As I delve deeper into the underground of stoner, sludge, and doom metal I continue to find gems like Propane Propane's 2009 self-titled release. These guys are significantly more ahead of the game in some ways than their other, more modern counterparts because they continue to do things in old ways, yet add their own uniqueness. There are some weak spots though. For one this album is quite short with only six tracks and a total playing time of just over half an hour. However these six tracks represent quite an accomplishment for the young Swedish band, seeing as this album was released not much more than a year after they got together in 2008. The music stays slow and heavy the entire time with plenty of nods to old-school doom and of course stoner metal.

The first track, Geromerad, begins with an amusing sound clip from an episode of Trailer Park Boys, which I found actually fits quite well. The music sounds like a cross between Sleep and Solitude Aeturnus, with heavy, dragging guitar lines and the almost clean vocals of Benjamin Thörnblom, which sound a bit like Rob Lowe except a bit lower in pitch. The slow, melancholy feel of the music also reminds me of Saint Vitus. I like that Planet Dazed has plenty of heaviness and memorable riffing, yet still uses clean electric guitar interludes to create a very mellow atmosphere before crushing you with down-tuned guitar fuzz once again. However, Leaders is unfortunately a song I've heard many times before, the riffs and overall song structure have all been done many times by other bands in the genre. Smoke also has a sense of familiarity, though the band makes this one a bit more interesting; the slow, catchy riffs hammering at you, yet doing some quick tempo changes layered over the thick bass and drums creating an ever-changing wall of sound. The last two tracks are the longest from the album, both over six minutes, and round the album out nicely with some energetic guitar work in Burnt Down, Turned Out Deaf along with some more guttural vocals being used as well. It's Alright starts off a lot calmer, though does bring in some groovier yet still extremely heavy guitars during the second half of the song. All in all it creates a pretty mellow atmosphere yet it's also something that can make you want to get up and headbang.

This is a pretty solid first effort from this young band, who sound like they're straight out of the late 80s-early 90s stoner metal scene, although I can also really tell that they're not trying to simply follow the old standards, especially in terms of mixing things up throughout each song so that they don't get too repetitive. With some added technical complexity and a bit more originality in their compositions, they could easily be a leader in today's doom/stoner genre. I found this album to be quite enjoyable, though I occasionally feel these guys can be in danger of following their influences a little too closely. Nevertheless it’s a great record for a first release, so I will certainly look forward to hearing more from these guys in the future, and hope that their next album is substantially longer.