Welcome everybody to a little lesson on the history of Sludge & Stoner Metal. I'm Guib and today I have the immense pleasure to serve as your humble teacher.

Please take a seat and travel with me through time as we explore the very best of those two, often blurred, genres. The goal here is simple, I want to get you familiarized with the styles. I want you to understand where they come from through albums on a timeline and while we're at it get a sweet selection of great releases that you might not know and that, hopefully, will get you hooked to explore even more!

But this is a classroom and in my classroom there are a few rules. We want to keep this clean, clear and prevent having a 500+ albums mess. So here are the rules we'll follow throughout this lesson.

- - - - - The Rules - - - - -

1. We will settle for a maximum of 4 albums per year and they will be listed from oldest to newest. Makes it simple to navigate. Those releases will represent what I consider to be hallmarks of the genres for that year. Essentials if you want, yes? Of course, I'll sprinkle a bit of my personality here and there so you will find some unorthodox choices and some less known albums from time to time. It would be boring otherwise... and also why not?

2. We will begin the journey with Melvins' "Gluey Porch Treatments" released in 1987. Why? Because it is arguably the first album to be widely considered as Sludge.

3. The list will mostly feature studio albums. So no Demos & bare minimum when it comes to EPs if any at all. Thank you.

4. I am not going to include releases by Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Hawkwind, etc... I fully understand and recognize the influence older bands had on Stoner Rock, but this is not the list for them.

5. Lastly, not really a rule but more of a note. Considering that we're talking about Sludge & Stoner, it is inevitable that Doom, Post, Progressive, Grunge & Hardcore acts will be featured in this list. Those genres simply go together naturally and are often mixed so do not be alarmed!

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That is it, I hope you will all discover something to enjoy through my little history lesson. Also, do not hesitate to comment below if you agree or disagree with some of my picks. After all, this is a classroom and debate is invited as it can be fun and educative. As long everything's done respectfully, of course.

Enjoy & Have Fun... Class dismissed!

NOTE: I will now add my picks for best album of the year using this format (best of xxxx) in the chosen album's description.

- Guib -

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Guib's best Sludge/Stoner Album Picks

Best Of 2023:
Urne - A Feast On Sorrow

Best Of 2024 So Far:
O Zorn! - Vermillion Haze

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Last Update: April 27th, 2024

1.Melvins - Gluey Porch Treatments

2.Soundgarden - Ultramega OK

3.Oxbow - Fuckfest

4.Melvins - Ozma

5.Soundgarden - Louder Than Love

      View entire list ››

These are albums that I'm currently enjoying. They may be classics that I'm revisiting or new gems I've recently discovered. (Ordered alphabetically)

- A star (⭐️) denotes a new discovery that I find exceptionally special!
- A flame (🔥) denotes an album that I've heard before, enjoyed, and am revisiting this month!

1.71TONMAN - Of End Times

2.Acid Mammoth - Doom Sessions Vol. 2

3.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

4....And Oceans - As In Gardens, So In Tombs

5.Bee Bee Sea - Sonic Boomerang

      View entire list ››

This is a list of all the death metal albums I have listened to that I thought were at all worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is just a record of my own listening experience that I use for personal organization, not a definitive account of the best or all of the death metal out there; there will probably be albums or bands that are not death metal in the strictest sense. You'll find some OSDM, melodeath, tech death, death-doom, maybe a bit of deathcore, I don't know. Maybe some non-death metal albums by death metal bands that I put in here just because.

1.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

2.Death - Symbolic

3.At The Gates - With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness

4.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

5.Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

      View entire list ››

1.Kauan - Sorni Nai

2.Wilderun - Sleep At The Edge Of The Earth

3.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega

      View entire list ››

Going backwards in time still, here's the 2015 list. Let me know what I missed!

1.Abhorrent - Intransigence

2.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

3.Acrania - Fearless

4.Æpoch - Æpochalypse

5.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

      View entire list ››

#1 - Eaten Back To Life

1.Mgła - Groza

2.Cannibal Corpse - Eaten Back To Life

3.Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn

4.Ulcerate - Of Fracture And Failure

5.In Mourning - Monolith

      View entire list ››

I began this decade in my final year of high school, in the early phases of my metal journey (Mastodon, Machine Head, Dream Theater, Pantera and Avenged Sevenfold were still recent discoveries). One Masters degree and one PhD later, I'm now a tax-paying Londonian, and have ploughed through what must be comfortably over 2000 new releases during the previous ten years. To commemorate the end of a turbulent decade, I've put together a list of the albums that have stuck with me throughout this decade - I wouldn't consider this to be a 'best albums' list, as there have been some truly ingenious works released in more avant-garde territories, but ultimately these are the albums that have ended up dominating my listening habits, or otherwise making a sufficient impression to make this list.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Cult Of Luna - Vertikal

      View entire list ››

1.Thou - You, Whom I Have Always Hated [Collaboration]

2.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

3.Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

4.Cloud Rat - Qliphoth

5.Ghost - Meliora

      View entire list ››

1.Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

2.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

3.Mutoid Man - Bleeder

4.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

5.Draconian - Sovran

      View entire list ››

Updated 10/4/18

1.Ad Nauseam - Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est

2.Putridity - Ignominious Atonement

3.Iniquitous Savagery - Subversions Of The Psyche

4.VI - De Praestgiis Angelorum

5.Heaving Earth - Denouncing The Holy Throne

      View entire list ››

I'm not saying anything apart from that these hit me the hardest last year. Feel free to comment, recommend or just hate my taste.

Honorable mentions:
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms | Remmirath - Shambhala Vril Saucers | Tribulation - Children of the Night | Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

1.Mesarthim - Isolate

2.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

3.Myrkur - Myrkur

4.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

5.Leprous - The Congregation

      View entire list ››

Pardon the awful title, I thought it was funny and a play on Ahab's "The Thing That Made Search", but hey, not every joke is a winner.

Here is my list for the Top albums of 2015. No grading system like last year. Real list, no gimmicks.

Albums are ordered based on preference and subject to change at random, with expanded number of albums or ordering.

1.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

2.Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before The Sun

3.Enslaved - In Times

4.Leprous - The Congregation

5.Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction

      View entire list ››

Been a bit slow checking releases around the halfway point of the year, but should get back into it soon and hopefully flesh out this list.

1.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

2.Horrendous - Anareta

3.Slugdge - Dim & Slimeridden Kingdoms

4.Teramaze - Her Halo

5.Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Exile

      View entire list ››

Due to new developments and time constraints, I have streamlined this back into one list. I have taken off anything that I did not care for, so just consider it a list of recommended listens. You can find full reviews on Metal Trenches (MT) in most cases. Also jumping on the artwork bandwagon:

1.Between The Buried And Me - Coma Ecliptic

2.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

3.Death Karma - The History Of Death & Burial Rituals Part I

4.A Forest Of Stars - Beware The Sword You Cannot See

5.Leviathan - Scar Sighted

      View entire list ››

My top 50 albums from 2015.

1.Horrendous - Anareta

2.Misþyrming - Söngvar Elds Og Óreiðu

3.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

4.Shape Of Despair - Monotony Fields

5.Tribulation - The Children Of The Night

      View entire list ››