September 2023 - Feature Release - The Sphere Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Sphere has been nominated by myself. It's the 1989 "Inde$troy" third album from English industrial sludge metallers Saw Throat (or Sore Throat as they're listed on the Metal Academy database). I discovered this record while doing my Stenchcore deep dive & it soon became evident that it was being mistagged, perhaps because the band's first couple of releases took more of a grindcore/noisecore/crust punk direction. Regardless, this is a high-quality album that's been largely overlooked by industrial metal fans over the years & I think it's well worth your time.

https://metal.academy/releases/3237

Here's my review summary:

Sore Throat was known as a classic band in the crust/grindcore scene, delivering avalanche after avalanche of short fast tunes. Their over 40-minute single-track concept album Inde$troy is essentially an 8-part ambient industrial sludge epic with barely any of their crust/grind roots. And it's not the best album of that style either, but it's enjoyable in a few parts... The highlights I would specifically point out are the long ambient intro and outro, and the standard hardcore heaviness of the "Air" section. Basically those highlights take up half of the album with absolute power. The ambient sections work out as an easy-listening soundtrack to the apocalypse of a dystopian society. Yet the in-between-sounding parts don't do well for me. Anyway, if you're looking for an earlier, more ambient/industrial attempt at a grindcore band's sludge epic than Pig Destroyer's Natasha, here you go....

3/5