Horn of the Rhino - Grengus (2012)

   If we think about the modern and most popular form of sludge metal (bands like Mastodon, Baroness or Kylesa) the most remarkable thing might be that the newer bands went so far in mixing sludge with other syles and in parallel with progression, that there's barely any sludge features left to find. 
   But things were quite different in case of Horn of the Rhino, even though their music was also quite mixed up to be enough diverse, and they always tried to change something on each album. Their debut under this name was more influenced by doom, and there's no lack of lslow themes, extended song lenghts and clear singing on "Grengus" either, but this album had a quite intense and aggressive approach in general. This kinda reversed the measures compared to "Weight of Coronation", and on "Grengus" the sludgy influences became more dominant. Also their intensity is often more comparable to thrash speed, so things aren't so simple as it might be expected from an ordinary sludge/doom band. But in this diverse style mixture lied the excellence of the band, more accurately in the differences how they've committed all of that compared to other coetaneous style-related bands. Their music didn't lose the basic rough feeling of sludge, and on "Grengus" they've even passed it through by turning wilder, and meanwhile they were able to introduce a new, genuine aspect.