Happy Friday!

I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about this (of course, having withdrawn from all major social media platforms, I don’t see a whole lot of much these days!) but a new album is coming out today that just might end up in the running for Album of the Year. At least, it’s at the top of my list of everything I’ve heard so far in 2025.

Although it wouldn’t be shocking for Hell, the Salem, Oregon-based purveyors of corrosive sludge-doom, to be flying under the radar. The single-member ensemble (though they did come together as a full band at least once, because I saw them perform in Pittsburgh approximately eleven years ago, and they absolutely killed it) have always been relatively anonymous and never seemed very big on self-promotion.

Part of the Gilead family (at least tangentially) for several years, and more recently affiliated with Sentient Ruin; over their first decade, Hell released four different albums called Hell (the most recent of which we’ll talk about here), in addition to various splits and EPs (some of which were also called Hell). And today, the next soul-crushing chapter has emerged, which for a fun change of pace, has been given a title other than Hell…

 

Hell – Submersus (physical: Sentient Ruin / digital: Lower Your Head, 11 July 2025)

 

Hell – Hell (Sentient Ruin, 11 April 2017)

 

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2017’s self-titled Hell full-length (not to be confused with 2015’s Hell EP, 2012’s Hell III, 2010’s Hell II or the original 2009 Hell LP) features seven tracks of slow and gritty sludge, with bass-heavy riffs underpinning distorted screaming and howling that very well could have emerged from deep within the bowels of hell. Slow and low is generally the key to this reviewer’s heart, but occasionally when things grind down … even … s-l-o-w-e-r … for added emphasis, that’s when I’m really won over.

Sometimes the way the soaring, blackened guitar leads are layered upon the rhythm section’s heavy riffing seems to create an almost-symphonic feel — while during “Victus” (the lengthiest song on the record, at about twelve and a half minutes), the same effect is achieved by the addition of actual string ensemble sounds. There’s somewhat of a tonal shift from beginning to end: opener “Helmzmen” incorporates snippets of what sound like radio distress calls, enhancing an already extremely tense atmosphere, whereas by the time closer “Seelenos” comes around to wrap things up, it has taken on a much more ethereal sound, but make no mistake, we’re basically talking about a transition from darkly oppressive to oppressively dark.

 

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Brand-new album Submersus takes its title from a Latin word with the same root (and same approximate meaning) as English “submerged” — but the word can also be used to mean “drowned” or “overwhelmed,” all of which are suitable descriptors for the contents herein.

These five tracks of feedback-laden sludge might feature somewhat more atmospheric moments than its predecessor did (e.g., see the second half of “Gravis,” the minimalistic-almost-psychedelic-space-bluesy “Factum,” and the low-frequency drone that pervades much of closer “Bog”), yet these are juxtaposed with riffs like a battering ram (especially in the perfectly-named first song “Hevy”), perhaps even more bass-intensive than before (check out that bass tone on the also-aptly-named “Gravis,” and especially on also-also-aptly-named “Bog”!)

 

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Submersus is available digitally here or on vinyl/CD/cassette here.
 
Hell can be found digitally here or on cassette here (vinyl pressing is sold out).
 

 

Sentient Ruin: Bandcamp | website | YouTube
Lower Your Head: Bandcamp | Bigcartel