Portland, Oregon’s Sea Sleeper released their second album, «Burden of Antlers», on 18 September 2026, independently. It’s a progressive outfit rooted in prog sludge and mathcore, with a raw and abrasive sound.
“`Country: USA (Oregon)
Genre: Sludge Metal, Progressive Metal, Mathcore
For fans of: early Mastodon, SikTh, Converge
The quartet is made up of Nick Kessler (bass, vocals), Shane Cooley (drums), Jess Cooley (guitar, vocals) and Joel Henigson (guitars). They say themselves that they want to prove heavy is more than just volume, and they cite Gorguts, Car Bomb, Mastodon and Blut Aus Nord as influences.
«Burden of Antlers» opens with «Machines of the Bombing Runs», where dissonant chords and vocals follow rhythms that speed up and cut off abruptly, with a more atmospheric passage in the middle. Then «Manifestor» and «They’ll Miss You» move between Mastodon-style sludge and mathcore, «Abysmal Trench» leans into the more irascible mathcore, and «Lunar Degenerates» starts quieter before sinking into thick riffs with pinch harmonics.
More complete is «Coma», which organises thunderous riffs, tremolo passages, stop/start moments and blast beats, the track deliberately losing its coherence under the weight of the dissonant writing. The album closes with «Husk». The rhythm section holds the spine, the vocals mix screams with cleaner moments, and the sound stays uncompromisingly raw from start to finish. Eight tracks.
See also
See also: Hippotraktor – Annihilist and Temic – Ceiba.
