down some curvy woman-thick blues.

7. In the Company of Serpents - S/T

A demonic duo, In the Company of Serpents hit hard with their self-titled, some indigenous and vicious sludge. The best part is how precise these guy sound, they are tight musically, hence why their duo format works the way it does. A dose of powerful, low-end filled sludge that towers above a lot of the other Kylesa ripoffs these days.

6. High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis 

High on Fire never seem to disappoint us with their battle axe-sharp riffs. Matt Pike takes us back with this record, one more reminiscent of Blessed Black wings. Bludgeoning sludge with relentless force, this was a terrifying album. My all time favorite track is of course King of Days, the heaviest freaking tone of the year quite possibly. 

5. Neurosis - Honor Found in Decay

The Godfathers of Post-metal, Neurosis struck hard with Honor Found in Decay. Full of enveloping textures and whirring, grind that could incur heart palpitations, this was a definite favorite. This record evoked tones previously heard on their seminal Through Silver in Blood.  We Rage in Gold! The group never fails to produce terrifyingly heavy truths and vicious riffs with their music. Thought-provoking, and disintegratingly brutal.

4. Radar Men from the Moon - Echo Forever

A well-produced, swirling, grooving, pulsing foray into european psych. Reminiscent of both Spacemen 3, and Hawkwind, this one does not fall into the cliches of repetitive bVII-I grooves that many other bands do. A swirling long-form exploration of the self, complete with ominous delayed guitar and disgustingly awesome high-hat work. The best part is they are MASTERS of contrast, their creation of different feels enables them to soar above the pack. Go listen to "Dance of Black and White Paint." 'Nuff said.

3. Colour Haze - She Said

The cream of the crop of the psychedelic rock. Prog, Doom, Stoner, and psych all meet and coalesce beautifully on this record. The tones are organic, full, and impressive, their command of long-form is breathtaking. Both technically blissful as well as emotionally and musically intense, this record is a beautiful example of all the right things with psych, namely the fact that they do not stick to the tried and true formula of simple echos and repetitive riffs, their music evokes the past as well as pushing towards the future. A great rock album. Period. "Breath" 

2.  Pallbearer- Sorrow and Extinction

This record caught me by surprise. A record with great melodic content, informed content. A truly epic and emotionally moving record, this band took time to crafted a mountain trail, rather than just staying on the rails. A great debut record and a phenomenal display of both musicianship and a new take on older sounds. A demonic combination of old-school doom, and modern post-metal. 

1.Om - Advaitic Songs 

Al Cisneros knows how to make droning, middle-eastern music burn through gargantuan amplifiers. Om's first record as more than a duo, the subtle and calm guitar tones melded with the visceral and vicious bass-tones, the utter mastery of relentless ancient sounding music. Only a record like this could make a Cello haunt my dreams. With an unabashed fear of evoking North Indian viciousness and creating visceral meditative music that blinds your senses, Om created a towering record that makes drone doom-bands wish they knew what they were doing. Without fear of experimentation and with beautiful instrumentation, Om built my favorite record of 2012, because they did something that still relegated itself to the doom realm, but in many ways reaches far across the aisle to the universe of World Music. A brilliant and moving record.

Sunday Sludge: Best of 2012

These year-end lists can make you crazy. What you won't see on my forearm are the half-dozen band names I've carved out entirely. Great as they may have been, I had to cut it to twelve. Shit, I fooled myself into thinking I could pare it down to ten. But there was simply too much great sludge metal slung my way in 2012. Whether it's straight southern thickness, sped-up filth, or dusty bounce laced with sprawling post-metal drift, sludge is more expansive than you thought and too frequently overlooked.

I couldn't bring myself to rank these from 1 to 12. Some days I find Fistula's angst to be the essential middle-finger to my boss. Other days I catch myself dissecting Canto III Inferno by In the Company of Serpents. And had EYEHATEGOD spewed eight or ten more tracks that sounded as good as New Orleans is the New Vietnam, they may have shot right to number one (what a great fucking song). As it stands, these are the twelve Sunday Sludge-featured albums I returned to most frequently.


-(16)- - Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds

Jerue's bark is more symptomatic of choice than struggle. The only match for this is the low and vile whir of rhythm that's never out of death's reach. Without tricks and without fluff, -(16)- tread the broken ground abandoned by their contemporaries. Ubiquitous pain has evolved into flared indignation, and the resulting sound is -(16)- at their greasy pinnacle.







