Diaries of Doom

Happy New Year! 2025 birthed some fantastic releases in the heavy music world, and I've picked out five hidden gems from the English circuit that may have flown under your radars. We've got a melting pot of groove metal, sludge, death metal, and all of the above in my recommendations, which mostly saw the light of day over the second half of last year. I want to use this to thank everyone who sends me their music for review. I would love to give space on my blog to every artist who emails or messages me if there was an extra six hours a day and an extra three days a week to make that happen. These five here, though, are genuinely worth your time if you care about grassroots heavy music. We're all excited to see what 2026 brings. Drēor - Hell's Kitchen Rising Nottingham old school death metal trio Drēor (meaning 'blood' in Old English, or 'gore') released their sophomore EP in June, an unapologetic slab of classic OSDM. Dripping with blood and guts, and...

Back with their second album and a revitalised lineup, Bradford quartet Ironrat - consisting of members of Wolves In Winter, Lazarus Blackstar, Psychlona, Hollow Earth, and former members of Monolith Cult and Khang - have produced a real statement of intent with Beneath It All, their first record since 2015. My introduction to them was at Bloodstock Festival in 2017, with tracks like the low-tuned Weed Machine (which was re-recorded in 2023) sticking out in my memory. However, as circumstance would have it, Ironrat had a quieter spell for a few years, but the boys are firmly back in town with forty minutes of power, melody, riffs and groove. Kicking off with high octane rock and roll attitude, title track Beneath It All gets the record spinning with a simple guitar riff that sets the tone nicely. Its energy is clearly designed for live shows, before the song develops and drops into a slower stoner blues breakdown, given character with some vocal harmonisations, before the fist pumpi...

Slump are a band very much in the ascendency right now (hopefully the cheque they gave me to write that will clear by the time this publishes) - with an ever increasing live presence across the UK and a burgeoning brand of distinctive Sludge Metal-tinged, Grunge-infused psychedelic rock, there has never been a better time to get fully behind a band who are working hard to make their way out of the murky backwaters of the UK Underground Doom scene. 2024 has seen the band going from strength to strength, playing sweaty, breathless shows in literally every single city across the entire country, to releasing the gnarly SP/LIT EP with the frighteningly heavy At War With the Sun. Given the band's somewhat frustrating past habit of having long gaps between releases, you'd have been forgiven for assuming that would be it from Noble, Kabu and co. for the year... fortunately, on this occasion, the band have proved us extremely wrong! Dust marks yet another step forward for Slump. Hav...

I was there the night Slump was born - some people (me) would even say that the band was my idea… May 2018, Munich: vocalist/guitarist Matt Noble and I had just been to Sleep (the band, not the act) and were continuing to drink in the bedroom of his tiny student flat, near the top of a Brutalist tower block. Matt drunkenly confided in me that he was struggling with not being in a regular band - my answer? “Mate, *chugs beer* start your own band” Matt did just that. Now a mainstay on the underground Stoner/Doom/Sludge circuit, it’s been a long time coming to hear new music from the band - 2020’s singles Nothing More and Degenerate seem a very long time ago now, even though the tracks still hold water and bang heads to this day. New music has been due for a long time, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for my opinion on these two new tracks, because Slump aren’t the only band with a track on this split EP… Worcester-based Sludge-mongers At War With The Sun kick things off in s...

Northern Irish trio Slomatics returned with their first full-length since 2019 last month with the excellent Strontium Fields . Strontium is a highly reactive earth metal, named after a village in the Scottish highlands. Slomatics, conversely, are a highly regarded metal band, presumably named partly because of the crushingly slow music they put out. I spoke to the three of them at Desertfest London earlier this year , and with a wry smile, they did hint at a few surprises over the then-unannounced new album. I'm a relatively new convert to the Slomatics camp. I'd known the name for years, but only after catching them at Desertfest Antwerp last year did I start to listen to them myself. I was completely transfixed by the Conan-style guitar heaviness, the expressive singing with shades of Candlemass in the delivery, the elegant spaciness, and the fact there were three of them with a drummer on lead vocals, flanked by two guitarists. I've seen them a few times since and that...

From the murky underground depths Grief Prison has arisen, a gloomy, sludgy doom project with their first single hot off the press. Sadist in Denial is accompanied by a dark, retro-styled music video with a dystopian feel to match the pissed-off lyrical themes and cement the clear aesthetic of the band very quickly. Sonically, there's lots of 90s doom lurking in the music - the melodic chord sequences and Ian's soulful baritone vocals hark back to Type O Negative , though overall it's a bit grittier, with a hint or two of Crowbar and Acid Bath rather than the gothic undertones Type O are known for. The lyrics embody a clear sense of bitterness and inner pain which, again, the video really complements well. Sadist in Denial - music video There are some nice details in the songwriting that elevate it just a bit more, such as the ugly mid-section where the vocals develop into a powerful bellow, or the build up in intensity towards the end as the song name is roared ove...

