Saying Goodbye To The Sludge Swamp ...

Last Friday one of the very best sites for doom, sludge, stoner and classic hard rock from the 1970's closed its doors, that site was of course the mighty Sludge Swamp. After 4 years of being one of the Internets leading homes of the underground heavy music scene, it has officially closed its doors. First Stonerrock.Com went up in smoke and now we see the demise of another killer website. The Swamp was a lot more than just a download-blog, it was a huge promoter of new bands and throughout its 4 years posted hundreds of new and upcoming bands via the download of demos, promos and new albums. It also was a major supporter of Doommantia and everyone here will be eternally grateful for all the links they posted to our reviews and interviews over the years. The Sludge Swamp also helped the scene greatly with their Sludge Swamp compilations, all of which were of a impeccable high-standard.


What made the Sludge Swamp was of course its writing team. Cheeto was the main-man and the brains behind the site, as well as one of the main writers and uploaders of albums but there was so many other people involved in the site. Doommantia's own queen of doom, Mari was one of them, Mike Zippo, SpiritBeggar, Stonezilla who is also in Ethereal Riffian, Saturnine, Andrea, Yeoldstinkeye, Bufftbone, and Zodiac Lung are just a few of its main contributors over the years that did such an amazing job at keeping us up to date with the very latest in 'heavy' releases. While the site specialized in doom, stoner and sludge, it was also a home for all things obscure in 70's rock. Some incredibly rare underground, obscure gems from the 70's was posted on the Sludge Swamp and in some cases it was the only site that had these bands and albums available for download. What all this meant was, the Sludge Swamp was essentially daily viewing for anyone that has even the slightest interest in the obscure bands and the underground doom, sludge, stoner, psychedelic rock scenes.

For me personally and I am sure for many others, the Sludge Swamp's contribution to the scene is priceless. You can't put a value on how important that kind of promotion is. Of course it was misunderstood by many, it carried the "illegal download site" stigma but unlike the hundreds of sites out there that just upload an album and artwork and absolutely nothing else, the Sludge Swamp actually cared about the music it was presenting with their interesting and informative descriptions on each post. Thousands of people around the world got their very first taste of a band through the Sludge Swamp and for many bands the Sludge Swamp gave them, their first real break. I won't and can't mention any names but I know one label who complained bitterly about their bands being uploaded onto the Sludge Swamp site but I am sorry to say, if it wasn't for the Cheeto and his team uploading your bands albums, they would have never been heard and wouldn't have sold half the albums they now have. I don't want to start an illegal downloading" debate but the truth it creates interest in bands that otherwise would never get heard. While I am and always have been very much a "anti-illegal download" person, the fact remains that nothing spreads the word on an album and band quite like the sharing of music and that is exactly what they do on the Sludge Swamp. Are you old enough to remember the tape-trading days of the 70's and 80's, this is how new metal scenes were born and how many bands became popular. It wasn't through album sales or live-shows, it was largely due to fans sharing the music, technically that was illegal as well but hell, it is what gave bands the push they needed to succeed in an underground genre of music. Also, from the point of view of a reviewer, the Swamp was a valuable tool for keeping up to date on latest releases and new bands and many albums would have never been reviewed without the Sludge Swamp giving me that 'heads-up' first.

The Sludge Swamp is not totally dead as it is about to be reborn under with a new home and identity via a brand new dot com site. Cheeto has said and I quote, "the new Sludge Swamp will be great, but it will be different from the blog. We will still have downloads (although limited), reviews, contests, give-aways, interviews and lots of news about what is going on in the world of sludge, stoner, and doom." That new site sure sounds exciting and hopefully should be launched any day now, but us doomsters will never forget the Sludge Swamp and what they did for the scene. You will be missed and never forgotten, thanks for the four years of you gave us and good luck with the new site.