Indian – From All Purity

January 21, 2014 • Relapse Records

I haven't been as into sludge lately, as a lot of the stuff I've been finding over the last few years just doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to. But every once in a while I still find something phenomenal and worth commenting on. Lately it's been Indian's From All Purity, something quite different and fascinating.

Though when I call this sludge metal, that doesn't really paint the whole picture. This album is some of the most raw and abrasive sludge metal I've heard in a while—and I don't really mean that in a mixing / production sense; what I mean is that this music is goddamn furious. It doesn't just attack the listener; it sounds like it's trying to beat the listener's head into the sidewalk over and over, screaming all the way. I'm no masochist, but here it's something I can really get into.

And Indian is really good at it; when I listen to this album, I don't really hear songs: I just hear unbridled fury as dictated through tortured vocals, doomy guitar slams, and pounding drums. Sometimes I don't even notice when they slide into the pure noise track "Clarify", since its harshness fits in with the other music. The whole thing is oddly cathartic. I suppose that's why I enjoy it so much. It's especially odd since I usually dislike slow, plodding, seemingly-aimless doomy stuff, but here it is perfect.

It's still early, but From All Purity is shaping up to fall among the top sludge albums of this year. If you can handle the abuse, highly recommended.