Sleestak

The fifth album in three years by Milwaukee’s self-proclaimed psychedelic doom metal trio, Sleestak, is fairly low key, but not without its share of hellacious audacity. Singing—and yes, it’s singing, not Cookie Monster barking—guitarist Matt Schmitz follows the grand lineage of baritone pomposity running from The Doors to Danzig and Type O Negative. A crustily classic tone emanates from his axe’s riffage and sheets of feedback. The rhythm section abets Schmitz in summoning the spirits of everyone from Black Sabbath (of course!) and Electric Wizard to Pink Floyd and High on Fire. They throw a loop into all that heaviosity with an uneven-metered breakdown in “Lone Wolf” that sounds like the Modern Jazz Quartet wandering onto the set of Headbangers Ball.