ConSouling Sounds Records

2014 will go down history as the year that Sludge got into the next level of mainstream acceptance.

I can understand why Belgian top-label Consouling Sounds signed Swedish act Snailking, for this trio’s efforts are very much in the vein of what Consouling Sounds stand for: performing extremely heavy and sludgy Doom-stuff with a gloomy basement. The band proved their worthiness in mean time through means of Samsara, their critically acclaimed debut EP.

Charnia are a quartet (Seppe Batens, Thibaut Meiresonne-Keppens, Diederik Van Eetvelde, and Jelle Pieters) from the Waasland-region, Belgium, formed in 2012. They built quite some impressive live reputation, yet for this debut we had to wait two years. But no tears anymore, for now we can enjoy the first studio recording, Dageraad (Dutch for ‘dawn’ or ‘daybreak’).

Caudal are an international project by some very experienced musicians.

Following the -in mean time legendary- Brethren. Bound Of Blood.-series (a series of split-EP’s with cult-act Amenra and one of the other projects involved within the Church Of Ra-alliance), it was time to create another highlight, going further than the four former splits. As a matter of fact, this is not just a split with individual material from the collaborators, but rather a unique project of magical proportions.

This split-record has been released on vinyl (12”EP) in a limited edition, in 333 copies. 2/3^rd of it will be sold at live shows exclusively, 1/3^rd was made available via mailorder, yet I guess this edition has been sold out in mean time. So check it out at the band’s live performances.

Belgium’s Alkerdeel did record a handful of demos and EP’s before, but Morinde indeed is the first real studio full length in seven years of existence. Recordings like Luizig, De Bollaf and, especially, De Speenzalvinge, were accepted with pleasure and gratitude within the underworlds of the scene, so I can imagine the impatience of the audience for this release. I am glad too with the at-last-finalisation of the album.

Shortly after the decision to re-release some older stuff (i.e. the first parts of the Mass-concept), ConSouling Sounds will release Amenra’s first live-album as well.

AmenRa is one of the most important Belgian / international acts within the Post / Sludge-scene, active for more than a decade and influential both within the Belgian scene as outside. During the early 2000’s, AmenRa released four albums under the Mass-moniker (self-released or available via Hypertension), followed by some newly written stuff, released as self-produced studio material or in split / EP-edition.

This 7”EP-split consists of two songs, both of them the first official outlet from the guys behind these projects as solo-act.