A need for speed in the early 80s begat hardcore punk, thrash, grindcore and every shade in between, but by the end of the decade some bands had begun to take the complete opposite approach, slowing down to almost glacial pace to craft the unwieldy, stomach-churning mire of sludge metal.
Though ostensibly an offshoot of doom, in truth sludge owes as much to hardcore as it does Black Sabbath, Black Flag's My War and Flipper's Generic setting an early precedent for dialing back the pace and making every riff sound like it comes from beneath a mountain of tar. The genre has come a long way since its roots however, finding a home everywhere from the swamps of Louisiana to the backwaters of Washington state, even taking on a cosmic edge in more recent years. That in mind, here are five albums that have defined the impenetrable depths of sludge metal.
