Drencher - Demo (2014)

Aberdeen’s Drencher might have formed only recently, but they, without any doubt, know how to hit hard. The 4-track bulldozer of a demo presents a bit more than 20 minutes of uncompromising sludge and anguish.

I would allow myself to say that it’s quite an upbeat demo and actually even fast for what you’re used to hear under the sludge tag. I found the vocals quite awesome, as they don’t lean towards metalcore at all. From time to time it gets problematic for me to find decent vocals in sludge, as many bands (especially from the States) sound too metalcore/hardcorish. Ok, so this is not the case here.

The best track in my opinion is the opener, as the riff is just the best and it won’t leave you static, in any way. If it does, you probably don’t like this kind of music anyway. Sea slayer (the name, yass) also has a slower section which, if you like sludge, would know often turns out to be the heaviest part of the song. Plain and simple, this riff makes anything near it crumble. For any two guys, these boys produce a lot of noise. A small minus is the lack of any proper bass section. I am a keen bass guitar lover and think it's especially necessary for any band, not to mention sludge bands, it adds additional wretchedness to the music and always makes the songs appear more varied. 

For the weak hearted of you, or maybe I should say, the weak-eared, I can freely say that the production is good enough and you won't be put through any garage sounding recordings. Go hear Drencher, they are full of anger and dynamics and would hopefully hit hard some underground Scottish club (and beyond) soon.

https://drencher.bandcamp.com/track/sea-slayer