From their EPK, "Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky's AZELL are a two piece band who have been conjuring up the heaviest sounds imaginable since 2022. Combining dark, sci-fi stories with monolithic doom and a raw, corrosive aesthetic they have forged their own sound – space sludge – standing apart in the crowded underground extreme music scene. Their debut album, "Death Control," hit with seismic impact in 2024, garnering critical acclaim from around the globe, with Ave Noctum declaring it "a dense, aggressive, and spellbindingly innovative body of work" that boded well for the future. Well, that future has now arrived, in the form of the second album, "Astralis" and all the critics' hopes and expectations have been fulfilled and surpassed.

The album has eleven songs, and "From the Womb of Oblivion" is first. The first few notes burrow so deeply into the ground, they may never return, and the vocals are screams combined with gutturals. Lead guitar notes provide a harrowing sound in the background as well. Space Sludge? Indeed. "Monolithic Terror" has a slow, heavy, and crushing sound, and the vocals are shouted at times. These shouts might cross the song over just a bit to Post Hardcore, as that is a defining part of that genre. Either way, it is quite punishing. "Waves of Remembrance" sound more like tsunamis of destruction and desperation to me. In addition to being beyond heavy, the emotional weight is almost too much to bear. "Hostage to the Machine" features angry, raging vocals over a bed of hard concrete that is way too cold to sleep on. It sort of sounds like waking up in a nightmare to me.

"Shifting Reality" blends more emotional weight with rage, and the resulting sound is as hopeless as it is hateful. The two walk hand in hand here. The riffs are so downtuned, they reverberate in your soul. "Threads of Connection" is another song mired in doom and gloom. It reminds me of an old man who has bad knees and struggles to get upright every morning…the weight of his pain is what keeps him going. "The End Is Inevitable" is another prophetic message of doom. It's a slow, crushing grind that in the end, leaves everything as a pile of dust, and the riff is as emotional as the vocals. "Time Slows to Nothing" is the final song, and it reminds you that in the end, much of the bullshit in your life amounts to nothing. We as a species try to do the right things, at times, and as long as it doesn't infringe on us, but therein lies the problem. I like this nihilistic message, and it fits perfectly with the music.

Overall, this was a delightfully sludgy album that definitely had elements of both doom and anger in it, and working through some of the songs, that feeling grew worse with each new offering. The production was spot on, because it gave the album a filthy, greasy feeling. Space Sludge, indeed.