Seaweed

Demonic Death Judge are a sludge/stoner band from the great country of Finland and Seaweed is their third full-length album. Every band does this fusion a little differently but it is almost always excellent no matter the approach. In this case, the approach is rooted in the fuzzy guitar laden sound of stoner metal combined with the crushing riffs and harsh vocal aesthetics of sludge. What would happen if you took Black Sabbath’s guitar tone from Master of Reality and combined it with the heaviness of Crowbar and the slightly twisted and off-putting vocals of Bongzilla? The result would be the premium quality sludge/stoner sound of this album.

The riff stops here. That is the best way to describe this album because it is a riff monster from start to finish. It all starts with the fuzz-infused riff crusher “Taxbear”, which moves seamlessly between Sabbath/Kyuss inspired heavy stoner riffs and crushing sludge riffs that incite instant headbanging as well as moshing. It is what I like to call “high octane sludge” because it crushes your soul and makes you want to move at the same time. This is followed by the kickass stoner metal tune “Heavy Chase”, which still features crushing riffs but ratchets the fuzz up to 11, resulting something more akin to Truckfighters than Crowbar. The ability to move back and forth between two opposite ends of the doom spectrum with ease is what makes this album stand out. The ability to blend the two styles together is what puts the album over the top. It is as good of a one-two punch as you will ever find.

In addition to the thick, killer riffs and simple but kickass songwriting on this album, there are a number of excellent guitar melodies where the band really slows down to play a repeating guitar melody. This serves a dual purpose in that it gives the listener a break and showcases the band’s melodic songwriting ability. Anyone can write an album of killer riffs but only a select few can successfully incorporate slow guitar melodies without sounding forced or pretentious. Toni’s guitar melodies on this album (his first with the band) are distorted enough to fit the band’s overall sound but clean enough so that the listener can hear what is going on in the melodies.

The drumming on this album is not particularly spectacular but it does not need to be in this genre. It drives the songs into the fast lane and keeps them in high gear. There is enough variation in the rhythms to keep the listener interested without doing anything crazy. A song like “Backwoods” is sort of an exception as it features cowbell and what sounds like country banjo. It sounds like a crazy idea but what did you expect from a song called “Backwoods”? The bass on this album does not stand out much but it has its moments like on album’s closer “Peninkulma”, which features a seriously sweet bass line.

Jaakko’s vocals on this album are just as excellent as the album’s instrumentation. The harsh, twisted screams can be off-putting to some but like Muleboy’s echoing screeches in Bongzilla, they fit Demonic Death Judge’s sound quite nicely. They give the album an extra punch of sludge to put it over the edge and make for a more dynamic listen. If you are a fan of bands like Bongzilla, Horn of the Rhino and Eyehategod, you will love this album. Guaranteed.

- originally written for The Metal Observer