Gallery - Demo 2009

Gallery are a Sludge/Crust Metal band from Los Angeles and crusty is the best way to describe how they do things. Throaty yells,screaming,tortured vocals and filthy bombastic riffs are here in abundance. Songs are mostly of the mid-tempo variety and have that patented Black Sabbath style guitar attack while keeping the intensity level at a high. This is a great sounding demo, raw but heavy guitars and pounding drums with crashing cymbals. Take a listen to tracks like "Soulkrusher" and "House Of Cards" for evidence of some high energy Sludge, there is a certain urgency in their playing. As well as the tracks i have already mentioned, "War Drums" is another track to take note of along with the instrumental "Know No Wrong" which is actually my favorite track on the demo. This is a real neck snapping exercise in Sludge Metal chaos and the spoken word samples and incredibly well placed. The song has a swaggering groove that doesn't let up throughout its almost 7 minute running time. I think it should be pointed out that this demo is up for free download from their Myspace page and it needs to be downloaded and played at loud volumes on your home stereo to fully appreciate how heavy the band really is. The songs lose a lot of their power played from the Myspace site but burn this on a CD and crank it up. This is one of the best free demo's on offer going around at the moment and even if it wasn't a freebie, i would recommend you seek this one out. Its 28 minutes, no weak tracks and contains some real intense Sludgy Metal played with some real power and passion. The artwork is also great, made by the bass player from the band and the download also comes with the lyrics which are dark and pessimistic which just adds to the intensity of the tunes. Check it out, you wont be disappointed. 9/10

www.myspace.com/gallerysludge