Electric Wizard - Black Masses

I feel like we here in NY have it pretty fucking good. There's a show 7 nights a week, the chinese food is cheap and tasty, you can get just about anywhere you need without burning gas, the people are good lookin, and places to get beer are plentiful. We really only lose out on just about one fucking thing. Electric Wizard shows. GODDAMNIT MOTHERFUCKERS! IT'S THE LAST PIECE OF THE FUCKING PUZZLE!

Yes, so Electric Wizard hasn't played New York, or anywhere in the states since like 2001 or something like that, and we all live release to release to get our fucking fix while gnawing like haggard jackals at the remains of our needleworn copies of Dopethrone. It's still filling after all these years.

Anyways, when I heard that EW was putting out a new album I was pretty fucking stoked. Frankly, I wasn't super into all of Witchcult Today compared to some of the more classic albums but, as a holdover it was pretty good. When Venus in Furs off the new album Black Masses leaked, I was blown away. The Wizard has grown.

If you're looking for the next Supercoven/Return Trip put this down. If you want a rehash of Dopethrone, forget about it. Not even close. If you're looking to hear EW in the middle of a 72 hour speedfreakout then you have found your Mecca. I mean, don't get me wrong, Wizard's idea of "speed" is still about 40bpm slower than everyone else but this shit rocks. Like actually fucking drives. It's awesome. Confusing at first but once you drop your expectation of another full side of space jams, it's pretty fucking dead on.

The songs are still long, the riffs still immovably massive, the vocals spaced out and painful, and the songs never fucking boring/always heavy. Electric Wizard is still the heaviest band in the universe.

Try it on, see how it fits...

Kyuss - "Blues for the Red Sun" & "Welcome to Sky Valley"

When I worked at Sirius, Bobby Black from High Times magazine had an all Stoner Metal show called Contact High. Sadly, they shitcanned his ass shortly before the extended the same courtesy to me and the world lost a great hour of radio every week. Oh well, their stock price is in the shitter for a reason (and it ain't their coordinators or DJ's who are some of the best people I've ever worked with...). Anyways, at the time one of my pet peeves with the show was that homeboy played too much damn Kyuss for my liking and it got me all cranky and what not. I just couldn't get in to it. I listened to a lot of Queens of the Stone Age in high school and college (thanks to my soph. year roomate leaving Songs for the Dead on repeat for something like 3 months. No, seriously. I'm not fucking with you and I have witnesses. Ian literally only listened to QOTSA, every day, from like January through April or something like that. Ian, back me up here.) but for some reason Kyuss just wouldn't click with me. My friend tried to turn me on to it in like 11th grade too but back then if it wasn't Black Flag I probably didn't give a fuck.

Anyways, a couple of months ago the Mishka Bloglin did this "choice is yours" thingy where they asked people which was better, Dopethrone or Welcome to Sky Valley. At first (and kinda now) I scoffed at the idea of these two things even being in the same fucking sport much less the same league. Dopethrone is possibly the heaviest album in the universe by the heaviest band in the universe. Kyuss (or so I thought) was basically a glorified stoner rock desert dwelling hawkwind ripoff. Either way, I figured if some motherfucker had the cojones to compare these two, I'd better at least give another listen.

So, after going back and giving these two albums a spin, I can officially say I'm a convert to the Kyuss way (although they still can't hold a fucking candle to Dopethrone. Sorry, ain't never gonna happen.) I guess it really hooked me with the first riff in Thumb on "Blues for the Red Sun." That kinda uberstoned "Hole in the Sky" jam thing definitely got caught in my head for like 2 weeks and from there it was downhill.

Since pretty much everybody and their mom has written fucking volumes on this band already, and I'm fairly new to Kyuss fandom, I'm gonna leave it with this. It's fucking awesome music to bike/drive/train/travel to. Get some.

