Hear Oregon Sludge Trio Hair Puller Channel Buzzoven, Kylesa on "Chores"

The word sludge used to be reserved for bands like Buzzov*en and Eyehategod, who took the teachings of the Melvins and slapped on a fresh coat of drug-fueled nihilism. It was mean, it was hateful, but most of all it was terrifying — like a walk down an alley filled with junkies where you knew that any fresh face was seen as a target. As years went by, bands like Kylesa, Baroness, Black Tusk and many others took the style and re-imagined it: some as prog, some as hard rock and some as thrash. It wasn't better or worse, it was just a different way to look at it.

Portland, Oregon's Hair Puller is probably closest to the original blueprint — combining the claustrophobic noise rock of Unsane with the riffy sludge of middle-period Melvins to create a caustic cocktail of hate. Their latest single is "Chores," a driving sludge monster that recalls the early days of second-wave masters Kylesa, along with their forebearers Buzzov*en — a whole lot of crust mixed in with all of those hateful metal-punk riffs. Check it out below for the first time and order your copy of their new LP Old Friend ahead of its November 16th release.