Sludge metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The genre generally includes slow tempos, tuned down guitars and nihilistic lyrics discussing poverty, drug addiction and pollution.
The Melvins were one of the earliest and most influential sludge metal bands
The B-side of Black Flag's My War (1984) featured some of the earliest sludge metal tracks
Eyehategod are one of the defining bands in the New Orleans sludge metal scene
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual transgression".
Venom in 2008
Venom were significant to the development of speed metal into thrash metal into black metal.