We head into the top 10 with a sludge/stoner gutbuster of a record from Seattle’s Big Business. The bass/drums two-piece have been around for a while: I’ve come across some of their earlier stuff in the past, and have always enjoyed it. This record, though – their sixth – is the first time I’ve really fallen in love with them, and it represents their first placing on this list. It’s not just me: many reviews have seen The Beast You Are as a career high. Quite why is hard to say. It may be the return to being a duo after Big Business dabbled in bigger business by adding extra members. Now stripped back to just two, there’s notable focus to this album: this is lithe and yet still lumbering metal, faster than traditional sludge but with no less of the rumble. It’s a pummelling ride. The drum intro to ‘People Behave’ is enough on its own to have you turning to volume reduction technology, and ‘Time and Heat’ takes bass guitar de-tuning to new levels. In a similar way to Death From Above, this is terrifyingly heavy given that Big Business don’t even have enough members to include a guitar player.