Sleep - "Dopesmoker", Deluxe Reissue

[FangsAnalSatan]

Do people really think Holy Mountain was good? I think it's terrible.

[mcpherson123]

Many of us really do. What didn't you like?

[Rev. Mike]

Do people really think Holy Mountain was good? I think it's terrible.

 

Did you not smoke a lot of weed and love heavy metal in 1993?

[mcpherson123]

LOL^

 

You know I've never been a regular "Weedian" myself. I've probably used it about 25 times (maybe) in 15 years but I tend to really gravitate toward a number of albums dubbed as "Stoner Rock."

[FangsAnalSatan]

I guess hearing Sleep go from Dopesmoker which is an awesome drone album, to Holy Mountain which I feel is just a regular stoner rock album.

[mcpherson123]

I see where you're coming from but for the record Holy Mountain pre-dates Dopesmoker. Not sure if you meant it in a chronological sense. Either way, I think both albums are great. There's just something about the songs on HM. To me, they're just quintessential "Stoner Rock" in tone and swagger and everything (not to mention some seriously sick solos) and there's more rhythmic variation than Dopesmoker. I invite you to give HM another shot. Both albums took time to grow on me but I always knew there was something golden about Sleep and I had to keep trying to fall into their groove. Now that I have, it feels great.

[Rev. Mike]

Following the transition from Asbestos Death to Sleep at the time there was really very little in the landscape that sounded anything like what Sleep was doing when Holy Mountain came out. The fact that it come out on Earache was a whole other mindfuck only equaled by Lee Dorian moving from Napalm Death to Cathedral. I listened to Sabbath and the Melvins and Neurosis but had never heard of Pentagram, the Obsesses were a band in legend only, I did not care for St Vitus at the time, and Cathedral never did much for me. The Stoner/Doom stuff as a genre was nascent. If you were into metal and hardcore it was still all about speed. As the years went on there was Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Noothgrush, 16, all the bands that Kozik introduced to the world with Man's Ruin, etc but Sleep stood out with Holy Mountain, that was the template for modern Stoner Metal. To my mind it hardly gets better than Dragonaut. As the years went on and the legend grew we would read in magazines that they had a major label deal, blew all their money on weed, recorded an hour long album that would never be released, etc. But we had Holy Mountain because nothing else scratched the itch quite the same way. Songs about weed, dragons, druids, and outer space coupled with pummeling riffs. At least until Jerusalem finally saw the light of day in 1998.

I haven't smoked weed in years and I still love Sleep. I have two tattoos that reference bands, one is Sleep, one is Black Sabbath, and I don't regret either of them. I honestly don't understand how someone could NOT love Holy Mountain if they like heavy music.

[FangsAnalSatan]

The first time I heard Sleep was after I picked up Surrounded by Thieves and I really digged the sound, and on the High on Fire divider at the record store it said "See: Sleep" so I picked up Jerusalem on a whim and I really enjoyed it. But I didn't delve much farther into their discography.

 

Then as I started to fall out of love with High on Fire around the time of Blessed Black Wings ('04?), but I still really enjoyed what I had heard from Sleep so I picked up Holy Mountain and I just felt it was more of the same as what was done with High on Fire, it wasn't the Sleep I loved. I don't know if revisiting it would quite resolve that that much because I tried to listen to the Art of Self Defence when Southern Lord re-released it and I didn't love it as much as I did when I first heard it.

[mcpherson123]

Just because:

 

[brentoage]

Just because:

 

Awesome. Thanks for posting this.

[3fingersdown]

Fuck yes

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

Following the transition from Asbestos Death to Sleep at the time there was really very little in the landscape that sounded anything like what Sleep was doing when Holy Mountain came out. The fact that it come out on Earache was a whole other mindfuck only equaled by Lee Dorian moving from Napalm Death to Cathedral. I listened to Sabbath and the Melvins and Neurosis but had never heard of Pentagram, the Obsesses were a band in legend only, I did not care for St Vitus at the time, and Cathedral never did much for me. The Stoner/Doom stuff as a genre was nascent. If you were into metal and hardcore it was still all about speed. As the years went on there was Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Noothgrush, 16, all the bands that Kozik introduced to the world with Man's Ruin, etc but Sleep stood out with Holy Mountain, that was the template for modern Stoner Metal. To my mind it hardly gets better than Dragonaut. As the years went on and the legend grew we would read in magazines that they had a major label deal, blew all their money on weed, recorded an hour long album that would never be released, etc. But we had Holy Mountain because nothing else scratched the itch quite the same way. Songs about weed, dragons, druids, and outer space coupled with pummeling riffs. At least until Jerusalem finally saw the light of day in 1998.

I haven't smoked weed in years and I still love Sleep. I have two tattoos that reference bands, one is Sleep, one is Black Sabbath, and I don't regret either of them. I honestly don't understand how someone could NOT love Holy Mountain if they like heavy music.

 

Pretty sure Fu Manchu, Kyuss & Monster Magnet were around before Sleep was and/or releasing their first LPs at the same time and had already put out 45s.

[Rev. Mike]

Pretty sure Fu Manchu, Kyuss & Monster Magnet were around before Sleep was and/or releasing their first LPs at the same time and had already put out 45s.

