SLEEP (and Om and High On Fire and etc.)
 

with the recent reissue of asbestosdeath's singles and the imminent arrival of both high on fire's death is this communion (in september) and om's pilgrimage (on october), this is as good a time to recognize one of the truest, heaviest bands to ever walk the earth.

Everyone should bow down.

or just get really really high.

great band.

I've taken to listening to Jerusalem most nights when I go to bed. It just keeps going & going & I keep drifting in & out of it and picking up on new bits each time, it's really satisfying.

asbestosdeath were pretty awesome too, they had the whole crust doom style down and they even mixed some minor key arpeggios to give a little bit of that extra atmosphere that they would perfect in sleep.

controversially, i find om quite uninteresting, i really like their sound but i can't get excited over them, perhaps that's the point, but sleep on jerusalem/dopesmoker were also trance-inducing but had that extra kick that made things more exciting.

oh, and death is this communion is sounding pretty awesome, right where hof left off in blessed black wings...my mom was around when i was listening to it and asked me if i was listening to motörhead. a sign of a good band.

Real recognize real.

I love Sleep, like Om ok, and have mixed feelings about High on Fire. I picked up Blessed Black Wings, but didn't really care too much for it. I loved that "Blood From Zion" track, though.

I pretty much love everything i've heard that Matt Pike or Al Cisnero have played on EXCEPT Kalas.

Bicorn Halfelven, I'd recommend Surrounded By Theives. It's High on Fire's best in my opinion.

aside from a few tracks , i just cant get past the overbearing relation to black sabbath .

here's the review i wrote for my zine/blog when it first came out:


yeah, i thought matt wanted to cash in on the metalcore shit, but then i kept listening to the album and it's one hard motherfucker, it's kinda like motörhead meets celtic frost meets the melvins, it revealed itself to me after several listen though. surrounded by thieves is probably a better introduction but i still think bbw is the better album.

or death is this communion, that's also a good introduction, but don't expect stoner/doom, it's metal to the metal.

I never cared for the HoF singer, and it just distracted too much from the music. I like OM a lot. Early Sleep have dated a little for me, but their late work still holds up thoroughly. I saw them live 6 or 7 times I think from 93-94.

i loved blessed black wings.. didn't albini produce that?

Thanks... I haven't heard that one, so I'll check it out.

And yeah, that Kalas record is pretty butt. I've got a label promo of the album and it didn't make much of an impression on me.

a lot of people know skullflower here, amazing band and most of it's associate bands are awesome too.

yeah, albini recorded bbw, amazing job.

look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Bower

IIIrd Gatekeeper is one of my favorite LPs of all time. When that came out, it was a total revelation for me. My love for Skullflower is nearly bottomless.

High On Fire are pretty incredible live. I don't listen to the LPs I have all that often, but I like them a lot. I usually can't take that kind of a vocal, but with them it just works.

I once went to see Hawkwind and Sleep was the opener, but I got there late and missed them. They never came back here.
Dammit.

what are hawkwind like live now?

That show was at least a dozen years ago.
It wasn't actually "Hawkwind," though it was billed as such. It was Nik Turner and friends with Helios Creed on guitar. It was pretty good, actually. Like heavy new wave psych action. Most of what I have heard of later Hawkwind is pretty dire rave/rock fusion though.

i remember reading a review of this show/tour (because i think the one i read was at the lounge ax in chicago), dude said sleep upstaged the headliners, that people were actually going for the door because they were so heavy and that then when nik turner and frieds came onstage that they were good but not all that after the openers. this was pre-internet (for me) days, i remember feeling really curious about sleep after reading that.

any thoughts on pilgrimage yet?

i think it's om's finest to date, it combines conference's subtleties and chants with the heavier, dopesmokeresque sound of variation all pushed to new extremes, yet still remaining somewhat tame, but not by much this time.

also, albini produced and weston mastered (and sounding like it).

I haven't got Pilgramage yet, looking forward to it though.

I really, really, really love Death is this Communion. Possibly my favourite High On Fire album. Not even the fake violins and keyboards can ruin it for me.

Chris Hakius has left the Om:


http://www.roadburn.com/frames.html

Hello Burners!
BREAKING NEWS: OM WITHDRAW FROM LONDON AND NETHERLANDS/ROADBURN SHOWS WITH CURRENT 93

"Om have regretfully had to pull out of the Roadburn and QEH shows that they were playing with Current 93 due to he sudden and unexpected departure of Om's drummer, Chris Hakius, from the group. Al Cisneros of Om and David Tibet of Current 93 are very saddened to announce this, but it was beyond their control."




edit: their site isn't working for me but this is what their myspace says:

Om is continuing forward with a new drummer and working on a new recording. Please check omvibratory.com and this page for updates. A live vinyl only LP "Om - Live at Jerusalem" will be forthcoming. This is Chris Hakius' final release with the group. I personally apologize to east coast fans who planned on coming out to the shows. Please know that Om will be back in your area later in 08. Thank you to all of you. Live dates resume in late spring. There is a LOT of new material on its way. Shrinebuilder is also forging ahead. See you all soon. -al
http://www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

That's a complete bummer, OM were in their peak and I've never seen live!


