Downtrodden - Dark September

Downtrodden from Canada new album "Dark September" is one massive slab of Sludge and Doom. Listening to this album makes me think they maybe the best Sludge band ever to come out of Canada, yes they are that good. Let's start with the obvious, they are very much in the mold of Sludge Gods "Crowbar" even right down to the vocal work. This is not a bad thing at all to me, "Crowbar" are one of my favorite bands of all time. There no weak links here, "Take A Shot" is one of the strongest moments on the disc. The riff's are the key to their songs and the riff in this track slays, there is even some feeling to the heaviness. Its not just heaviness for the sake of being heavy, they create some real intensity to their method of Sludge and Doom. The guitar is immensely thick and full and the drum sound is especially huge. Take the track "Father" for a good example, again the riff rules everything. It sways with a kind of slowed down Black Label Society groove only much heavier, a lot has to be said about the solid guitar work of the two guitarist's from this band. They have talent to spare for creating some great Sludge riffage. Its not what you would called original but who the hell cares with tunes that are as a punishing as these monsters."Tragedy" is another killer track, the way the riffing compliments the throaty bellowing of the vocals creates the feeling of pure anguish. Downtrodden have managed to make a "textbook sludge album" so forget about the "Crowbar" reference and just dig it. This album is a keeper, check it out. 9.5/10

www.myspace.com/downtroddenmtl