Fistula - Northern Aggression

Hit the e-brake all you want, but Fistula's in full control. The plod balances the shred and the fury lines every note with napalm. The tempo shifts suggest a bi-polar, manic, borderline personality glitch, but nobody will raise a red flag. The sleeping giant you poked with a stick never woke. Instead, Fistula again showed up without warning. Your skin is bubbling, your left eye is gone, and you're drooling as you sift through the soil looking for loose teeth.





Grizzly - Fear My Wrath

We're rarely met with material this overtly homicidal and self-satisfied. Lyrics can be oft-considered sludge's afterthought, shouted or muffled or buried in brilliant rotting moss. Grizzly's vocal delivery on Fear My Wrath perfectly ensnares listeners by snagging a fish hook in your lip, rubbing your skin raw with sandpaper, and leaving spit-trails of hostility dripping from your hair.






Sonance - Like Ghosts

The forty-two minutes on these two tracks breathe and haunt more like an undying memory, surging and waning beyond your wishes. These ghosts are seemingly within you, not around you. You can compartmentalize the chills, but the lucidity is never sealed off. And when you've been lulled to comfort and feel a cool sigh can be enjoyed, you're jarred by descending sludge terror.






Spider Kitten - Cougar Club

...After eleven months of sifting through some pretty incredible offerings from some pretty accomplished acts, it's difficult to find many that are this complete and this proficient. Cougar Club is thick with mood, heavy on variation, and thoroughly stung with riffs and rhythms that'll knock you flat. Moving forward, waving back, and setting the knob to "simmer" is just the beginning for Spider Kitten.





haarp - Husks

Planting their feet as sludge metal gods, haarp take their time trimming the fat and let the truth simmer. Between the sludge barrages and atmospheric back roads is tempered, expertly-timed black gold. The band's proficient but patient approach is lined with beautifully rich and vile vision. Husks isn't merely another NOLA sludge-metal record; it's a sonic catapult for a band wholly deserving of every accolade they accrue.






HUSH - Untitled I

On Untitled I, despair clouds every luxury. Every happiness is whittled and boiled. The sludge-doom truths pique our senses, but the vexed lyricism here serves as effective a weapon. The songs are strongly-structured, the shifts are well-placed. Ultimately, the songs are smart and despondent, truly questioning where we're headed. Blame doesn't need to be assigned because you know you're guilty. I suppose the first step is admitting you've got a problem. The second step is listening to HUSH.





In The Company Of Serpents - Self-titled

Down-tuned plod melds with Netzorg's withdrawn but enticing vocals. Burying licks under a canvas of fog has the track feeling like a stumble through a misty hamlet, buzzing and grinding like your old man's dusty table saw that he's too drunk to use. What's surprising for this sludge, however, is its groove. The palpable, nod-inducing rhythm is what sets apart ITCOS from their sludge-doom contemporaries. Under an electric blanket, the band's sludgy plod melts into a stoner groove, resulting in some pretty cool sounds.





Pigs - You Ruin Everything

Spin it, say your prayers, and hope your hands don't shake so badly when you wake up.  Pigs aren't gonna cure your ills or pull you from the dry well, they're gonna jump down there with you.  And by the time the police show up, each of these songs is stuck on your tongue.








Rabbits - Bites Rites 

Bites Rites challenges and antagonizes via immediate, in-your-face hardcore bullying. Rabbits are direct and all ambiguity is checked at the rotting, unhinged door. You don't have to wallow in the mud; sometimes you need to jump in and throw it at others. And if Rabbits don't manage to catch your attention with flaming piles of loose earth, they'll just gnash their teeth and rip off your face.






Rodha - Raw

Employing just five tracks of melded design, Rodha should have little trouble finding a rabid fan-base.  That a band can so strongly assert it's mettle on what they call a demo is nothing short of stunning, and their generosity is a testament to the confidence they have in themselves and one another.  These tracks are heavy, smart, well-structured, and dirty enough for sludge-o-philes to instantly fall into submission.






Make - Trephine

In Metal Songwriting 101, Trephine would be the curriculum's cornerstone. Your head is gonna swell and your skull is gonna pound, but MAKE's death rattle has unparalleled warmth and voluminous complexity.Trephine is the perfect ailment and the perfect antidote, complete with enough syrup to dull the edge.

In the Company of Serpents: TRIVIA CONTEST!

It hasn't been terribly long since Heavy Planet first featured Denver's In the Company of Serpents, a thick and buzzing stoner/sludge/doom act loaded with promise and short on flaws. It was already abundantly clear these dudes put their riffs before their wallets, but now they're offering up FREE downloads to the first TEN readers who correctly respond to the five questions listed below.

And let's just pretend your response falls to number eleven. Well, you still win; just visit the band's bandcamp page and dig for five measly clams. You NEED this band in your head!

