Ever since I heard Reflections of a Floating World, I have nurtured a low-key obsession with the Bostonian/German group’s brand of progressive, psychedelic doom metal. After following them to Omens, I’ve started working backward, picking up their back catalog as I can.

Dead Roots Stirring, their sophomore record, might not have anyone hoisting it up as the group’s best album, but this might contain their purest devotion to bands like Black Sabbath, Kyuss, and Sleep without the Rush worship that their later work has been criticized for.

The formula they employ on later albums is already firmly established here: the songs are long—the shortest being the instrumental “III” which has a brief run time of 8:44. Vocals are brief, with stanzas being separated by lengthy guitar solos. The songs are organized more as collections of riffs than verses and choruses.

And it is awesome. It is fifty minutes of nonstop headbanging. From the opening groove of “Gemini” to the wah-pedal frenzy of closer “Knot,” every moment wishes I was back in high school and better friends with the metalheads so we could geek out over this record and carve “ELDER” into lunch tables.

What’s remarkable is that for all of its heaviness, there isn’t much darkness to this record. For all of its doom, it’s never dour. There aren’t many overtly minor keys, unlike so many artists trafficking in similar sounds. It’s not quite happy either, landing instead in a sort of cacophonous zen.

The major difference between Dead Roots Stirring and their later work is that the progressive elements that are especially prominent on Omens are almost entirely absent. If there are any keyboards, they’re sparingly used as atmosphere. The solos are long and meandering, sure, but they are given more to Tony Iommi or Jimi Hendrix style psychedelia than Kansas or Rush style prog.

In short, it just rocks. I don’t know what else to tell you. Listen to this record.