 

I was speaking about my own experience. I was not listening to Monster Magnet, I had heard Virulence but not Fu Manchu who did not start putting things out until later. I heard Asbestos Death because they were on Profane in 1990 and then Sleep Vol. 1 in 1991. I did not hear Kyuss until like '93. I had heard early (pre-MTV) White Zombie (much more dirgey and drug damaged, like Monster Magnet). Things were a lot different pre-internet age. I was getting mix tapes, reading zines, borrowing cassettes from friends, and taking chances when I could get rides to a record store (all out of town). That was the extent of my knowledge. It is a lot easier to speak about all that other shit looking backwards. To my mind Sleep still crushes everything else from that time.

[nothingnatural]

Things were a lot different pre-internet age. I was getting mix tapes, reading zines, borrowing cassettes from friends, and taking chances when I could get rides to a record store (all out of town). That was the extent of my knowledge. It is a lot easier to speak about all that other shit looking backwards. To my mind Sleep still crushes everything else from that time.

 

I miss all of that. Except I didn't need rides to record stores because Sacramento also had a few good shops.

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

I was speaking about my own experience. I was not listening to Monster Magnet, I had heard Virulence but not Fu Manchu who did not start putting things out until later. I heard Asbestos Death because they were on Profane in 1990 and then Sleep Vol. 1 in 1991. I did not hear Kyuss until like '93. I had heard early (pre-MTV) White Zombie (much more dirgey and drug damaged, like Monster Magnet). Things were a lot different pre-internet age. I was getting mix tapes, reading zines, borrowing cassettes from friends, and taking chances when I could get rides to a record store (all out of town). That was the extent of my knowledge. It is a lot easier to speak about all that other shit looking backwards. To my mind Sleep still crushes everything else from that time.

 

I was just pointing out that those bands released stuff at the same time before Sleep had put any thing out whether you were aware of it or not at the time. That was the great sludge/doom/stoner rock explosion. Eyehategod, Grief, Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu, Sleep, etc... were all at about the exact same time.

I bought 3 copies of the Jerusalem CD when I stumbled across it because I couldn't believe it had actually come out and assumed it was a boot. And the best article I read about the recording of the album was in Stephen O'Malley's Descent zine(I had a car and could drive to record stores)

p.s.

White Zombie and Monster Magnet sound nothing alike.

[Rev. Mike]

Yes, I understand the historical context now. Many things were happening by region, and by label, and by genre. And I know what my ears tell me, though they have been wrong, and sometimes I wrote stuff off a long time ago which I never revisited. When I heard Monster Magnet 20 years ago it sounded like late 80's White Zombie to me, I am probably wrong, whatever.

Sometimes I wish my ears could be that age again. When my otherwise strictly tuned to thrash metal ears first heard Mudhoney in the late 80's I thought Burn It Clean was the heaviest shit I had ever heard. That doesn't make any sense to me now. But back then I hadn't heard early Swans, I had yet to hear Melvins, or Godflesh, or whatever is analagous to heavy that someone wants to point out. But my ears now hear different things too that are just as enjoyable, and for which I have more context.

[whoshotthefrog]

LOL^

 

You know I've never been a regular "Weedian" myself. I've probably used it about 25 times (maybe) in 15 years but I tend to really gravitate toward a number of albums dubbed as "Stoner Rock."

 

 

 

You should check out websites like these below for good discussions on Stoner Rock, Doom and Sludge.

 

 

 

http://stonerrocklives.com/forum/

 

 

 

http://theobelisk.net/forum/

[twatay]

Do people really think Holy Mountain was good? I think it's terrible.

 

The fuck??  ​ 

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

Check this out Rev. Mike. Def. more on the Hawkwind/Captain Beyond side of stoner rock than the Sabbath/Pentagram side. Sure, you may not like it but doesn't sound much like White Zombie. There are cassette demos of these songs on youtube from '89 but they sound pretty shitty compared to the actual release.

 

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

Do people really think Holy Mountain was good? I think it's terrible.

 

If you're going to name yourself after Boris' record label, you should at least know enough to pretend to like this album.

[FangsAnalSatan]

If you're going to name yourself after Boris' record label, you should at least know enough to pretend to like this album.

 

I know more than enough to know that album is nothing special. It's pretty narrow sighted to classify Boris with Sleep since Boris transcend multiple genres. Good try at trying to tell me my opinion is wrong though.

[nostalgicbummer]

this album rules continuous, gonna be seeing them in jan suuuper pumped!!!!

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

I know more than enough to know that album is nothing special. It's pretty narrow sighted to classify Boris with Sleep since Boris transcend multiple genres. Good try at trying to tell me my opinion is wrong though.

 

You just told everyone that really likes this album they are wrong while I was just insinuating Boris was probably influenced by Sleep. Haha. You're cute & funny.

[FangsAnalSatan]

You just told everyone that really likes this album they are wrong while I was just insinuating Boris was probably influenced by Sleep. Haha. You're cute & funny.

 

Did I tell people they were wrong? You seem to be able to spell but I guess you're just semiliterate. Here's what I posted;

 

Do people really think Holy Mountain was good? I think it's terrible.

 

I've bolded for emphasis. You may notice that just because you love an artist and or album, some people may disagree. Un-rustle your jimmies and thanks for the compliment :3

[Guest Justin Maheiny]

I know more than enough to know that album is nothing special.