Emerging from Austin with a pointed harshness and heft to spare, Texan sludge metal four-piece Forebode released the four-song/29-minute The Pit of Suffering (review here) in 2021. It is not shy about establishing aural dominance. Lordly half-time riffing punctuated by pinch harmonics in lead cut “Metal Slug” (5:41) sets the stage as guitarist Eddie Konopasek lays out the nod that drummer Zach Donnelly and bassist Guillermo Madrigal take up with due lumbering, a defining element in the rasp and growl of TJ Lewis held back for the verse because good slaughter takes time. The nasty-ass chug and death growls, slowdown and bassy pummel that have hit in “Metal Slug” by the time the song is a minute and a half deep into its plunge are telling.

Forebode have some root in the post-hardcore raw-mean formative sludge of Eyehategod, but in following-up their self-titled 2019 debut EP (review here), it’s a fullness of sound and a creation of atmosphere that’s consistent. The band recorded with Kevin Butler at Test Tube Audio, who also mastered, for two days in Feb. ’21, and sent to Alec Rodriguez at New Alliance Audio in Massachusetts to mix. Was the same with the first EP. I don’t know if there’s a connection between the band and New England, Rodriguez specifically — he’s more associated in my mind with heavy rock than sludge; admittedly, after a certain point, riffs is riffs — but listening, I can’t help if his touch doesn’t account for some of the frigid feel in the chug and brash-crash of “Devil’s Due” (7:20) or the wall of distortion it brings to bear in its second half, Lewis accordingly switching to a growl to suit the bludgeon. I don’t know if that’s real, but you can read it into the music if you want and even accounting for the notion sonically makes it true, so whatever as regards intention.

Actually, on that subject, the priorities throughout The Pit of Suffering — anybody remember the pit of despair from The Princess Bride? yeah, this is different — seem at first mostly to be purely violent. Nothing against that. The cathartic aspects across the relatively short amount of your day Forebode are asking aren’t to be discounted. At even moderate volume, The Pit of Suffering is a mood-altering experience and a powerful sound. Its darker atmospheric cast feels as much emotional as tonal, which is no minor achievement considering that at no point does Lewis sing clean, and there is a sneaky patience in Konopasek‘s riffing that helps create the sense of space throughout. Even having the vocals coated in reverb adds to it, letting the most throatripping of screams feel like a tie to black metal as Forebode commune with the extreme. I don’t necessarily think the band sat down and said that was what they were going to do — “okay guys, time to work in a little black metal so four years from now some dingus can talk about it on the internet — but it’s what the album sessions and their songwriting process resulted in, and it speaks to a will to blur genre lines while still remaining essentially a genre work rooted in the less-kind end of sludge.

They are not without respite. The penultimate title-track (7:46) begins with an acoustic reprieve, momentary, before unfolding the markedly vicious crux of the song, a slow, open riff and doomed plod met with throatrippers from some mountaintop or other, a kind of self-directed physical punishment being shared with the listener. In terms of lead guitar, “The Pit of Suffering” is the epic. It offsets its central lumber with airier lines, and as the key change hits and the vocals turn to death growls, the setup is there for the next plotted lead line as contrast. This isn’t anything revolutionary in sludge or metal more broadly, go low go high crush all, but Forebode execute with particular fervor and “The Pit of Suffering” hits into a series of stops as it moves into its second half that is outright excruciating, amplifier rumble and sustained growl dropping back out to acoustic like the intro for just a moment before slamming back with full tonality and piercing scream. It’s the acoustic that wins the day in the end, though.

There, anyhow. That doesn’t account for “Bane of Hammers” (8:53), which revives a bit of Southern-style swing in its initial riffing, daring some bounce after the more emotive title cut. The finale is consistent with everything before it in being heavier than a son of a bitch, but it moves fluidly in such a way as to highlight how cohesive the release as a whole has been. On that note, I don’t know whether the band call it an EP or an LP. It was the former in my mind when I reviewed it. Now I’m less certain. The interplay between the tracks, the glee with which “Bane of Hammers” enacts its extreme-sludge-meets-stoner-riffing chicanery and the ease with which it falls into the gallop and even a bit of blast-ish duggery speak to The Pit of Suffering as a debut LP — and a good one, if short — but if the band were to decide in a year that they’ve got 40-50 minutes of music and that’s their first album, I’m not about to fight anybody over it. It’s not like it’s how they pronounce their name or anything. Ha.