CLICK THE PICS FOR D/L's

Weedeater, Black Tusk, Gates of Slumber, and Struck By Lighting @ Webster Hall. April 10th, 2010

I haven't posted in a long time. Basically because all I listen to is Weedeater. When that's all I listen to, I don't feel like it's necessary to repeat myself every day. Having just seen Weedeater, Black Tusk, Gates of Slumber, and Struck By Lightning at Webster Hall last weekend, I was forcefully reminded of the fact that yeah, maybe I do need to repeat myself.

WEEDEATER IS THE FUCKING SHIT. PERIOD. END OF STORY.

I am proud to report, yet again, that Dave, Keko, and Shep are still, entirely unfuckwittable. They are, undeniably, one of the heaviest, most reliably fucking awesome doom bands in the history of the Earth and nobody praise them enough.

Anyways, now that the WE cocksuck sesh is over, let's get down to the real biz.

The night opened up with this band "Struck By Lightning" who I'd never heard of but was totally blown away by. I showed up half way through the set to a lead singer in a his hero is gone shirt, blasting crusty doom, and good times already underway. Apparently one of the dudes in that band is formerly of Mouth of the Architect, all well and good, but SbL fucking destroys. Expect big things from these guys. I'm fucking stoked that Metal is getting more and more punk every day. Also, their drummer fucking kills it. Check out THEIR MYSPACE. Their live recorded shit is a lot more tech than it sounds like live but it's still awesome. I can taste notes of Disfear, HHIG, old school Baroness, classic Swedish Death Metal, and a buncha other good shit in here.

After SbL, Gates of Slumber, looking more than a little like a marauding viking hoard, took to the stage with their vengeful old school doom sounds. Like St. Vitus? Go buy a GoS album. Now. These large, hirsuit barbarians from the midwest play a brand of Doom rarely seen or heard done properly these days. Classic, Sabbath worshipping, Wino copping, old school no bullshit slow ass, riff driven heavy metal. I just recently got into these guys but I feel like they'll be around for a while to come. They're headed to Europe for the upcoming festival season over there and you can bet your ass that they're gonna fit right in with the bekutted, longhaired Hessians over there. I still have massive fucking neck pain from when they busted out "Blood and Thunder." Hesh on.

Finally, Black Tusk was the last "opener." I use quotation marks around the word opener because I feel like that term is slightly less than fitting for a band that the entire audience is going ballistic for. I'd heard some BT before and always though they were pretty good. I never really paid too much attention (probably because I was listening to Bongzilla or something) before, but after this show, my eyes (and ears) are wide fucking open to the greatness of this band. Black Tusk did something that I haven't seen a doom band do in ages. The put the goofy fucking rock star shit back into metal, and it totally rules. These dudes are possibly one of the most fun shows I've seen in ages. Fucking awesome. Jumping around, ripping shit up, headbanging, crossing the fucking guitars, wailing, all of it. No shame, no mercy, all metal. If you get a chance to see these guys, especially in a kinda small venue, be there. It's totally worth it.

Which brings us to Weedeater. Yeah, there's just nothing you can say about their set besides:

1) It fucking rules.
2) It's fucking mindblowing that these dudes are still alive.

The thing about a lot of sludgier bands is that live they tend to speed shit up. WE does the opposite. The slowly strangle the last drops of life out of every fucking note they hit. They crank the fucking volume to earsplitting levels, the bash drums harder than anyone else out there, and you could pave a fucking highway with Dave's voice. Just watch the videos and try to ignore the fact that I gave more of a shit about going nuts than holding the camera steady. Sorry bout that, it's fucking Weedeater.

CLICK THE PIC OF DIXIE FOR A LINK TO THE FLICKR PAGE.

Weedeater - God Luck and Good Speed @ Webster Hall. 4/10/10 www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Weedeater - "Gimme Back My Bullets" @ Webster Hall 4/10/10. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Weedeater - "Time Served" @ Webster Hall Basement. 4/10/10 www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Weedeater - "Monkey Junction" @ Webster Hall 4/10/10. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Black Tusk @ Webster Hall. 4/10/10 www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Gates of Slumber @ Webster Hall 4/10/10. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Sardonis - Self Titled E.P.

