Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Eight years into the ongoing, under-construction building of their underground musical legacy, Richmond, Virginia’s act of abrasion, DRUGLORD, returns with an all-new album release.
Dropping recently, September 14th to be precise, ‘New Day Dying‘ has arrived from Sludgelord Records and is the band’s first offering with a new bassist, Julian Cook. He joins Tommy Hamilton (guitars/vocals) and Bobby Hufnell (drums) within the ranks of the DRUGLORD cartel. Let it be known, this trio is out for sludgy blood on this album.
Yes, indeed… the motherfucker is no longer on the rise but has sure footing on the Earth, and any regrets are buried deep in the past (if you know DRUGLORD‘s previous output then that statement will make perfect sense). ‘New Day Dying‘ is all about the present, in finding inspiration within this fucked up world, then molding, melding, and merging it with an audibly hostile, indiscriminate disdain.
That disgust takes a physical form at first with “Blood And Body“; while slow to draw breath initially, it soon flexes its sinewy mass of muscular riffs and bone-shuddering rhythms. With slothful purpose, the song’s thick guitars slug it out as the drums’ thunderous discharges land all about and contemptuous vocals croon away.
Off to a wonderful start, we must now “Walk With God” and clearly, the god referenced must be a subterranean dwelling one. Trudging through a quicksand mire of southern-soiled sludge is where we find ourselves, struggling to just gain a semblance of sure footing. All the while, our miscreant deity shows nil mercy, expecting only our reverence in the name of suffering. We oblige from within our unholy church as the organ plays.
From earth we came, and to earth we shall return… and “Rot Of This Earth” is the ideal track to punctuate our Terra bound trappings. Its paces accelerate at certain points, helping foster a feeling of movement and action, with grandiose grooves and some amazing guitar soloing.
Now embedded in the dirt like so much decay, we become terrifyingly aware of “Buried Demons“. This number is one of the best examples of the substantive doom that DRUGLORD can ably manufacture and distribute like so much sonic cocaine. Thick as a brick, dense as a dullard, this is absolutely, and utterly, what abjectly derived heaviness sounds like – slow like molasses, mournful like the mother of a murder victim.
Yet ultimately, “The Flesh Is Weak“, it gives way to another of this album’s most superb compositions. With punishing restraint in its advance, these riffs crawl across your skin as they flesh out some of the fattest, fuzziest guitar-hewed grooves yet. More thrilling guitar solos are emitted, while the song eventually detours into some audio best described as “Type O Negative on smack”.
Speaking of smack, crack, and all else that is whack enough to steal your life, we get to the “New Day Dying” title track, also befitting as the album’s last hit. Abrasively abusive and intentionally injurious to anyone within earshot, those damned muddy guitars vomit out their damaging fret-based dispersion as the unclean vocals grow more vile.
The song seems to generate an increasingly irresistible pull. The more it plays the more it grows, gaining strength all the while. Giving increasing condemnation as it goes, taking on bluesier nuances, and the vocals regurgitating with ever more grit. It is a most phenomenal ending, a death rattle of true doom if you will.
Bow down and beg for your worthless life before DRUGLORD, an El Hefe of obliterating southern-heaved sludge and frenetic doom. With ‘New Day Dying‘, they inspire you to survive just a bit longer, to live for at least one more day so you can jam the album again… at least one more time before you expire.
Do that now in the stream above or get over to Bandcamp [LINK] where it is streaming and available to purchase.
