Description

Double album on black vinyls with gatefold cover

“It must be gratifying for Sleep to hear the audience roar in approval when guitarist Matt Pike plays the opening notes of Dopesmoker, the live set version coming in around 40 minutes, slimmed down from the studio recording, which clocks in at a little over an hour and three sides. Years after the release of Volume One in 1991, Sleep’s Holy Mountain in 1992 and Dopesmoker in 2003, Matt Pike hard at work with High On Fire and bassist / vocalist Al Cisneros with OM, heavy music needed one of its essential minerals back. In 2009, falling in on either side of Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder, Sleep, like a wooly mammoth awoken from centuries of frozen slumber, once again walked the earth. You could almost hear the universe sigh in relief that Sleep was back. 2014 saw Sleep release a single sided 12” with a new song, The Clarity, giving fans a glimpse of what would hopefully be more to come. And so, the wait began. All good things take time. Then in May of 2018 Sleep released The Sciences and it shows a band as bone-crushingly heavy as ever; as though frozen in time, they have thawed out, choosing to return to Earth on an album that extends their legacy while revisiting it. All the ingredients are there; the fuzzed-out, heavy crunch of Matt Pike’s guitar; Al Cisneros’ drone-inspired vocals and deep, surging, Geezer Butler-esque basslines; new drummer Jason Roeder slotting in so well, you hardly notice the difference. Lengthy, stoned-out marathons are order of the day here, with the trilogy of “Sonic Titan”, “Antarcticans Thawed” and “Giza Butler” featuring trademark strung-out riffs, psychedelic soloing and hard-hitting, caveman-style, drumming. Right on. It’s as though this album was recorded right after Jerusalem/Dopesmoker, such is their ability to tune in to their unchanging, cosmic wavelength, seemingly at will. Needless to say, this heaving slab of Sabbath-infused goodness is the unquestioned highlight of the year for zoned-out stoners of any persuasion, not to mention, well worth the wait. Try it.

Track list:
1. The Sciences
2. Marijuanaut’s Theme
3. Sonic Titan
4. Antarcticans Thawed
5. Giza Butler
6. The Botanist