Sludge; you either love these bands, or they make you want to gouge out your eardrums. Fortunately, Sweden's SNAILKING fall on the 'right' side of the spectrum for me, and hopefully, their new album, "Storm", will do the trick for you, too. This 'album' may be only 5 tracks long, but when they span between 6 and 17 minutes long each, you know that you're in for the archetypal Stoner-Doom experience.

To be frank, there is little difference between each of the tracks. "The Wonder", "Premonitions", "Requiem" are the stock-standard, lengthy, droney, drawn-out, ethereal heavyweights of this album, but I prefer not to think of this decision as a negative. Slight and slick changes in the chord progressions, ambiance and vocal arrangements make the slight differences count, if you're enough of an audiophile to detect them; each 'track' feels like a slightly heavier, slightly fuzzier continuation of the previous story.

"Slithering" stands out with its killer array of grooves, chugs brought to the front by an incredulously heavy low-end delivery. It also exemplifies the band's beloved tendency to juxtapose their fuzz and drone-laden Doom-and-gloom deliveries with forlorn, clean and calm passages. "Void" closes the album on such a note, stripping the sound of the overdriven electrics, down to a smooth, bass, drum and clean guitar trudge.. For a couple of minutes, anyway. The music is brought down to tempos lower than anywhere else on the record, overlaid with a lengthy, whining guitar 'solo' that stays within the low register, and more so emulates vocals, if anything; a lovely, ethereal touch, I might add.

For those metalheads not accustomed to Doom Metal, you could take a look, but may pass it over when I say it's not so different to the plethora of other Doom outfits out there, but at least they're a damn enjoyable one, and I commend them on this release nonetheless.