Every once in a while someone passes me a band that just gets it fucking right. Last week Blake from Rats in the Walls told me to check out this Sardonis EP from a while back. Knowing that basically whatever Blake is listening to is probably better than whatever I'm listening to at the moment, I grabbed it and put it on the shelf all weekend. Man was that shit the right choice. Starting your week on this album is so the right decision.

I've said it a million fucking times before and I'll say it a million times more. Not everything needs to be new, complex, progressive, difficult, or whatever the fuck adjective describing wankery you wanna use. Sometimes, just going down the path of the simple, the easy, or the plain works fucking wonders. Fortunately for all of us, it seems like Sardonis understands this intrinsically and doesn't fuck with it.

This 4 song EP is nothing but an awesome chunk of fucking doom. Just guitars, drums, bass, and supreme heavyness. No vocals, just riffs. No stupid, drawn out, overly psychedelic spacey delay parts. No overly referential copping from one specific band. Just thick, meaty guitar tone, crushing drums, slow tempos, and endless bass grit.

Best of all, the next band in my itunes is Sarke...

Click the pic for the link.

High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine

NOTE: I ripped this from my Mishka review as well but I was actually writing it for NGNV as well.

Click the pic for file.




If there was a First Amalgamated Tabernacle Church of the Word and Deed of Saint Matthew Pike I'd like to think I'd be the high priest. I mean, for fucks sake, the guy is absolutely one of the greatest living riff-forgers, possibly one of the greatest of all time. Shit have you ever listened to the first 30 seconds of Dragonaut? The first 30minutes of Dopesmoker? Anything off the Art of Self Defense? The motherfucker pisses headbangers and shits bong rips.

But... When it comes to High on Fire, I've never been at the edge of my seat waiting for their next albums. To be honest I was kinda stuck on Sleep for a while and never really bothered to give HoF the listen they deserved. I mean, I always dug it when it was on, and I had a few of their albums, but when it came time to pick an album to listen to, I basically lived on Dopesmoker and Amerijuanican for many moons.

After seeing HoF live at Scion and then seeing Sleep at ATP, I was fairly fucking stoked for the new album. Apparently, it'd been a long ass time since they put out their last album and this was pretty anticipated. When Prolly sent me the link to Snakes for the Divine, I was pretty fucking stoked to get down to listening.

It's now 5 full listens later and I still have no idea how I feel about this fucking album. Damnit.

The Pros:
- Pretty much every song stands by itself as a fucking solid jam.
- It's still High on Fire, it sounds like High on Fire.
- The riffs, oh my, the riffs
- Nothing new, they don't fuck with what works

The cons:
- Doesn't really come across as an epic fucking album even though the songs are all good.
- Lacking some of the visceral, ball-punching, gut-wrenchingness of the the other albums. Not really sure why, maybe it's a different guitar tone, maybe it's the vox being too far forward in the mix, maybe it's that his voice has changed over the years but for some reason it's no Blessed Black Wings.
- They don't fuck with their old formula but yet, don't copy all the aspects that made it work so well. Mostly in the production.

This fucker definitely gets out of the gate strong and holds on for the entire album, but there's just something lacking man. Prolly claims it's Matt's newly found "shitty Lemmy impersonation" vocals. I think it's that the guitar tone feels a little less rich in the mix. Who knows. Either way, I'd say this album will fall slightly below their others in my rotation but would probably blow your mind live. If you can come up with a definite opinion on this in less than 5 listens, you're not listening hard enough.

Just Seems to Fit

I need some more fucking Fu Manchu in my life.

