slugdge - born of slime

slugdge is really something else. an outstanding progressive death metal band which reminds me fondly of gojira at times. but they are really more than just a gojira rip off. take a listen for yourself! the rediculous song titles are always top notch, haha. this is their first record from 2013 now finally pressed to vinyl. day of sludgement is upon us! red/yellow merge vinyl limited to 170 copies on willowtip records.

slugdge - gastronomicon

the last of the three full lengths of slugdge being pressed to vinyl. with the steady success of the slugdge vinyl editions, i am sure the debut "born of slime" will get the vinyl treatment in due time as well. but for now i am done with the little collection. i am really excited to add "gastronomicon" to the stack because it is such a rager.

i am most impressed with the quality of any slugdge record so far. "gastronomicon" is no exception. so well executed prog death metal that the band has no peer. uinque and most entertaining. every word uttered to describe them is a waste of resources because you have to listen to them in order to fully comprehend. take my advice and check them out via their bandcamp page.

at the end of the bygone year willowtip records gave "gastronomicon" its first vinyl pressing although the album was actually released five years ago in 2014. again i was bound to find a european distro carrying the record, if i wanted to avoid nasty oversea shipping rates. the only one that i found was jpc.de but with a hefty price tag of almost fourty bucks. so i rather looked out for an option i went with quite a few times as of late - amazon.

look and behold there was a seller that offered a copy for almost ten buck less. no hesitation, it was mine. again no colour indication, so i assumed i would get the least limited - the random edition. i was right and have now this cool blue and brown marble double lp version. my grandma had an old tooth mug that looked just like the brown lp. it's translucent held against a light source. very nice all around. 250 copies made. willowtip records. 2018.

slugdge - dim and slimeridden kingdoms

after "esoteric malacology" ticked all the right boxes and the vinyl was on heavy rotation, of course i ventured deeper into the back catalogue of slugdge. i found out that the band released already three full lengths before "esoteric...", all self-released. now the latest album sells quite good on the vinyl format. as "esoteric..." goes into its third press, willowtip records also got a few more vinyl versions of other slugdge records under their belt.

in 2017 the label already released a vinyl edition of slugdge's third full length called "dim and slimeridden kingdoms" from 2015. two colour-ways were made with the most limited being swamp green with black splatter and the lesser limited being transparent yellow. i ordered via amazon again and therefore it was likely that i was going to recieve the yellow version. fine with me because swamp green always tends to look super dark and thus almost black.

musically this album is maybe less technical and shows the main emphasis on the atmosphere. but that is just a minor difference and every tech death fan with a soft spot for sludge metal will love this record from start to finish. again i love the hilarious song titles like "flying snails" (a nod to gojira and their "flying whales") or "the toxic salts" (a nile reference to "the essential salts" is never wrong in my book) and more. such a strong record! 350 copies on toxic piss yellow vinyl. willowtip records. 2017.

slugdge - esoteric malacology

what a freaking good record! next to obscura's "diluvium" and beyond creation's "algorythm", slugdge's fourth full length is the technical death metal album of 2018. this record hit me right out of the blue, i saw a copy at js thomas tumblr and just thought, it had a cool looking cover art. reminded me a bit of rings of saturn madness. i needed some more time to finally check out a few tunes at the tube. but as soon as i did, slugdge had me at "hello" and now i needed a vinyl copy fast.

problem was that slugdge released this record on willowtip from the states. i wasn't familiar with them but found out that the label concentrated on releasing technical and proggy death metal stuff but had no large distribution over here in europe. that made getting a vinyl copy difficult, plus i was already late to the party. when i stepped to the table, "esoteric malacology" was already in its second pressing.

after some intensive research i found a commercial seller on the amazon market place sending their stuff from switzerland. fortunately all pressings are on coloured vinyl, so there was no risk in getting black vinyl. it also made getting a lesser limited colour-way highly probable, though. i did get the most common colour of the 2nd press but i think it looks nice. clear deep purple out of 250 copies. hillarious song titles like "salt thrower" (britains love their bolt thrower") or "crop killer" (does ice-t ring a bell?) add to the magic this album creates. willowtip records. 2018.