Greenleaf
Nest of Vipers
Small Stone

Members of Dozer, Demon Cleaner, Truckfighters, and Lowrider have all posed for Greenleaf’s promo shots at one point or another during the band’s spotty 12 year career, which makes ‘em a catch and release program for some of Sweden’s stoner elite, but you might just call this current incarnation Dozer 2.0 with Truckfighters’ Oskar Cedermalm on vocals instead of Fredrik Nordin (although he does make a guest appearance, as does Per Wiberg of ex-Opeth and Spiritual Beggars and Peder Bergstrand of ex-Lowrider and I are Droid). But hey, if Dozer ain’t in the bullying business anymore, I’ll gladly be pushed around by its bloozier brother, Greenleaf, and they certainly haven’t forgotten how to shove a roach-stained finger into your chest since not having released anything since 2007′s Agents of Ahriman. But that’s the great thing about Greenleaf; they can disappear for a spell — like they did between 2003′s Secret Alphabets and Agents of Ahriman — and come back sounding as tight as ever, and Nest of Vipers is packed just so, with all the movement and danger of its namesake. Greenleaf have always sounded like they’re plugged into mile-long coiled guitar cables in the only desert that exists in Scandinavia, kicking up smoky riffs and fuzzy groove, which they do here in bold fashion (“Jack Staff,” “Lilith,” “Dreamcatcher”), but the thing that has always set ‘em apart and given ‘em that royal, powerful edge is their ability to incorporate that other Swedish rock n’ roll force into their tunes: pure swank. It’s casually slight, but there’s enough garage rock vibe on songs like “Case of Fidelity” and “Sunken Ships” to shake things up just right, and when you add the cosmic prog of “Tree of Life” and the organ-fried “Nest of Vipers (A Multitude of Sins),” you’ve got one well-versed and exceptionally executed trove of heavy venom.

Listen to “Dreamcatcher” from Nest of Vipers!

I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…

Bädr Vogu
Exitium
Momento Mori

An indecipherable logo on a crudely drawn, nightmarish, post-apocalyptic scene usually portends ugly sounds, and so it is with Oakland’s Bädr Vogu, who slog and growl their way through a sludgy mess of crust and doom metal on their full-length debut Exitium. The songs are long, the titles contain words like ruin, belligerence, slum, and filth, and I swear the bass guitar on “Nomad” sounds like barking dogs. Hell, it sounds like that on all the songs. I could tell you more but I think you’ve got a good idea of the necro-madness that awaits you here.

Listen to “Wither” from Exitium!

One Inch Giant
Malva
Self-Released

Self-deprecating genital humor aside, Sweden’s One Inch Giant bring about twelve inches of solid stoner rock to the prehistoric party on their debut album Malva. Songs like “Ripe and Bold” and “Feed the Fire” drop outta the sky like fuzzy meteors, and “Echoes in the Night” and “Treasures That Betray” are the inevitable doom of their impact, but it’s the bluesy hard rock hooks throughout Malva that really shake the trees. In fact, songs like “Fur of the Lord” and “Train of Lies” are laced with so much smack groove that the band sounds as much like Alice in Chains as they do Goatsnake, which is pretty awesome.

Listen to Malva right here!

Miriam in Siberia
Vol. 2
Self-Released

Vol. 2 is actually the third release from Miriam in Siberia, who are actually from Italy. They even sing in Italian, which seems to suit their breezy psych rock particularly well. And Vol. 2 is miles better than their 2006 self-titled EP and 2009′s Il Suono del Phon, as if the band finally decided to ditch the light, meandering AOR, put both feet on the gas, and drive straight into the mouth of the acid witch to steal her last remaining teeth in order to crush them down and feast on the dust. You might need a translator for the lyrics, but you should be able to understand the fuzzy, organ-fried prog pretty damn well.

Listen to “La Fine del Giorno” from Vol. 2!

Mind Spiders
Meltdown
Dirtnap Records

Mind Spiders used to be a Mark Ryan (Marked Men, High Tension Wires) solo project, seeing as how he played all the instruments on last year’s self-titled full-length debut. However, for follow-up Meltdown, Ryan brought the Mind Spiders live band (featuring members of Marked Men, High Tension Wires, Bad Sports, and Uptown Bums) into the studio with him, essentially turning Mind Spiders into a proper band. While Meltdown boasts the same get up, freak out lo-fi garage punk of their debut, there’s a definite shift in its delivery; the abundance of organ and synth proclaims a preference to weirdness over pop and the dynamics of two drummers puts a little more oomph into the album’s neurotic shake. In fact, the entire flip-side of this one is a kaleidoscopic shock wave of robotic rawk, and if you get caught staring at the cover while listening to it, the machines will take over the world, and you’ll be nothing but a bleary-eyed and terrified slave to the new wave sound.

Listen to “Wait For Us” from Meltdown!