Sundowner release Cesspool on Thursday. It is their third album, it is digital only, and there is no label on it, which has been true of everything the Adelaide band have done.
Ten releases in six years is the statistic that explains them. Two EPs in 2020, an album in 2021, two singles and another EP, Lysergic Ritual in 2024, an EP four months after that, a split earlier this year and now this. Sludge bands are not usually prolific; the genre rewards sitting on a riff until it rots. These do the opposite.
The titles say roughly what the record sounds like. "Bleach Sniffer", "Grave Wax", "7 Shades of Shit", "Pond Scum": ten songs of it, and "Intoxication Blues" is the one already out, a little over three minutes, which for this band counts as concise.
Adelaide is a long way from anywhere and the Australian sludge and stoner scene has mostly built itself through Bandcamp and tape labels rather than through anyone signing anything. A tenth self released record is not a band waiting to be discovered. It is a band that decided the arrangement works.