come to grief

Wallowing in hopelessness isn’t always healthy, but as long as there’s labor that’s not properly compensated, sometimes it’s all you can do. In the right light, it can even feel great. Boston’s Grief trafficked in overwhelming negative feelings with their particular strain of sludge metal in the ‘90s, especially downtrodden even amongst their contemporaries like Eyehategod, Buzzov*en, and the punkier but ultra-despondent Dystopia. There’s an attractive quality in going all-in on self-annihilation, and their monolithic riffing is the only thing that could match such despair. Though criminally ignored in their existence – the Northeast didn’t quite take to the sludge’s dirge like the South and Southeast did – it’s fitting that their most celebrated track is “I Hate the Human Race.” Says it a...