Band:	The Deadists
Album:	Time Without Light
Style:	Stoner metal
Release date:	2010

01. Woven
02. Human Stain
03. Infinite Self
04. Deeper Within
05. Chase the Giving

Hailing from Sweden we have The Deadists, whose latest effort sees them mixing various elements of sludge, stoner, and doom with a bit of a rock and roll vibe. They might be from Gothenburg, but they sure don't sound like the status quo for that region.

Ok, so the name is a bit odd, in a clumsy way? Deadists? Followers of Dead? perhaps they are the vanguard of a cult to the late Mayhem front man. So the name is odd, and the cover art is also a bit odd ? but in a good way. The kind that makes you wonder what the anime-chick saw to look so freaked out, and encourages the beholder to check the disk out.

The band cites Black Sabbath, High On Fire, and Entombed amongst their influences, which makes sense. They sort of take the basic approach of the first two? RIFFS with back-end bass/drum groove, done in a similar manner to doom/sludge as Entombed did to death back in the mid-90s.

2010's Time Without Light sees them lay down some sludgy crushing riffs with this "Sludge And Roll" approach. The rockin' beat keeps the riffs nice and punishing, and allows the bassist and drummer to get a cool groove going on. The vocals are of the shouted variety that one would expect with this type of music, but sounded a bit odd (there's that word again) at first and I found something of an acquired taste.

Opener "Woven" takes about a minute before the band really gets going after some false-starts, but it's good going from there. Time Without Light is five songs covering just shy of 30 minutes of good driving music. I liked it, fit in nicely with the highway ridin' and the road rage?

However, when knocking back barley sodas at El Rancho de COld it's not likely to hold my attention quite so much. It's a good EP, sure, but not quite as good/enjoyable as some of the bands they were influenced by.

All said and done, it's worth checking out. These guys did a little of their own spin on the Sludge/Doom thing which makes it stand out a little. The Deadists are apparently starting to talk about doing their first full-length, and hopefully they'll continue to hone their craft and further develop their own style so they can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their influences.