Sleep
Along with Earth, Sleep were major players in establishing the whole doom/stoner metal scene. They were the first to take the drone metal sound and use it to their own effect (on Jerusalem). In fact, this album was my gateway into the whole drone metal scene as I heard it even before Earth 2. This was way back when I was working in a mainstream music store in downtown Stockholm, Sweden. They had a box full of CDs they didn't know where to place and Jerusalem was one of them. There I was listening to it, trying to figure out where it should go. One riff, six minutes, no changes. What the hell!? Then all of a sudden drums came in and the song was slowly takes shape. I was amazed! This was only one song too (although cut up in many parts). I had never heard anything like it before. A bit like my first experience listening to Gas for the first time, I knew I needed to have this and listen to it more closely. Within a week I had purchased the album (much to my co-workers dismay as they had no clue why I would even want to own a CD that sounded like their furnace).
I later found out that the metal song early on in Harmony Korine's first film Gummo (a favorite in any circle of weirdoes) was Dragonaut off of Sleep's first album. It didn't sound anything like Jerusalem so I didn't recognize it at the time and goes to see where the group's roots were (one of the many Black Sabbath imitators of the time). The band released very few albums (two of these albums, Jerusalem and Dopesmoker are basically the same) before they split up. But many new projects followed including the incredible High On Fire and Om.
Sleep's Holy MountainLabel: Earache Records Release: 1992 Format: CD Cat. no: MOSH 79CD |
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