THIS is how you make a doom metal album. SMED's self-titled debut release is a triumphant doom effort from the Swedish heavy metallers and is full of outer space and occult imagery and everything else great about doom/stoner metal. Their band name even stands for "Space Medicated Elevated Doom."

SMED comes in epic form from the beginning with "Starmass" and its slowburn space thriller vibes. I love that vocalist Niklas Sjöberg's voice seems to echo as if it's resonating from deep space - it just fits so well with the doom genre and the lyrical content. I also appreciate the deep bass lines, heavy riffs, and drum talent throughout the whole album. There were moments during my several listen-throughs of this album that I was reminded of listening to bands like HIGH ON FIRE, PALLBEARER, BARONESS, and even DEFTONES.

The heaviest song on this album I think is "Queen of the Goats" for those who may be into more heavy material. But my favorite song on the album is "Flower Smokin' Priest." I love the psychedelic vibes and found it very catchy. I also love that a good, fun song can be made with a lot of repetition of just the words in the song title. The riff in the chorus is so heavy and I just felt like this song was so much fun. Could these guys be any cooler?

As a science fiction nerd, I love the reference to Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey" in the song "Hal 9000." I dig the beginning of the song because it's just as mysterious and awe-inspiring as the book. I love that a song has been made about a book, because I'm a huge reader, so combining music and reading just fills me with so much excitement. Niklas uses a very deep, ominous and almost robotic singing voice before returning to his "normal" singing voice, which I thought was cool. I also like that he ended the song screaming, which captures the epicness and chaotic uncertain ending to the book.

I think the band ends the album as strongly as they began it and I can say that this is an interesting album from front to back. I love the energetic jam toward the end of their last song on the album "1010 A.D." I think with even better production this band could sound more amazing. I hope to see more from them in the future.