Tafkata - "Worker & Parasite" and "Demo"

Blake, endless source of the gnarliest heavy shit I never listened to before but am slowly growing to crave, has supplied me with yet another fucking gem. A gem made out of addictive, sludgy, brutal but massively riffy fucking sweetness. A while back, Blake and I were shooting the shit about how I basically listen to Eyehategod a fuck load. He, in his own significantly more understated way, was like, "You're a fucking pussy. Put the fucking manpants on and listen to this Enewetak shit. Shortly after followed Unruh and Suicide Nation and blah blah blah. It will fuck your dog, beat your sister, and abscond with your Spawn action figure collection all in the same night." Well, maybe not exactly that but you know, literary fucking license n'all. Anyways, I listened to "Onward to Valhalla" and was converted to the ways of west coast evil fucking grind sludge.

Turns out that the singer and bassist of Enewetak went off after that band died and formed this band Tafkata (who according to Brendan, sounds like some Swahili word. He also thinks Enewetak sounds like a Swahili word... I'm calling the fucking wobblies on you son.) who are basically like the stoner-sludge side of the Enewetak coin and BOY AM I FUCKING EXCITED. This shit ripped me a new one straight from the beginning of the first song on the demo to the last song on the album. It's seriously like perfect doom/sludge riffs, with just the right amount of screamy grindy vocals, followed by great straight ahead hardcore breakdowns and pretty much every song clocks in at like 2 or 3 minutes so it doesn't drag ass.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

CLICK THE PICTURE FOR THE LINK.

Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder

If you read the last post, you'll noticed I mentioned that I had TWO heavy hitters to put up today as tribute for my lack of posting albums recently (Kinda like the Yom Kippur of metal or something). Thus, I now follow through with my most awaited album of the year. By far.

Shrinebuilder, as every metal website in the world has said, is a supergroup made up of Scott Michael Kelly (of Neurosis) Al Cisneros (of AsbestosDeath, Sleep, and OM), Scott "Wino" Weinrich (of basically every classic doom band ever including The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and most recently Wino), and Dale Crover (Drummer of the Melvins). Basically, a legendary doom gathering of the tribes/minds/spirits/whatever.

When it comes to supergroups, I will almost always be the first one to set my expectations super, super fucking low. Hype through the roof + the reality of them being side-projects of other already amazing bands + my usual completely over the top ridiculous hyperbolic tendencies = total fucking let down with the end product most of the time. Shrinebuilder completely blows that shit away.

If I were to sum up my first couple of listens in middle school science terms, Shrinebuilder is a beautiful heterogeneous compound. In other words, when you put sugar in water it becomes the homogenous "sugar water," but when you put sand in water, it's still water and still sand. You can see both of the component parts. In Shrinebuilder, you can definitely pull out each player's contribution to the group. Not just like, "Hmmm... this song sounds a lot like Neurosis..." or whatever, but even parts of songs. I guess the most visible example of this is in "Pyramid of the Moon." You can definitely feel the Wino and SMK lead in the beginning of the song and as it progresses, the whole song pulls a slow shift towards Al Cisneros's lead until he kicks it full gear in to a Sleep/OM style drone for the 2nd half of the song. Each riff shows the fingerprint of the person who wrote it. Most riffs gotta lotta fucking fingerprints though.

Usually when a band sounds so strongly like it's components, it almost always fails at sounding like a comprehensive whole. Somehow, probably because every person involved in this project is a fucking genius when it comes to doom, Shrinebuilder feels whole. No song feels out of place, no section feels jarring or confused, no tone or note doesn't belong. That's what really makes this album interesting to me. How unbelievable the balance between the parts and the whole is from start to finish. Just listen and tell me I'm wrong.

All of this being said, Shrinebuilder is surprisingly different than what I expected, but not different than what I hoped for. I was kind of expecting Dale's tribal, crushing, war drums to be driving a Dopesmoker bassline with Neurosis uber delayed guitars and Wino singing. What I got was a whole shit ton of Wino/SMK guitars and atmosphere mixed with some OM droning and driving, Dale acting as an anchor for the band to swirl around, and everyone takes turns on the mic. It's fucking cool.

Fuck this, I've said too much. Listen to the album and tell me I'm wrong. I could talk about this band for another fucking decade man. I am so stoked to see them next month at Poisson rouge with Rwake.

