Tallow - Red Disc of Proximia (1993)

   There isn't much to know about Tallow, except that they had one full-lenght album that is often compared to the Melvins in style.
   "Red Disc of Proximia" could count as another alternative how sludge metal was built up, but from a bit different sources. Tallow's music lacks the punk influences and includes more from the style of the '70s and '80s hard/psychedelic rock. It's simple, harmonic features often appearing on the album, but the main view is still disharmonic in general. Unlike Melvins, they sound less noisy and assuming less undirect references to endless self-destruction. That also means that this short album isn't so raw either, but all-in-one it's still not an easy record. It starts heavily, with strong doom influences, but slowly the album turns into a calmer, more psychedelic direction. The simple themes they operated with are balancing on the borderline of genres, and this laconic, but still meaningful simplicity made their music so genuine. This barely known album certainly counts as a gem of the early '90s scene and belongs to it's  most interesting musical experiments.