It has been five years since we have heard from American Sludge-lords COUGH but they finally returned with this, their latest album called "Still They Pray". This record is chock-full of dark, slow, hammering tracks that go on as long as ten minutes and sing about torture, death processions and all things demonic. But COUGH still manages to stay at the top of their game with this new record and prove themselves to be one of the highest-tier Doom Metal acts out there right now.

It's very hard for me to wrap up the three ten minute-long songs off of this record into one paragraph but I think due to their psychedelic nature, perhaps little needs to be said about the music. "Dead Among The Roses", "Possession" and "Shadow Of The Torturer" altogether take up half of the entire album's running time. Each song is essentially a test to prove how COUGH can take ten minutes of achingly slow Metal riffs and arranging them in a way where they don't become boring or too repetitive. And I think when you listen to "Dead Among The Roses" for example, every two bars or so of this song, something new gets added onto the repeated riffs and rhythms. If creating new ideas to keep these long compositions fresh was the bands' goal then they succeeded at this. The stringed section seem to always have something to do but as for the drummer, I think he had to try a lot harder to come up with new variations of the same beat for ten minutes without overdoing it on the fills.

Two songs that stick out for me are the tracks "Let It Bleed" and the title track, "Still They Pray". I feel a need to mention these songs in particular because these expose a much more vulnerable side of the band that comes to light on "Still They Pray". Although "Let It Bleed" descends into an overextended stoner delirium, "Still They Pray" is more of a Doomy folk song. It is "unplugged", meaning no electricity was used to power the guitars, and it is carried along by the magnificently heavy guitars and vocals. It just so happens that this change of pace comes in at the very tail end of the entire album. But because of the contrast, it definitely works well as a conclusive end to the story COUGH tells on this record. But of course there is an unnerving, mechanical noise to conclude the title track. This reminded me a lot of some NINE INCH NAILS song's I've heard before.

The music of COUGH has been described by review writers as having a "sleazy" sound to it and I would be in line to agree with them. I would definitely attribute this sleaziness to the slow, grinding rhythm of the whole band in sync with the filthy, strung-out screams from David Cisco. Even on a song like "Possession", where we get to hear Cisco bounce between tortured screams and wounded singing, each characteristic of his voice sounds as though he is either just waking up from a bender or about to collapse from dope sickness. Depending on whom you ask, this either really extenuates the music or damages its accessibility.

I think this is a fantastic Sludge Metal offering for hardcore fans of the genre. But if people come into "Still They Pray" expecting another BLACK SABBATH clone, that would be a big mistake. COUGH takes more queues from bands like ELECTRIC WIZARD and EYEHATEGOD, bands that create a far more inebriated form of Doom. So if you need a soundtrack to your couch lock, this is definitely it. It is easy to get lost within the ten-minute and over track lengths. And speaking of ELECTRIC WIZARD, the one and only Jus Osborn from the band produced this album for COUGH which explains the grimy bass and fat guitar tones throughout.

COUGH put out yet another highly satisfying album with "Still They Pray" although it lacks in originality it has enough darkness in its soul to make it cool and replayable. COUGH haven't reinvented the wheel but the five year-long wait for this record was certainly worth it.