Shadows of the shapeless

This Swedish doom trio doesn't play around. Their second album offers just five tracks in 56 minutes, with three of them trudging well past the ten-minute mark. They're clearly in the tradition of psychedelic, sludgy noise-doom outfits like Unearthly Trance and Yob, with a little bit of Electric Wizard's acid-fried biker hostility thrown in. The lone guitar — sometimes clean, other times hugely distorted — drifts atop a swollen river of bass and drum throb. The guitarist, David Johansson, also sings, in a voice that can manage a dreamy croon but more often opts for a gravelly roar reminiscent of Neurosis. The rhythm section has more than one trick up its sleeve, though, sometimes opting for a bluesy swing that recalls Swedish hard rockers November, and on "Voice of the Below," the band launches into a Sabbathy stomp. There's one short track here, "Tänk På Döden," but one could hardly call it a single — it's an instrumental interlude that's just as spiritually desolate and crushingly heavy as its longer brethren, with a dash of Neil Young in the guitars. This is a varied effort, but it's unlikely to appeal to anyone not already converted to the cause of crushing doom.