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.