The Swedish word ‘sten’ means ‘stone’ in English, and as we know by now there are some smaller and bigger stones all over this world. Smaller stones usually – and in most cases, tend to have a lighter weight too – and those bigger stones are normally heavier, and sometimes even much heavier. We cannot change physics too much, right? OCEAN CHIEF, this Swedish 4-piece act that has surely played with stones in several different occasions, especially when enjoying the innocent times of childhood, may appear like a little rock as a part of big mountain – metaphorically speaking, in the world of today’s zillions of heavier sounding bands but their music does appear to be mountain-heavy, very sludg-ish and nicely crispy Doom Metal that crawls slowly but determinedly forward by its own weight really. "Sten" is also the band’s 4th full-length studio album in order, introducing Johan Pettersson as the band’s new stone thrower, playing MiniKorg 700 – and bringing in a welcome element into OCEAN CHIEF’s very uncompromising world of Sludge and Doom. Having recorded ‘just’ 4 songs on this opus, which contains of over 70 minutes of music, this record really doesn’t open up too easily for its listeners, giving them a straight shortcut into the crushing and all-swallowing sweetness this album is full of. For the fans of SLEEP, BLACK SABBATH, ELECTRIC WIZARD and such, OCEAN CHIEF’s own approach in the realm of Doom and Sludge, doesn’t pale in comparison to any more established names around them. In fact, "Sten" so well-deservedly earns its place among some other genre defying albums by its own merits, conjuring up more than just a few massively great moments out from its musical depths. This album is definitely a grower too. It took nearly 20 separate listening sessions from me to get my brain cells fully organized with this overly lenghty opus. Highly recommended. More about OCEAN CHIEF: www.reverbnation.com/oceanchief, label: www.ihate.se