Ultralord

With Fistula members Corey Bing and Bahb Branca at the wheel of this ridiculously negatory, gutter trawling sludgecore outfit, it's not too much of a surprise that Ultralord brandishes a similiar sound as the speedier, more crossover-thrash style songs by Fistula. "We Hate You And Hope You Die", the band's only album so far, is one hell of a gnarly thrashcore assault that has a nasty habit of dropping massive slow motion sludge metal riffs in the middle of most of the songs, and just like with Fistula, these guys are masters at creating some of the heaviest riffs you've ever heard.

It's like they tap into everything great about Age Of Quarrel and the way that Eyehategod can vomit endless feedback out of their amplifiers for eons. Ultralord also includes Scott Stearns on guitar, and if you've been following the Ohio/Shifty Records sludge scene at all, you'll probably recognize him as the artist behind a lot of the album covers on Shifty; his hyperdetailed sketch style of illustration has singlehandedly elevated the teenage hesher ritual of scrawling demons and thrash metal logos on notebooks into a higher art form. We've been digging his stuff for awhile, and it's cool to hear him in action here as one of the band's two guitarists; the wicked solos are ripped out like Greg Ginn gone speedmetal and they get downright psychedelic at times, especially when they start shredding over one of Ultralord's grinding sludge dirges. This is bone-powdering deathsludge from the black pits of eastern Ohio, choking on dope smoke and shrieking tales of wizard pimps and black maggots, and even as seemingly tongue-in-cheek as this gets at times, Ultralord deliver a sheer warped heaviness that's totally pulverizing.