Sometimes big things come in small packages and that is no exception with Malmö, Sweden's psychedelic Doom Metal warriors THRONELESS. Their self-titled EP may a lot of observers of this release assume that is a release lacking in running time but quite the contrary. Each of the four tracks on "Throneless" are as massive-sounding as they are lengthy and atmospheric.

The characteristics of THRONELESS are simple. The sounds are thick, heavy, demented and extremely dark. There are no banshee vocals on this but the painful screams of the vocalist are completely saturated in melting delay and echo effects. The drums are dry and straight-forward and can go to some very dark places with the rhythm section throughout this recording.

You can tell that the band pays very close attention to the tone of their instruments. Although the song compositions are not too diverse from one another, the way the instruments are mixed really tell you what is going on. Songs like "Cavedrones" or "Thinning The Herd" will definitely have more of a Death Metal distortion on the guitars while songs like "Reaching For The Dead" are more focused on producing the fuzziest bass since the Ice Age. THRONELESS likes to create difference ambience for each track although each individual song are equally dark and menacing.

There is a very present Swedish sound on this record too. This band is certainly picking up the torches left by early 1990's acts like ENTOMBED, BATHORY and EDGE OF SANITY and reassigning the motifs of that scene in a Doom Metal environment. And fortunately, THRONELESS doesn't want to sound like a traditional Rock And Roll band. There is definitely heavy impressions of Swedish Death Metal in the soul of THRONELESS' music.

"Reaching For The Dead" caps off the album with a subtle-sounding acoustic guitar but keeps the vocals totally washed out with delay effects. But you cannot deny the similarity it draws to METALLICA's "Sanitarium". But I really enjoyed the soothing psychedelia of the intro of the song, with fuzzed out bass lingering in the background. The fuzz and distortion finally gets unchained two minutes into the song and demolishes the finale of the album with slow, brutal force that gets darker as the song comes to its conclusion. This is the band's longest track on the album but retains the ability to stay interesting from start to finish. This song also is melodic in nature and could have potentially been influenced from modern Doom bands like OLD MAN GLOOM and PALLBEARER.

If you have been keeping up with bands like CONAN or COUGH, then you are in for a good time when you hear "Throneless". There is plenty of speaker-blasting power on each of these tracks. This music has real balls to it while still being something you can just fade in and out of consciousness. If you enjoy your Doom Metal to be crushingly heavy with a bit of Hardcore Punk and Death Metal thrown into the mix, you gotta check this band THRONELESS out.