Black Cobra
Invernal
Southern Lord

Invernal, the fourth full-length from Bay Area duo Black Cobra,  is every bit the cracked teeth, world swallowing, gaping Hell mouth I expected it to be, but the urgency and desire with which I have embraced its festering lips and drank in its putrid stench has surprised even me. The visceral battery of sludge Rafa Martinez (drums) and Jason Landrian (guitar and vocals) unleash sounds like Matt Pike taking a rusty-chained whipping from Kerry King and Tom Araya — and there’s only two of ‘em! Whether it’s Kurt Ballou’s production work or the band’s overwhelming desire to harness the force of charging thunder into suffocating black riffs, Invernal pounds out eight cuts of unrelenting rotten roll much braver, louder, and nastier than any Black Cobra album that’s come before. This here is proof that sludge doesn’t have to be prosaic, that it can attack you like a zombie ape and bite your fucking head off.

Listen to “Avalanche” from Invernal!

Jucifer
Throned in Blood
Relapse Records

Throned in Blood, Jucifer’s seventh album, sees married, nomadic duo Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood at what is perhaps their most savage, which is really something when you consider the sheer amount of LOUD these two volume dealer’s put into everything they do. I mean, this one is utterly UNHOLY, dude, as close as they’ve come to making a black metal album, really, and makes ’08′s L’Autrichienne sound like an afternoon tea party. Christ, any one of their six albums prior to this one had a handful of graceful, and I dare say pretty, moments, but this one is just ruthless and barbaric (don’t let the album’s last track, “Armageddon,” fool you, it may be soft but it’s still barbaric). If you ever thought Jucifer had a tendency to sound like the Melvins, just listen to a song like “Hiroshima” (or any of ‘em, hell) because now they sound like the Melvins on a more nuclear scale. If I didn’t already know that Amber is capable of softening things up every now and then I would assume she received a throat transplant courtesy of the Devil himself and is now abusing that vocal prowess like it owes her six months rent…and its first born. Jucifer is a multiple ear plug band on the best of days, but with Throned in Blood you’re going to want to encase your head in cement and pray that the boiling, rotten, and AWESOME energy pouring out of this one doesn’t penetrate your cold, grey fortress of solitude and disintegrate your fucking skull.

Listen to “Contempt” from Throned in Blood!

Blacktusk
Taste the Sin
Relapse

Beastly Georgian trio, Blacktusk, bring hell’s hammers down heavy on their sophomore effort, Taste the Sin, like they’re taking out a whole bushel of rotten peaches in one abominable swing, splattering black juice and insidious worms all over the goddamn place. Baizley wrapped and disastrously brackish, Taste the Sin picks up where ‘08’s debut, Passage Through Purgatory, left off by heaping a whole mess of redneck rage onto the sludge metal artistry of bands like Baroness and Torche. The angry, pounding riffs burn like fire on the surface of an oily swamp and every one of the album’s 11 songs seethe and foam like acid on an open wound. Imagine the Cancer Bats with longer teeth or Zoroaster with shorter songs and you’ve got the Southern stoner death thrash of Blacktusk.

Note: I’ve seen the band’s name written several different ways, including Black Tusk and BlackTusk, but I have opted for Blacktusk. If any of the fellas in the band would like to offer up the official spelling of the band’s name, please drop me a line. Until then, I will stick with the one word, lower case ‘t’ version. For better or worse.

Listen to “Snake Charmer” from Taste the Sin!