Oh, this couldn't be any easier. Simply email your responses to Seth at desertsessions@hotmail.com and he'll let you know whether your hand was quick enough. If it was, he'll respond with a link to a free download of the album. See? Fuckin' simple! Here ya go...

(Disclaimer: These questions are straight from the fucking band)

1. How much more black could this album be?

A. Slightly more black.
B. Way more black.
C. None more black.

2. Which band penned these lyrics:

"Rip your head off and smoke your brain

but at the same time I can be tamed

Conquered and climbed many walls

now and then I'm gettin' kicked in the balls"

A. Earthride
B. GWAR

C. Sonic Death Monkey

3. Proceeds the Weedian, ________ .

A. Nazarene

B. Nazareth

C. Lazarus

4. Taco Supreme:

A. None for me, thanks.

B. Whatever.

C. Taco Supreme!

5. Mankind is ___________ .

A. Doomed

B. A virus

C. Unkind, man

++bandcamp | facebook++

Sunday Sludge - In The Company Of Serpents

Equal parts enlightening and embarrassing is when a band tells you something about yourself that you should've already known. Shit, I know what I like. At least I thought I did. I don't wanna get into a discussion on splitting hairs, but when a band uses your first listen to carve "Seth Loves So-And-So" into every picnic table in town, you tend to end up looking like an asshole to all your friends.

Great bands aren't afraid to immerse the riff in a simmering pan of fuzz, though there always exists the threat of drowning the listener in distortion. Denver's In the Company of Serpents exploit themselves and find a sludge-doom groove that's electric, misanthropic, and perfectly-timed. Their five-track, self-titled debut isn't just your Sunday Sludge. It's likely to linger and tug at your balls all week.

The band's driving force is Grant Netzorg, a self-proclaimed scratchy-throat, brown-note beer drinker. When he repeats "abandon all hope, ye who enter here" on Canto III Inferno, you can't help but think he's dead-wrong. I'm anxious for more of the band's clammy sludge, meaning I'll lock up in my attic, clutch my five-track cassette, and choke on the dust kicked up with every nod and hope-laden fist pump.

I've always appreciated a band who opens with a track entitled Intro. It's like saying "here... this is what we sound like." Not that I need it, but it tells me which direction the band plans on taking. ITCOS's Intro is grinding guitar sandpaper, entering a sludge groove and punishing eardrums with crunchy, metronomic riffs and pummeling puddle-piss skin-work. If the rest of the album sounds like this, we're gonna get along amazingly.

Leading straight into the slow dirge of Dirtnap, the down-tuned plod melds with Netzorg's withdrawn but enticing vocals. Burying licks under a canvas of fog has the track feeling like a stumble through a misty hamlet, buzzing and grinding like your old man's dusty table saw that he's too drunk to use. What's surprising for this sludge, however, is its groove. The palpable, nod-inducing rhythm is what sets apart ITCOS from their sludge-doom contemporaries. Under an electric blanket, the band's sludgy plod melts into a stoner groove, resulting in some pretty cool sounds.

Immolation is rife with slow doom riffs that echo your dad's favorite records from the 70's. Cave-dwelling vocals and splicing sludge make hairs stand on end, while the Sabbath and Vitus influences are greatly honored. We enter a steady, uptempo cruise of moss and exhaust that, short-lived as it may be, breaks expectation and demonstrates the band's proficiency. The plod returns, and you'll be lovingly lost once again. This track carries us out on an ogre's back without giving a shit that our skulls are slamming into hanging branches.

Screeching fuzz predates the slow, patient, and oozing haze of Malice. Unrelenting, the hanging vines smack your face as you plug your tin boat through the stickiest of bogs. The pace quickens, however, and the gradual flow gives way to an utter rampage of riffage and JJ Anselmi's cymbal-destruction. Netzorg's drowning pain is shaved into the track's fuzz as we tie in to the aforementioned Canto III Inferno. Loads of buzz are struck with patient, doom-riddled hover on this 9 minute-plus rollick. The track is steady, pauses are placed perfectly, and the crushing riffs arrive one after another. The rolls and ticks combine to craft an awesome closer, ultimately signaling more promise than despair.

Tomorrow morning, I'm gonna wake up and drink some coffee. I'm gonna go to work and enmesh myself in the mindless drone of data-entry and formulaic casework. And I'm really gonna miss In the Company of Serpents. I'm gonna sit at my desk, wait for their call, and watch the clock wondering if they're playing for some other fan somewhere else. I'll pick up the phone, dial the first nine digits, and ultimately terminate the operation in an attempt to avoid sounding desperate. But when the sludge is this good, you tend to get a little clingy.

bandcamp | Facebook