Listen to the sounds of occult doom. Be smothered by the assurance that your body will eventually creep under slimy bog waters to serve food for horrible monsters. These are my thoughts regarding Swamp Witch, a west coast based doom act who have blown their minds on psychedelic sludge. Somewhere beyond stoner doom lies a more chilly place — a location where mausoleums lie submerged under inky black waters.

It is important to note the subtle approach Swamp Witch and the band’s debut, The Slithering Bog, brings to sludge doom. The band’s lyrical and also instrumental focus is towards psychedelic stoner doom. The band’s actual approach however sounds more like death doom that accidentally got way to high before having to do something important. The result sounds like a stoned Lovecraft which is wandering gingerly through swamps and decrepit houses. I understand this distinction maybe way too minor to sway anyone but the sounds on The Slithering Bog is successful in its escapism and horrible imagery.

The Slithering Bog does not have much in the way of standout tracks rather these 6 songs and 30 minute running time is a quilt of strange hallucinations and a dissonant dissociation from reality. The guitar jamming combined with the vocals and percussion makes for a weird bread crumb trail which leads into the lair of a putrid swamp demon. I have never been so happy with an image like the one Swamp Witch gives with their record.