NOMAD - Feral review

NOMAD - Feral 

APF Records



I guess it's been about ten years but yeah a decade ago here in the states sludge rock turned into the laughing stock of the metal world. Basically it became littered with post college hipsters/pseudo hippies with worthless degrees who decided they liked metal. So they got into the simplest musical style, added some whacked out non-metal influences, called it progressive sludge and they all sounded pretty much the same. 


Now of course the mainstream music media liked those bands. But as Diamond Dave said years ago; "The reason why music critics like Elvis Costello and not Van Halen is because they all look like Elvis Costello."  Fast forward a decade later and across the sea, England on the other hand has been churning sludge metal acts who don't fuck around with the style too much and produce some enjoyable sounds. Granted it will not blow you away or grind you down to pulp but you'll be comfortable listening to it.


Case in point here's NOMAD from Manchester, a four piece act of sludgey proportions who started out in 2011. Since then they've managed to put out some short form releases and now this their debut full length. Honestly this band has a sound that takes me back to the genre's early days. I remember them well. You had kids in hardcore acts who wanted to get into metal but had know talent to play thrash or death metal. So they're smoking pot one day and can't get into fast music. One of em grabs a copy of SABBATH's Master of Reality from their parents album collection. And after one play they're like "dude we can play this, pass me that bong I think I'm Tony Iomni."


Listening to Feral I can hear the connection. They're mostly into older sludge with some stoner touches. It's totally raw headbanging stuff. Kinda like meeting up at the pub (I work at a pub by the way so I can use the word) for a few rounds with an old friend. It's comfort music while the vocalist tries his best to scream lyrics over a wall of sound. This release is definitely a winner in my book.



http://www.apfrecords.co.uk/

https://nomaddoom.bandcamp.com/