Review By Ian Walker
There’s heavy, and then there’s Low Demon—the kind of record that doesn’t just pummel the senses but swallows them whole. STOMACH, the Chicago-based trio born of nihilistic fury and sonic extremity, return with their second LP and take sludge metal to a new nadir of pure, unrelenting filth. Out via Hibernation Release and promoted by Earsplit PR, this record is a rotting cathedral of slow-burning violence, despair, and existential sludge.
STOMACH began as a duo, a meeting of diseased minds: drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (of Weekend Nachos and Ledge) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (of Sick/Tired and Sea Of Shit). Together, they conjured 2019’s Parasite, a monstrous debut that broke out from Chicago’s heavy underground like a corpse clawing through a coffin lid. Now, joined by bassist Kirk Syrek (Sick/Tired, Exalted), the band returns with Low Demon, a 5-track odyssey clocking in at just over 40 minutes of suffocating, sludge-infested doom.
1. “Dredged” – Sinking From the Start
The opening track feels like being caught in the undertow of a sonic swamp. “Dredged” doesn’t build—it descends. Hoffman’s guttural screams echo like the death rattles of a dying beast, while the riffs drag themselves forward like wounded giants. The tone is thick, like tar bubbling under the weight of depression and decay. STOMACH makes it clear from the outset: this is not music for the faint-hearted. This is music that forces you to feel every ounce of suffering.
2. “Bastard Scum” – Rage Turned Rot
Brevity becomes brutality. “Bastard Scum” opens like a jackhammer to the chest, balancing its lumbering pace with bursts of uptempo chaos. The tempo-shifting sections grind like rusted gears in a dying machine. Lyrically, this one oozes contempt—toward the world, toward others, perhaps even toward oneself. Tomlinson’s riffs scrape the marrow off your bones while Syrek’s low-end buzz flattens your lungs.
3. “Get Through Winter” – A Hypothermic Crawl
If Low Demon had a soul—and it doesn’t—this might be its bleakest cry. “Get Through Winter” is over ten minutes of frozen anguish, capturing the psychological warfare of enduring the darkest months. Hoffman recorded the album during winter 2024 at The Pit II in Geneva, Illinois, and you can hear the season’s bite in every note. This isn’t the romantic desolation of winter; it’s frostbitten despair—a doomed crawl through gray skies and ice-covered regrets.
4. “Oscillate” – Between Nothing and Less
“Oscillate” might be the album’s most unsettling composition. The band slithers between tempos and textures, invoking the spirit of bands like Dystopia and Primitive Man but adding their own grotesque character. Hoffman’s percussion alternates between hypnotic dirges and sudden violence. The production—mixed and mastered by Will Killingsworth (The Body, Magrudergrind)—is cold, spacious, and oppressive. It’s like being trapped inside your own skull while the walls slowly close in.
5. “Shivers-Drafts” – The Final Suffocation
The closing track is a monolithic eulogy. Clocking in at nearly eleven minutes, “Shivers-Drafts” is STOMACH’s death march—glacial in pace, funereal in mood. Crowe’s photography perfectly captures the tone, but it’s the sonics that haunt you. The basslines rumble like tectonic shifts, while the guitars don’t just distort—they wither. Hoffman’s vocals are less screams and more expulsions of grief. The song ends not with resolution, but with obliteration. And in the world of Low Demon, that’s the only fitting finale.
Sound and Production – Industrial-Strength Bleakness
What truly elevates Low Demon is its unrelenting aesthetic coherence. From its sonic density to its thematic desolation, the record feels handcrafted to hurt. Killingsworth’s mix allows every element to seethe in its own pocket of sonic grime, yet still blend into a seamless morass of suffering. There’s no artificial polish here—just raw, honest decay. It’s sludge metal at its most abrasive, and doom at its most terminal.
Influences, But Not Derivatives
Fans of Noothgrush, Corrupted, Grief, Indian, and Winter will feel right at home—but STOMACH isn’t about homage. They’ve distilled those influences into something more primitive and more putrid. It’s not about the riff, or the breakdown—it’s about atmosphere. It’s about building a sonic tomb and inviting you to lay in it. Low Demon is not an easy listen. Nor should it be. It’s a deliberately slow, punishing record made for those who seek meaning in the mire. It doesn’t offer hope, redemption, or even clarity. But what it does offer is authenticity—music made for no one but the artists themselves, with zero compromise. In a genre bloated with mimicry, STOMACH have carved out a pit of their own—and it reeks in all the right ways. Grim, grinding, and gloriously grotesque, Low Demon is a modern sludge doom masterclass. STOMACH don’t just play heavy music—they make you wear it like a shroud.
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