When it comes to the subject of Stoner Rock, I think a lot of people I know will know my views on it. It's a genre that although I can see why its liked, is not one for me as I don't find enjoyment in the music as most times it sounds either unclear or not done properly resulting in a hit or miss/messy record. As a music journalist, I'm always hopeful that one day there could be a Stoner Rock album that I may like and find enjoyment in when conducting a review. Is today's offering from a country, that over the years, has chucked out loads of great albums and bands the solution? Let us find out by meeting Sweden's DEVILLE.

Formed in Malmo in Sweden in 2003, this quartet of Swedish Stoner Rock musicians released their debut album "Come Heavy Sleep" in 2007 followed by two more released in 2009 and 2013 respectively. Fast forward two years to 2015 and the release of the bands latest album "Make it Belong to Us" which is available now on Fuzzorama Records, so here is my review and thoughts on it, albeit several months late, but as they say, better late then never.

Clocking in at around 37 minutes across 10 tracks, the new record from DEVILLE opens up with the title song "Make it Belong to Me" and upon first listens, this song itself could potentially change my views on Stoner Rock as a genre, as it has melodies which are simple, but the performance is better then I thought, as yes, the mixing may sound a little off, but the rest of the song, as a whole, is actually not too bad.

From there on until the albums end, things start to get a bit convoluted, as the songs are very mixed from here on out. From the second to fourth songs, we get some songs which actually sound pretty good; the fifth to seventh tracks are very hit or miss in terms of the song quality; the eighth song goes back to being a good enjoyable song, and the last two are very hit and miss. In short, this is an album that starts off good but then seems to jump all over the place giving us both good and bad songs.

The songs that stand out to me for being good enjoyable experiences are "Chief", "Out of the Black", "Mindhold" and "Dying to Feel". Despite these being songs in the Stoner Rock genre, I actually found myself liking them, as they used a mixture of heavy hitting melodies and some rather catchy rhythms with a surprisingly good vocal performance. These four songs, combined with the opening track, are ones I'll be happy to go back and listen to again, but the other half of the album, the track numbers I mentioned in the previous paragraph don't live up to that standard, as they are very much hit or miss.

The performance of the remaining tracks range from messy melodies, a lifeless performance, mixed production or vocals, which don't really sound like they're trying, and generally an overall hit or miss feel, which depending on your preferences, could mean a song you either enjoy, or one you hate. I can apply this statement to the production and the mixing as well, which depending on the song, can either sound good or bad, and it can also make or break the song, as it could be good one minute and then bad the next.

Bottom line, the new album from DEVILLE is a record that, although despite being in the Stoner Rock genre, is an album of two halves for me, quite literally, as I like about half of the album's songs, but I'm not so keen on the other half. Because of this, I'm going to be fair with my score, as it had potential to quite possibly be a Stoner Rock album I actually like, but because of the mixed quality in the songs, it loses a few points. Give this one a spin if you are a die-hard fan of the genre, or if you know the band's material, as you may find yourself enjoying the songs that I did not.<