Get tix now kids.

Saint Vitus, Saviours, Orphans, and Bassoon @ Europa. October 16th, 2009

Show was at Club Europa in Brooklyn, New York. Shit was the jump off.

SAINT VITUS
A shit ton more Vitus pics

Saint Vitus - "Living Backwards" @ Europa. Oct. 16th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Saint Vitus @ Europa, Oct. 16th 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Saviours @ Europa - October 16th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

SAVIOURS
More Saviours shots at Flickr

OM & NAAM @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009

OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 1 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 2 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

OM: Cremation Ghat I @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago I reviewed OM's new album, "God Is Good." As you might have figured out, I wasn't overly stoked with it as a follow up to Pilgrimage/Innerant Rays of the Sun. As a follow up to Gebel Berkel it was definitely an improvement but on a whole, I like the earlier shit better. Despite the lukewarm reception to the new album, I still love that band live so I got tix to see them at Europa with Brooklyn favorites Naam. Lichens and 6 Organs of Admittance also opened for them. Naam, as always fucking killed it and are sounding tighter and tighter every day. Robert, aka: Lichens played the delay pedals in a chair. Probably cool on album, definitely good for high people live. Somewhat boring as he just sat still with a microphone and a loop box throat singing into feedback loops for 30minutes. Pass the pipe please.

As for 6 Organs of Admittance... wrong bill. Stick to coffeehouses. If members of the audience are shushing other members so they can hear the band, you're at the wrong club, with the wrong crowd, and definitely on the wrong lineup. Go elsewhere. Probably would have been good if they were playing through a shit load of amps at a crushing volume with some sort of a rhythm section. On two acoustic guitars it sounded like the shit I used to hear the less retarded hippies try (significantly less well) to play at college. No thanks.

OM on the other hand. On fucking point from minute one. Started with To the Shrinebuilder and crushed songs from each one of their albums. Could have used a little more volume on Al's bass but other than that I'd say it was pretty fucking spot on.

Om with Emil is definitely a different beast all together. I meant to ask Al and Emil about this and the new album but never really got around to it. Busy times man. Anyways, for lack of a better term, I'd say Emil is a way more extroverted drummer than Chris Hakius. Where Chris really focuses on relentlessly hammering down the groove with no regard for fills or frills, Emil is all over the kit. Fills, rolls, beat changes, whatever. Unfortunately, it tends to be really distracting from the overall vibe that Chris was so heavy on setting up and holding down. Also, hombre really needs to remember the value of a change in dynamics.

Long and short: Dude kinda drums like an adorable yet overenthusiastic puppy. You know man, you like him, it makes you happy, he's a friendly little guy with a good heart that's in the right place but too noisy for the hunt. But, for this job, old yeller kicking around on the porch just chilling is the mutt for the job in this case.

Oh yeah, almost forgot one minor detail. OM now has three members. Robert of Lichens was doing all sorts of crazy shit like PLAYING FUCKING GUITAR! Yes, OM now has a guitar, a keyboard, some tambourine percussiony stuff, and a shit ton of delay effects. It's cool I guess. Again, somewhat distracting but really not too bad. I'm more of a minimalist though when it comes to my post-Sleep stoner drone doom.

Ok, now that I've gotten all the nitpicky annoying shit out of the way, this show layed it the fuck on. Thick. In the best way possible. It fucking ruled.

Al and Emil and Rob fucking barreled into the set and did what they do best. Play music to headbang slowly to. The audience and the band were totally on the same page, Al didn't miss a note, the new effects dude added some interesting new sections on to old songs that I wasn't expecting and definitely wasn't disappointed with. At one point between the last 2 songs of the set before the encore I actually heard Emil say to Al, "Man let's play more, the vibe is perfect in here." or something to that effect. All the songs were a little heavier and just barely faster than I remember them and it felt fucking good. Yesssss.

Next time though, Emil, dude, leave your pants on and stay behind the drumkit, you're harshing my mellow brah.

