Stoner Sludge Saddle Bronc
HPD review's Bronco's self-titled debut album!
I’ve been dying for some good stoner doom/sludge for a while now, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and hit the promo pile in search of the stickiest of the icky. Fortunately, I quickly happened upon Bronco’s self-titled debut, an album that encompasses everything I love about the genre.
This may be Bronco’s debut album, but the band appears to have arisen from the smoke-filled land of Wilmington, North Carolina fully formed, with a fistful of ten-ton riffs already at their disposal on tracks such as “Scourge Descent” “Ride Eternal” and “Damnation.” Of course, the band owes much to Sabbath, as well as fellow North Carolinian doom merchants such as Sourvein, Buzzoven and Weedeater, but their attention to songcraft places them several cuts above the sludge-slinging hordes. Bassist/vocalist Bronco and drummer JP previously did time in long-running stoner/sludge trio Toke, and their years of experience are clearly evident in the quality that flows through Bronco like a river of molten magma.
The original tracks on Bronco are outstanding, but the most surprising inclusion here by far is a cover of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” a country song written in 1972 by Bobby Russell and popularized by Reba McEntire on her 1991 album For My Broken Heart. Against all odds, it fits the album like a glove thanks to it’s slower tempo and heavy southern rock riffage. Bronco do an excellent job of making it their own, while still paying homage to its roots in traditional southern murder ballads.
Unfortunately, my promo copy of the album did not include production credits, but whoever is responsible deserves some bonus bong hits, because Bronco sounds absolutely massive. Listening to it is like having a brick shithouse dropped on your skull repeatedly. It’s suffocatingly heavy without being overly loud, and features a superb mix that gives all the instruments just enough breathing room. It might be early in the year, but Bronco is one of the best-sounding albums I’ve heard so far in 2025, a near-perfect blend of grit, grime, heaviness and clarity.
Bronco’s debut is a damn near perfect stoner/sludge album that’ll more than satisfy your late night cravings for the syrupy, pulverizing riffage, battery acid-drenched vocals and dead man’s crawl rhythms that have come to characterize the genre. It’s an impressive first outing from a group of musicians who know the style like the back of their collective hand, but also have the wherewithal to put their own spin on it, with devastating results. The album is out on February 28th via the venerable Magnetic Eye Records.