Like the review link above would tell you, this isn’t my first time hearing this record, but I had occasion to dig into it again last weekend as I was hanging around Las Vegas for Planet Desert Rock Weekend — Adam Sage, who was kind enough to let me stay for the fest (he’s also in Sonolith, if you need a band connection for a name), and I had it on a couple times driving here and there and whatnot — and it resonated again. I don’t know what the band’s plans are for 2025 beyond a couple Spring shows and an appearance at Stoner Jam in Austin at SXSW, which is next month and looks killer as ever with Duel, Bridge Farmers, Switchblade Jesus, Tia Carrera, Amplified Heat and many other righteous parties either of or not of Texan affiliation, including Sonolith, Lord Velvet and Demons My Friends.

Always badass, that bill. I’d be happy to wax nostalgic about SXSWs of yore — did some of that last weekend too, dropping names like Tia Carrera and Amplified Heat — but the point here is Forebode are getting out a bit in the early part of this year and hopefully that momentum continues to serve them well as they move on from here.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

Oh man, the comedown was real this week. After that fest last weekend was so, so, so good, I spent most of Tuesday out of my head trying to clean the house ahead of my family coming to celebrate my nephew’s 17th birthday — happy birthday, duder — and taking like three hours to get 40 minutes’ worth of writing done. That sucked. Yesterday also kind of sucked. Was Wednesday easier? It seemed it at the time and that’s as good as gold. Today I’ve already dropped the kid off at school, taken the dog to the groomer, gone to Costco, had breakfast, picked the dog up and so on all in the company of The Patient Mrs., so if I’m later than usual posting this (I am), that’s why. I’ve been having out picking up provisions, running errands and otherwise having a lovely morning/early afternoon. In a little bit we’ll go pick up the kid and hopefully the thread will continue.

But that fest was something special. The people. The fact that just about everybody knew or at least by the end of the weekend was up for saying hi to everyone else. The music was great, of course, and the chance to see European or UK bands like Samavayo, Green Desert Water, JIRM or Sergeant Thunderhoof on US soil isn’t something I take lightly. There aren’t a lot of people who can or will bring these acts over, and if you can do it, you can change lives, band and fan alike. People were falling over for Sergeant Thunderhoof. It was rad to witness. I was lucky to be there.

For what it’s worth, it was an easy flight home. Four hours with a good tail wind and I had the entire row to myself. Can’t get better than that. I played Zelda the whole time and it was a last bit of chill before I got back home and back into the thing.

Thanks if you kept up with that coverage. I have more trips coming up this year:

April – Roadburn

May – Desertfest Oslo (I hope)

June – Freak Valley (need to confirm flight)

July – Bear Stone (just about confirmed)

And then September is Desertfest New York, which barring disaster I’ll look to attend. I know, Ripplefest Texas is there, but that’s a flight I can’t afford. Flying to Vegas is cheap and the airfare was gifted to me. Four or five days in Austin is like $1,000 minimum flights and hotel and I don’t have it. We’ll see, but I know that’s there. I hear it calling to me.

However any of the above plays out over the coming months, thanks for following along with this site. The response to the 16th anniversary post was extremely heartening, here and on socials, and I thank you for that. I was in the car with The Patient Mrs. before talking about how blown away I was by it, which is definitely a conversation we’ve had before. She’s very tolerant. “The Tolerant Mrs.” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I’m gonna leave it there, I think. Icarus Burns album premiere on Monday, Tuesday a Lorquin’s Admiral video premiere, Wednesday something new from Voidward, Thursday a Passing Bell video premiere, and Friday either a Möuth review or a video interview I’m going to do with Matte from Sound of Liberation on Monday for their 20th anniversary and My Sleeping Karma’s return (he’s also the band’s bassist). We’ll see how it shakes out.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, stay warm if it’s cold, cool if it’s hot. Don’t sled into any fenceposts. I’ll be here writing if you need me for anything.

FRM. Oh, and new merch coming soon, I think. Been asked a couple times about that lately.

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Tags: Austin, Forebode, Forebode The Pit of Suffering, Texas, The Pit of Suffering

This entry was posted on Friday, February 7th, 2025 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.