I saw High On Fire last december and they were brutal, a really intense show. Matt Pike is a monster on stage! My fav album of HoF is Surrounded by thieves.

oh shit!

can om still remain om without chris? i mean, half their sound came from chris and al's chemistry more than the sound.

and shrinebuilder will still go on, but with or without chris?

anyway, about the death... vinyl, i emailed relapse and they said they had a database crash and couldn't process some orders, but now they sent my copy.

sleep is the only band to have as equal influence to sabbath in the doom slooooooowwwww metal genre. its true. i slept on them so bad untill my trusty metal head younger bro (and my bass destroying trumpet screeching musical partner in crime, outta the 5 bands ive been in hes been in 4) put on dopesmoker for me in 01. it was christmas eve we were both in highschool and soooo bored so we got stoned, like real stoned, in this barn we used to have in the back of the house. we wanted to listen to records and chill afterwards, and he was like here put this on, i was like what the fuck is this? hes like well, you dig sabbath, neurosis etc.. right? and im like well yeah, so he put it on. i didnt speak through the whole duration of the song. and ive been hooked ever since. high on fire is great live and om puts out great records, but neither bands will ever top dopesmoker, holy mountain, or jerusalem. in the lineage of slayer, sabbath, earth, venom, obituary as truly innovative influential desvastatingly heay music.

shit! that sucks

i cant belive it though, i was at the jerusalem show!!!!
i was at the lst real OM show!!1 (with release anywease)
how can he play without chris though?
btw the jerusalem show was five hours long, it was insane
i didnt stay at the whole thing though...

man, i don't think another drummer can fill his shoes, but i hope i'm proved wrong

now this is bad news....good luck to Al, but that sucks.

My issue with the new album is they faded the songs too early...

wow, now I'm really glad I made the effort to see them the 4 times I did....

fugazifan: do you think they'll release the whole 5 hours (as a box set of course)?

---

is there another drummer that's as subtle as chris? like t&b says, here's to hoping.

my guess is no.
cause they played a few songs twice cause they knew that they where going to release it as an album....
they'll probably release an album with
like a 40 minute
flight of the eagle
and
at giza
and another song
or something like that.

yeah, it seems that way for them, to record a very long piece of music and then trim it down.

i think the irony of them playing in jerusalem wasn't lost on them...would it've kill them to invite matt and play dopesmoker? hahahaha.

so live in jerusalem was just released.

and yeah, i finally got death is this communion in vinyl (green) a few months back, pretty sweet.

Sleep are reforming for ATP.


Like, what the fuck and stuff.





Legendary stoner rock band Sleep split up in 1998 after releasing two hugely influential albums. Members went on to form underground heroes High On Fire and Om. They reform for two performances at ATP as a world exclusive that will never be repeated.

http://www.atpfestival.com/atp/Event...StrikeBack.php

thats credible but only if its the actual trio and the guy from Grails isn't playing drums.

I'm missing OM on monday because Dälek is playing in my former hometown the same day. Otherwise OM would be much more tempting as I've seen Dälek a year ago, but I can't deal with the cost and travelling that would be mandatory if I attended the OM gig.

Shit.

I've been meaning to get sleep albums ever since that gilbert -bloke introduced them to me around three years ago, but I haven't.
However, The Art of Self defence is pretty much a perfect album.

fuck yes dude, "IIIrd Gatekeeper" is my favorite Skullflower. I just said on here yesterday how it reminds me of Hawkwind being stripped down to a minimalist Noise-Drone unit while still maintaining that Psychedelic Drugged Out Scum sound that I love.

That said, Sleep is amazing. And Om's last albums have demanded repeated listens from me for some time. "Live In Jerusalem" is just dynamic. I really love Om dearly. High on Fire I used to dig but havn't listened to much recently. I like "Surrounded by Theives" though.

new Om drummer is weak

i disagree.

i've seen Om w/ both Chris and Emil. both have different styles, but i think both fit w/ what Al is trying to do.

i think al cisneros is a good enough bass player that it allows the new drummer to get away with being unremarkable, chris hakius's playing was far more intricate and complemented the bass excellently, whereas the new guy just keeps time & doesn't bring anything new to the table at all.

honestly, i feel the opposite...i thought Chris was rock solid laying down a solid framework, but intricate would be the last descriptive term i'd use, at least in the live setting...maybe i should re-visit the recordings to see what i missed.

ive seen them with the new drummer and dug it, though ive never seen them with the old drummer...not sure if i prefer one over the other...but shit was looouuuuudd