Review: “Deceit And Misery” by Iron Slug

Produced by long-term collaborator Jason Frye (Allfather, Jøtnarr, Erth Altr) a third record from Iron Slug finds them offering more in the way of Doom fuelled Sludge Metal across five mammoth tracks that represents thirty eight minutes of crushing heaviness. Adorned by artwork from Black Crow White (Death Island, Extinction A.D., Nuclear Desolation), the bands debut album “Deceit And Misery” follows the release of not one but two EPs in 2024’s “Debauched And Bored” and “Unrepentant Grin” that set the tone. The promise is of low and slow, oppressive riffs fit for worship alongside an intensity that feels to all those who would dare listen like a gravitational pull…

Soaked in feedback the seething guitars of “A Calming Turmoil” roar into life like a beast from the black depths crawling out from under the rubble of a fallen building with all that weight and gravity you’d expect from a band who worship bands like Corrosion Of Conformity, Crowbar and Saint Vitus. The solid, anvil heavy, groove laden riffs maintain eternal forward motion like a death march as Will Rayner’s powerful southern tinged vocals drip from them like the sweat of a farm worker pulling a plough through the earth in the midday sun.

Sandblasting the skin, the low and slow riffs of “Love Retires Under Night” deliver a hypnotic trance inducing weighty heaviness that drags you down to the bottom of the lake like a concrete anchor with chains to bind. The mid tempo percussion has been purposefully kept minimalist and devoid of intricacy as has the guitar work and while there are hints a brighter Traditional Heavy Metal ideas in the vocals they are pushed to one side by the sheer leviathan of sonic call to oblivion’s peak.

The soulful, almost mournful melody of “Graceless Bodies” feels like awaking to a post apocalyptic world of fire and ash where all hope is gone, the stunning vocal performance carrying the weight of backbreaking emotion perfectly. Subtle nuances bleed through the bandages as death growled backing vocals murmur underneath the soaring cleans, every cymbal crash and every chord change delivered with poise and purpose. Finding refuge on the devil’s pillow “Die The Same” is more of a Stoner Metal anthem, the simplicity of the lyrical narrative part of what makes it so enticing.

Arguably the stand out of this almighty collection is the bleak and crushing woolly mammoth that is “Ritualistic Feeding“, a track which feels like an occult ritual laced with sinister riffs and thoughts of cannibalism. It captures the imagination with a heavier weight to it, tipping the scales of justice in the favour of Iron Slug as they go lower and slower through a downtempo passage to staring at the abyss below. A record that will shake you to the core like an earth quake in the dead of night “Deceit And Misery” is as morbid and miserable as anything you might come across on your journey to hell itself [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. A Calming Turmoil
2. Love Retires Under Night
3. Graceless Bodies
4. Die The Same
5. Ritualistic Feeding

“Deceit And Misery” by Iron Slug is out 27th March 2026 via Road To Masochist