Witch-identifying people beware, as the riff-worshipping, heavy rocking Kill The Witch have emerged from the murky depths of Stafford with their first EP. They'd released music under a previous name, but on this effort the sound is more cohesive and unified than ever before, firmly settled on a groovy, energetic metal tone borrowing from Orange Goblin, QOTSA and other bands that they've gigged with over the past few years. Slime , a sleazy stoner sludge anthem to be blasted in dive bars at four in the morning while drunk idiots grind on each other, welcomes you into the release. "She's all covered in slime, and she still looks fine, take you back to mine?" No guesses what this song might be about. Its break into a frantic Song for the Dead -style finale is inspired and adds a layer of interest to the track. I end up coming back to this song a lot for this reason, as well as the tongue-in-cheek vocals which the band pull off really well, each smutty line spat out...

Someone somewhere has pissed off Master Charger and out of it has come a beast of a stoner/sludge anthem. The first new noise from the Nottinghamshire threepiece since 2020's Origin of the Lugubrious , Social Witch Hunt takes a dirty, Iommi-style riff drenched in mountains of fuzz for a ride over almost four and a half minutes. Introducing itself with wailing feedback and a well-executed drum fill, there is a good, upbeat energy to the track and it will be very interesting to see what kind of new chapter for the band this signals. Master Charger - Social Witch Hunt (live at Uprising 2023) The raw production style, led by Andy Dawson, really gives the track a live feel that this kind of music really needs to be most effective. Along with this, the guitar tone, whether in its fuzzed-out glory or with a bit of wah over the lead parts, packs a serious punch ahead of the pounding rhythm section. Dave and Jon dictate the energy of the track with a lot of power, but equally with a good...

Crowbar are celebrating thirty years of their legendary debut album on the road. On 2nd April, they stopped off at The Asylum in the Home of Metal for a bowel-shakingly heavy night of sludgy riffs and sheer sonic power. First up are Stourbridge horror doomers Tumanduumband , who have established their name on the live circuit through hard work and dedication to bringing their riff-tual up and down the country. After anointing a few at the front with a bloodied, inverted cross, they start with the dark, psychedelic intro to Throne of Grief , before the mountains of fuzz are engaged and they launch into a masterclass of doom metal worship. Their sound is absolutely massive in the Asylum's main room; it's probably the darkest, loudest and most powerful I've seen Tumanduumband. With their two faithful skeletons flanking the pair of them, their visuals are stark, adding an important extra dimension to their performances, as musically, they strip doom down to its bare bones, with...

It was only around four days before Masters of the Riff II  when I made the decision to take myself down to London and go see a truly stacked roster of bands in the doom, sludge and stoner genres. Would be silly not to, I guess. It was a great way to spend a Saturday (couldn't make the other two days, unfortunately, so had to miss out on Goblinsmoker, Josiah, Gnome , etc). I cidn't go with anyone, but at no point did I feel on my own, with so many friendly faces on the bill and in the audience. The sense of community you get at these grassroots events is just unparalleled and very open, warm and welcoming.  It's my first time in Hackney, let alone at Oslo. After sorting my wristband and eyeing up the bar I stumble upstairs to a mind-altering wall of noise coming from an act I'm not yet familiar with. Troy the Band  are absolutely worth making that acquaintance. Their music is just mesmerising. Mixing heavy psych, shoegazey post-metal and stoner doom, they remind me a li...

The inaugural edition of StoomFest has been announced for June 2023 in London. Say the festival:  Welcome to StoomFest - the music festival that celebrates the best in Stoner rock and Doom, Psychedelics, Sludge, and Heavy alternative. We believe in building a community of musicians and fans, and giving aspiring artists an opportunity to share a stage with established acts. At StoomFest, we're committed to creating a fair and supportive environment for all of our performers, with fair compensation and the respect they deserve. Those announced already include Black Rainbows, Witchrider, Swan Valley Heights, Wet Cactus, Psychlona, Witchthroat Serpent, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Ritual King, Old Horn Tooth, Regulus and more. The festival will take place in Hackney Bridge on June 23rd & 24th. Surely more bands TBA between now and the event. Doesn't it look ace? Tickets | Website MN

  Hardcore/sludge metal kings Battalions are back in town with their fourth album. Four years on from Forever Marching Backwards , Kingston upon Hull's Battalions have churned out a monolithic slab of hardcore punk-meets-sludge glory over the pandemic, full to the brim with stomping grooves and gut-wrenching savagery.  Though they've gone back to their roots musically, it's the end result of a season of change for the quartet.  As vocalist Phil Wilkinson explains,  'During the covid lockdowns, we underwent a personnel change, namely welcoming drummer Simon into the Battalions fold, so with this we wanted to go for a whole new production process. We chose a brand new studio to us, Nø Studio in Manchester with producer Joe Clayton (Pijn), as we wanted a new sound after using Chris Fielding (Conan) for all our previous efforts. King of a Dead World is us returning to our roots, big grooves rooted in a dirty DIY sludge and hardcore sound. In addition to this, we also cho...