From their name and song titles, you might have dismissed Slugdge as yet another band who tries to be funny. But although you would be partially right, there’s much more to them than that.

With a style of humour reminiscent of Vampire Squid, relying on puns and plays on words, like “Lettuce Prey”, which is found on their previous album “Gastronomicon”. The mollusc-worshipping blackened progressive death/sludge band is now at their third full-length album in as many years, and have truly refined their overall sound. The riffs are tighter and even more enthralling than before: I just feel the need to headbang.

The songs on Dim & Slimeridden Kingdoms are quite long, averaging at about 7 minutes. This allows for a decent elaboration of the themes brought up and some variety within the songs too. The compositions themselves sound like black metal originals: use and overuse of blast beats, tremolo picking, gloomy chords, you know the drill… but with a decent production and prog death vocals, which means a preponderance of low growls and some high screams and clean vocals as well. I guess the sludge part of it comes from the tone of the distortion on the rhythm guitars, it’s a bit muddy and filthy. I guess it’s alright for the sound they got and probably were after, but I could do without it.

Slugdge has released a solid album that will please fans of dirty, heavy prog metal that doesn’t do in overly complex stuff and doesn’t go out of the boundaries too much. It’s a solid album that you should definitely consider!