Weedeater - ... And Justice For Y'all & Sixteen Tons

Fuck it man, can't post GL&GS without putting up the other two. Justice for Y'all is their first full length, 16 tons is their second. The thing about Weedeater is that there are no bad songs. Every song may not be the best hesher weed jam in the world but every song is good. Some (like Monkey Junction and Free) are fucking killers. All are solid as a fat fucking rock (of weed. A weedrock, or perhaps a stone of weed, if you will.)

I haven't really listened to 16 tons as much but everytime it comes on it holds the stoke.

CLICK THE PICS FOR DL LINKS.

Weedeater - God Luck and Good Speed

If you look at my last.fm account plays from the last two weeks you'll see a few different things. Some Angel Witch, some Aura Noir, a little Rorschach today to get hyped for tonight and then you'll see like 54 plays of Weedeater. Shit is a dangerous, addictive substance.

Here's their latest off Southern Lord. It's fucking spot on from end to end. Shit, it even made me like a Skynyrd song by accident. Dixie Dave Collins and the crew are just digustingly heavy.

CLICK LINK FOR D/L

SHRINEBUILDER

SHRINEBUILDER SONG UP!

GET TIX HERE

WEEDEATER/NAAM @ Charleston 9/10/2009

Rest of the Weedeater shots







Rest of the Naam shots

Weedeater attemping "Monkey Junction" acapella @ Europa Sept 10th, 2009. from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

"Monkey Junction" by Weedeater @ The Charleston. Sept 10th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Good motherfucking goddamn. Last night gave me that "I wonder what would happen if I started doing massive amounts of drugs and then ritually sacrificed my neighbors puppy to Zuul..." feelings all over the body. Weedeater is a massive, disgusting, unstoppable, menacing, snarling, unhinged runaway riff steam engine piloted by a fucking murderous lunatic. Fuck yeah.

Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy

If there was ever a band that made me want to smoke a drugs and kill my neighbors dog it's Church of Misery. I fucking love this band so fucking hard. Worship at the stoner church of riff-death with me friends. Every song on this album is, perhaps not surprisingly considering the subject matter, a fucking killer. Absolutely nothing original about this album, which is just the way I fucking like it when it comes to my stoner doom. Songs about serial killers + a Sir Lord Baltimore cover + fuzz and wah + repetition + screaming = Break your fucking neck with the headbanging massacre fury. What more can you ask for? Seriously. Nothing like CoM to bring out the finest in hyperbole. Fuck I'm havin' a good day.

Click the picture for the download link.

Amazing New Yob on the Mishka Blog

Go get this album. Mike and co are so on fucking point it hurts. Best guitar sound in the biz, besides sleep that is... right? Seriously one of the most interesting doom albums I've heard in a while. Definitely not the same old recycled crap.

Click the picture for the link

Monster Magnet - Spine of God

Where the fuck have I been for the last 2 decades? Seriously, somebody smack the shit out of me.

Monster Magnet - Spine of God

Sleep Renunion @ All Tomorrow's Parties

by: Juliet Elliot

by: Juliet Elliot

by: Juliet Elliot

I've been trying for a week now to put in to sane words the interview I had with Chris Hakius of AsbestosDeath, Sleep, and Om but I have failed miserably so far. Time to move on to the good shit. Sleep. In fact, to the best stuff. When it all boils down, all of the money, bullshit, time, planning, re-planning, having to sell shit, and stressing was worth it for the little over 3 hours I spent standing in front of this band as they reunited for an all too brief moment to make some of the most relentless, powerful sound I have ever experienced. I've seen a lot of goddamn shows in my days, but I'm having a hard time thinking of many that compete with Sleep.

Before I start on the show, I need to give you a little background on where this was being held. In the UK, this company called Butlins runs this completely surreal, totally fucking weird "holiday camps that are something along the lines of part disneyworld, part shopping mall, part Hogans Heroes style prisoner of war camp, part big brother is watching you, part poor chavs who hate themselves and their families, and all, 100% fucking creepy. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere, is huge, is basically totally cut off from the rest of the world, and is swimming with asshole security/staff people. Stressful.

