Weed Demon are a sludge/stoner/doom band from the US and this is their debut album.

Sometimes all you really want to do is get lost in the doom. This album swamps you in heavy riffs, colossal groove, and thunderously slow distortion. What’s not to like?

Smothered in smoke and with an instantly likeable character, Astrological Passages is a welcoming, yet surly piece of work, and any fan of sludgy doom metal should be able to get on board with what Weed Demon have produced here. If you’re into bands such as Warhorse, Cough, and Electric Wizard, pay close attention to what Weed Demon are doing.

Repetition is the friend of a band like this. Peeling off hypnotically entrancing riffs and then exploring them to just the right stretched-out lengths, the songs on this album plumb the depths of slow, riff-based sludge and doom metal. There’s also a stoner influence here that shouldn’t be neglected, of course, which helps to cast a relaxing, friendly glow over music that could sound quite daemonic and malevolent without it. Of course, this is all wildly subjective, as the music here is definitely not the kind of thing your average person would call relaxing or nice…

The harsh vocals of the singer are well-performed and probably appear at their most aggressive on Primordial Genocide, which may be one of my favourites on this release for this reason.

Astrological Passages is an easily enjoyable listen if you’re a fan of this sort of thing, and its warm, earthy production simply enhances the enjoyment you can get by letting the crashing waves of heaviness roll over you and crush your cares away.

Weed Demon have created a very enjoyable and satisfying slab of colossal doom.