Slow Southern Steel...coming slowly
Above is a trailer for Slow Southern Steel, a documentary about Southern sludge metal. Rwake vocalist CT and David Lipke are directing it. Shooting is still occurring, so perhaps the trailer is premature. (Scheduled are a May '10 festival debut and '11 DVD release.) But it has me excited for the film, even though I'm not that interested in Southern sludge. Much of it seems to me like (a) heavier Southern rock, or (b) Black Sabbath with yelling.
But it's arguably the most American form of metal. The music is almost devoid of atmosphere. Sure, Zoroaster may use fog, and other bands may bandy about the "psychedelic" tag. But compared to European doom metal, Southern sludge is as atmospheric as a brick. It concentrates all its power into The Riff. The Riff becomes the atmosphere, the song, and the album. Vocals are almost an afterthought. This approach is unbalanced, but it has an admirable purity. As Phil Anselmo says, it's "one f**king gigantic massive riff that steps on you the whole night." Love The Riff; forget the song; check out the many beards. What's not so interesting sonically could come alive visually. Southern sludge is full of colorful characters. Hopefully this film will convey that.
Labels: clee, features, sludge metal, usa, videos
9 Comments:
Looking forward to this movie. I was hoping it would be out sooner though. There's another movie called Such Hawks Such Hounds that is supposed to be good as well about Wino, Sunn O))), Sleep, and many others.
I'm a Northern transplant living in Louisiana, so I root for sludge the way people root for the home team of an adoptive city. I'm pumped for this movie.
You nail it about the Black Sabbath with yelling, I feel the same way. My favourite Sabbath is the first record anyway and if it's one thing it is, it's atmospheric. Most of the sludge I've had the chance to hear was not. I think we'll agree that, in Heavy Metal, without riffs you're nothing... but without potent songs with an aesthetic center, you're just one more band with some good riffs, you know? This might be unfair to say, I'm sure people that absolutely love, say, Grief, get an atmosphere from their music too, I guess I'm not in tune with naked misery enough to appreciate.
But I will watch this, as I watch any documentary about HM in its various permutations, I'm fascinated. Perhaps I'll appreciate sludge metal more afterwards.
The only band that matters from this scene is Eyehategod. AFter that are just a bunch of wanna be's.
Correct!
Rwake matter. Not nearly as much as Eyehategod, but they do matter.
All of you have something wonderful to offer! In the big scheme of things, amidst all the Facebookin' and MySpacin' and Tweetin' and Textin', that which you offer will matter! It will mean some-ting!
It's certainly no more or less true than saying that Bathory is the only black metal band that matters.
Frankly, I'm sick of all of this headbanger shit. Rock and roll was always better anyway.
If you have a chance to see HOD (one of the bands in the film), do it. Beer Reebs' stage banter is entertaining. Serpent is also an excellent release.
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