Gurt – Bongs of Praise

Gurt

Bongs of Praise

by Brian “Metal” Morton at 05 October 2019, 10:42 PM

Coming out of London, England comes GURT and their latest filthy album “Bongs of Praise”. The band was formed in 2010 and have released three full length albums and multiple EP’s. This Sludge Metal band combines the sounds of seventies rock and mixes them with some of the nastiest Sludge around. The band is made up of four members which are Gareth Kelly on Vocals, Rich Williams on Guitar, Dave Blakemore on Bass and finally Bill Jacobs on Drums.  I promise you, if sludge and stoner rock are your thing, you will love this album.

The first song up is “Dr. Strangeleaf” and it starts off trippy as hell and then melds into a phenomenal groovy sludge. It also has someone talking about marijuana at one point and explaining the different names of weed. This song is perfect because it really gives you an idea of the direction the album is going in, if the album title didn’t already make it obvious. The second track is “Weed it and Weep” which gives us our first glimpse of the vocal style of Gareth. I would describe it as if Dani Filth and Phil Anselmo had a love child. His vocals are actually pretty impressive to say the least. This song really tears it the hell up though, from the vocals to bass and guitar and drums, this song is pretty immaculate.

The next one up is “Rolling Stoned” which is a bit grimier than the previous song. It’s a little more down tempo and definitely more down tuned. If they went any lower, I would consider it a Doom Metal song but it’s also too upbeat for Doom. All in all, I really enjoyed this song quite a bit. “Squidgy Black Slide” kicks in at full force and is a really fun song to jam out to. It’s definitely an upbeat song and really gets you wanting to move. The band kind of also reminds me of MR. BUNGLE if it became a sludge band. By far one of my favorites so far.

“One Hit Wonder” starts off pretty slow but then quickly changes pace. This song is probably the most intense song so far on the album. For a band that is focused on weed, the is really energetic as fuck. This song had me wanting to get up and start throwing stuff around the room. This will definitely be in my top picks off of the album. “The Joint of No Return” is another one that is absolutely insane. It really reminds me of Hank Williams III’s band ASSJACK. So far this may just be my favorite Stoner Metal Sludge albums of all time. This album just keeps putting out better and better songs as they come along. There are four more songs on the album that are just fantastic but I’m going to skip to the final song on the album which is also the album title “Bongs of Praise”. This is definitely the most well written song on the album and honestly the best in my opinion. I feel as if it just brings the entire album all together into one song and I love it.

I absolutely loved every second of this album. I am going to have to go back and listen to their entire discography after this. I highly recommend this album to everyone no matter what genre you are into. I am very happy I was able to review this album and I wish the band the best of luck in their future endeavors. Keep up the great work!

Songwriting: 10
Originality: 10
Memorability: 10
Production: 10