This week in #sludgewave: GLASS CLOUD

For whatever reason, at least 99 out of 100 times, bands only get worse over time. It is a very rare thing indeed where a band’s second release is better than their first, like when you meet a girl with a Tumblr account who is not dysfunctional and broken. Or a vegan who, rather than saying “oh there’s nothing for me to eat here, but THAT’S OK, don’t worry about ME!!!” when you go out to eat, says nothing and just orders something vegan from the menu. Or someone from Boston who doesn’t constantly talk about how they are from Boston and how they do [thing you don’t give a shit about] in Boston. You get the idea: It’s so rare for a band to get BETTER over time that it’s actually newsworthy.

The latest example is GLASS CLOUD. As you may know, they are a newish band ft Jerry Roush (who sang for SKY EATS AIRPLANE and was in OF MICE & MEN for about 45 seconds) and Josh from TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA. Their first album was pretty bland post-hardcore that didn’t have anything wrong with it but didn’t really have anything RIGHT with it either, but holy shit, their latest EP goes so fucking hard. It’s about a year old, but I just stumbled across it and my god– this is #sludgewave at its finest!!! All the good/heavy parts about DANZA without the skronky stuff that made IMNs like them. The weedly parts have been replaced with open-stringed chugs, which is a trend I can definitely get behind.

Also, I think that sludgewave is best with higher, semi-punky vocals like this– see also BARRIER, VILLAINS and GOLIATH. I dig the “i’m THIS fucking close to slitting my wrists” vibe, and also it keeps metal fans from liking them. You see, with growled/guttural vocals, it’s all too easy for metal nerds to justify liking them on the grounds that “it’s basically just really sludgy death metal.” And, well, nobody wants metal fans showing up to the party, right??