{"id":468700,"date":"2025-10-02T15:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/468700\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:01:17","slug":"modder-destroying-ourselves-for-a-place-in-the-sun-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/468700\/","title":{"rendered":"Modder – Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Blending sludge metal and electronica make for fascinating bedfellows, and that\u2019s exactly what instrumental outfit Modder<\/strong> brings to the table with Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun. I don\u2019t recall encountering this genre combo before, but the unlikely pairing fits together in compelling and novel ways. Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun is one part early Mastodon<\/strong> and one part The Prodigy<\/strong>, and it works better in practice than I\u2019d ever expect it to on paper. Both styles embrace the bottom end, and in a live setting, I imagine Modder<\/strong> is unapologetically crushing. But it takes more than novelty to guarantee a grand time, so let\u2019s dig in and see what goodies this Belgian quintet serves up.<\/p>\n

Though third outing Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun unites sludge and dance, it wasn\u2019t always so, as Modder<\/strong> has evolved with each release. On their self-titled debut, Modder<\/strong> trod the well-worn doom path with low-end crunch and abundant fuzz, recalling Sleep<\/strong> and Electric Wizard<\/strong>. Sophomore album The Great Liberation Through Hearing injected quicker paces and subdued attitudes, delivering a rich variety of textures that plays like Inter Arma<\/strong> sans vocals. Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun continues the evolution of Modder<\/strong>\u2019s sound, this time embracing dance-ready pulses and electronic trappings that occasionally approach Fear Factory<\/strong>\u2019s Remanufacture (\u201cChaoism\u201d). It\u2019s a direction hinted at on The Great Liberation Through Hearing, but here Modder <\/strong>triumphs in fully fleshing it out.<\/p>\n

\ufeffDESTROYING OURSELVES FOR A PLACE IN THE SUN by Modder<\/a><\/p>\n

On Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun, Modder<\/strong> succeeds in evoking an assortment of influences while maintaining the band\u2019s distinct identity. From the Korn<\/strong>-fed intro of \u201cStone Eternal\u201d to the Gojira<\/strong>-glazed grooves of \u201cIn the Sun,\u201d the album packs a broad range of sounds into its forty-two minutes. Each one of the album\u2019s six tracks brings unerringly heavy riffs. \u201cMather\u201d begins with a Prodigy<\/strong>-induced flourish, then drops into a disgustingly dense lurch that shakes the room like a herd of mammoths tromping past. Guitars, bass, and electronics weave an intricate tapestry, with melodies and countermelodies coalescing into grooves thicker than a bowl of oatmeal (\u201cStone Eternal,\u201d \u201cMutant Body Double\u201d). The drumming flits and hammers, with actual and programmed drums enabling quick shifts between sludge and breakbeat (\u201cChaoism\u201d). This five-piece flaunts chops, and they pack them into an easily digestible package.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even if Modder<\/strong>\u2019s latest is a barrel of fun, its imperfections hold it back from greener pastures. For starters, the mix is distractingly crowded. I suspect the goal was to create a concussive bombshell that rattles listeners to the core. While effective on that front, there are times when the sludgy crunch warps into over-compressed artifacts (\u201cStone Eternal,\u201d \u201cMather\u201d). This may be a challenge with the merger of styles, where the electronic elements don\u2019t require the auditory depth needed to express the timbre of acoustic drums or bass. Instead, the music gets rammed through the aural equivalent of Fat Man\u2019s Squeeze, coming out the other side flat and jarring. Another issue with Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun is immediacy. Both sludge and dance emanate a hypnotic sheen onto their styles, whether through towering, droning riffs or persistent electro-throbs. This makes great music for focusing on other tasks, but rarely did I stay engaged for an entire listen. If the goal is to surpass the novelty of instrumental electrosludge, something more is needed. As it is, Modder<\/strong> has strung together fun moments without enough cohesion. If you remove one of the songs or reorder them, the end result doesn\u2019t change substantially, indicating that the whole is no greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n

Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun is a study in cross-genre pollination that bears fruit worth sampling, but won\u2019t sustain you for long. I really like the idea of what Modder<\/strong> has concocted, but the album would have benefited from further refinement. A more dynamic mix would immediately boost listenability, and upping their songwriting game could help push their brand of electrosludge past the point of novelty and into territory with more active engagement and longevity. Modder<\/strong> oozes potential, but there\u2019s ultimately not enough on Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun to keep me coming back.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: Mixed
DR<\/strong>: 5 | Format Reviewed<\/strong>: 320 kpbs mp3
Label<\/strong>: Consouling Sounds<\/a> \/ Lay Bare Recordings<\/a>
Websites<\/strong>: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide<\/strong>: October 3rd, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blending sludge metal and electronica make for fascinating bedfellows, and that\u2019s exactly what instrumental outfit Modder brings to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[20843,743,156228,156229,156230,156231,156232,156233,156234,102830,156235,156236,77,124259,54361,12298,32834,96745,156237,127249,156238,269,156239,89143,104418,6080,6082,234,28037,104419,88862,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-468700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2-5","9":"tag-743","10":"tag-belgium-metal","11":"tag-consouling-sounds","12":"tag-consouling-sounds-records","13":"tag-destroying-ourselves-for-a-place-in-the-sun","14":"tag-electric-wizard","15":"tag-electronic-dance-music","16":"tag-electronic-metal","17":"tag-electronica","18":"tag-electronica-metal","19":"tag-electrosludge","20":"tag-entertainment","21":"tag-fear-factory","22":"tag-gojira","23":"tag-instrumental-metal","24":"tag-inter-arma","25":"tag-korn","26":"tag-lay-bare-recordings","27":"tag-mastodon","28":"tag-modder","29":"tag-music","30":"tag-oct25","31":"tag-prodigy","32":"tag-psychedelic","33":"tag-review","34":"tag-reviews","35":"tag-sleep","36":"tag-sludge","37":"tag-sludge-metal","38":"tag-the-prodigy","39":"tag-uk","40":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}