Big Business

Big Business sounds like a two-man army attempting to level a city block with nothing but a bass guitar and a drum kit. It is thick, syrupy sludge metal that refuses to be depressed, instead opting for a bombastic, almost celebratory sense of destruction. The low end is massive, with Jared Warren's bass fuzz filling every frequency gap while Coady Willis's drumming provides a frantic, polyrhythmic backbone that feels constantly on the verge of total collapse but never actually breaks.

What truly sets them apart is their sense of melody and theater. Unlike many of their sludge peers who lean into nihilism, Big Business utilizes soaring, shouted vocal harmonies and catchy, rhythmic hooks that wouldn't feel out of place in a twisted version of classic rock. They take the heaviness of the Melvins and inject it with a shot of pure adrenaline and a weird, surrealist sense of humor, making for music that is as fun as it is punishing.

Start with 'Here Come the Waterworks' to hear them at their most iconic. It perfectly captures the transition from their raw early duo sound into a more expansive, layered beast. If you want something even more aggressive and modern, 'Battlefields Forever' showcases their ability to maintain that signature wall of sound while tightening their songwriting into sharp, heavy-hitting anthems.