renkls
Corrupted were a simple band once upon a time, albeit still incredibly good at what they did. Their debut full length album, Paso Inferior, is one 41 minute long dirge of a track, one of, if not the heaviest sludge metal albums I've heard in my time.
What makes this album both their purest sludge album and their most inaccessible? Aside from the one track, it's also basically one riff, flayed to bits, akin to a feedback laced drone injection, whirring razorblades and baseball bats around inside your eardrums. A sandwich of screechy, livid hate. A cacophony of pitch black doom.
It's an intense listen, and that's the impression I got before I heard the vocals. Man, Corrupted has a great vocalist. You know, it's strange to hear death metal tinged vocals in sludge, but also great. A japanese band that sings in Spanish? Well, that's Corrupted for you. Sure, I don't know what the band is really singing about, Spanish is not my forte, but judging by the musical accompaniment, I doubt it's anything too upbeat.
There's no real climax to the piece, but then there's no real structure, aside from a three minute feedback intro that leads straight into the dirge, then a similar outro. One long journey of darkness.
Doom/sludge music is rarely this uncompromising, and in creating an atmosphere and sticking it out to the bitter end is noteworthy. Is it a good listen however? Depends how much doom/sludge you can handle. If you're not an avid uber-heavy music buff, listening to this could be a form of torture. I'm listening to it now, and if you're not initiated, it can turn into background music, despite how aversive it is.
In conclusion, if you seek nihilistic and near deafening sludge - and you love Corrupted's later work, come see where they began, with this dirge journey into hell. You may well love it.