Saturday, 20 September 2014

Trudger - Dormiveglia LP


I recently saw Barnsley's Trudger in Leeds while they were on tour with Swinelord. Their bluesy riff-laden crust was perfect in the intimate setting at The Fenton. Their earlier Motionless In Dirt EP hinted at the kind of sound they were going for, but it was with Dormiveglia that it matured. The LP came out in August via Church Of Fuck and Sell Your Soul Records on glorious blue vinyl, limited to 300 copies. It's was worth picking up for the artwork (by Ghost Dagger) alone.

Tracklist:-

1. Into The Abysmal Future
2. Become Joyless
3. Tilikum
4. Thickening Fog
5. Barren Grey
6. Devoid
7. State Of Constant Slumber
8. Morgued

The echoing intro too opener Into The Abysmal Future beckons you in, as Dormiveglia whirls into life. After a short burst of feedback, Trudger launch into the kind of groove and blues-laden crust hybrid that you could have otherwise only dreamt of. Underneath the low screams and cymbal-led drums, the guitars provide melody that's akin to black metal. The expansive delivery is intense but it still manages to hook you in. 

They’re also pretty experimental, as they exhibit on Become Joyless. The instrumentation could easily be written by Remission-era Mastodon and the song as a whole is a joy to listen too. It transports me back to when I first discovered the aforementioned band and the effortless way in which Trudger switch from crust to this is spot on.

After the brief instrumental piece Tilikum, Thickening Fog seems to transport you back to medieval times. It might be due to the tribal-like drumming that starts it off. In spite of the genre terms I’ve already mentioned above, the further you get into Dormiveglia, the harder it is to categorise Trudger. I think it’s definitely a case of “if you appreciate heavy music, you’ll enjoy this” and as is the case with so many bands nowadays, they have to be appreciated in their own right and not compared to what has come before. The dramatic soundscape that fills out the latter half of Thickening Fog shows how far Trudger have come in a relatively short time span.

People seem to think that bands are catering towards people with short-attention spans nowadays. I’d much rather get my teeth into something more wholesome and Trudger deliver that as Barren Grey starts of the second half of the record. I’m actually surprised that the atmosphere and dynamics that served them so well live has more than followed them on record. It just goes to show that vinyl really is a superior format and that the No Studio/Audiosiege combo is a force to be reckoned with in sonic terms.

Devoid breaks the record up again with a short interlude before the relative peace of State Of Constant Slumber. It lures you into a false sense of security and out of nowhere, you’re jolted by a slow and heavy structure that’s as addictive as it is threatening. It’s the penultimate song on Dormiveglia and Trudger take things a little slower here, but I can’t blame them really. The variation makes things more exciting. 

They leave it to album closer Morgued to put the final nail in the coffin. The mix of metal, crust and sludge weave a thick cloth of sound and it’s hard not to feel strangely nostalgic as the extended instrumental sections ring out. This all proves that the UK has it’s extreme metal future mapped out and with bands like Trudger dragging it forward, there’s no reason to look elsewhere. 

You can stream Dormiveglia here:-



It's available as a digital download for the small price of £4.

Vinyl copies can be purchased from Church Of Fuck and Sell Your Soul Records via the below links:-

Church Of Fuck Bigcartel - http://churchoffuck.bigcartel.com/products
Sell Your Souls Records Bigcartel - http://sellyoursoulrecords.bigcartel.com

Trudger Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/trudgeruk
Church Of Fuck Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/churchoffck
Sell Your Soul Records Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sellyoursoulrecords

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