That being said, we had this amazing caravan/trailer thingy and everyone was just hanging out the whole time in one big group, bands, kids there really was no divide. Everyone stayed in the same kinds of houses and hung out at the same bars/places and shit was generally a lot of fun. I went there by myself to meet up with my friends Juliet Elliot, Posy Dixon, Tiger Reid, and the many Steves (aka Steve Bliss, Steve Lovvers, and Jim and Alex Demora who were also called Steve for the weekend. Don't ask.) Dayo and Adam and about 1000 other people were around as well. Shit was epic, no lie.

Anyways, back to the show, after getting warmed up on Friday night with Electric Wizard (more on that soon) and the Jesus Lizard on Saturday, a bunch of us were going out of our minds with anticipation. Basically, Sleep was the reason I sold my Sunn Model T, 2 bikes, and ate salad for weeks at a time. Shit was my goal, my purpose, and my reason for flying half way around the world. Fuck am I glad I did.

The first thing to note is that my camera batter charger went totally missing during travel and my 2nd battery didn't actually charge so there really aren't that many good pictures taken by Juliet or me (well actually, I didn't get to take any... Fuckin' camera...) but you really can't understand what it was like watching set up happen. When the Jesus Lizard went off stage with their one half stack, drum kit, and bass amp we were expecting a couple of amps and some drums. What was built in front of us was something more akin to the fucking gates of Babylon if Babylon's gates were made out of Orange, Marshall, and Ampeg amps. Seriously, the wall of sound was probably 7' tall by about 15-20' wide. Like seriously there were something along the lines of 6-10 amps for 2 fucking people. Somewhat daunting to say the least. On top of that, the place was fucking expectedly packed. Like to the gills. People were there from all over. I met dudes from Finland, Colorado, Poland, California, and even saw some dudes from Japan I think. It was pretty berzerk. Aside from all the fanboy, starstruck anticipation bullshit of just being in the room, ATP had this great, kinda ridiculous dynamic of half the crowd being the Andrew W.K., !!!, indie dance kids while the other half were die hard Doom fanatics. As you might have guessed, Sleep dragged the freaks out of the woodwork and the doom crowd was out in force.

When Matt, Al, and Chris finally walked out on stage, strapped it all on, and hit that first chord shit went off. Playing through most of Holy Mountain with bits and pieces of Jerusalem, the whole crowd immediately hit the same vibe. It was really funny at the moment but I can honestly say that this is the first show I've ever been to in which more (and by more I mean almost everyone in the crowd) was singing along to the riffs instead of the lyrics. Looking around I saw literally hundreds of heshers banging their fucking skulls out screaming along to "DUN DUHN DAH NAH NUH NAH NAH NEH NAH NEH NAH NEH NUUUHN" as opposed to:

"Ride the dragon
toward the crimson eye
Flap the wings under Mars red sky
The reptile pushes itself out into space
Leaving behind, the human race"

In fact, I can honestly say that as someone who's listened to Holy Mountain about 1000 times I had no idea what the lyrics other than "Ride the Dragon on the Crimson Sky" were but you can bet your ass I have that opening riff permanently embedded in my brain.

The other thing I immediately noticed was how happy, calm, and fucking tight the band was. To my eyes and ears, Sleep had never stopped playing together. They were on point from start to finish, the songs felt natural, unstrained and most of all, you could feel that the boys were just happy to be up there doing what they do best. Even though Matt and Al have their own great projects going on for years, seeing them onstage with Chris, you could tell that this was a long overdue but unrushed kind of homecoming. A weird, freaky, far from home, fucked up one, but a homecoming nonetheless. And while Al and Matt definitely were amazing to watch and totally killed it, watching Chris was really a fucking highlight. He's always been one of my favorite drummers to listen to. Super consistent, always right on time but never forced, heavy as fuck but not overpowering. The perfect blend with Al's vox and bass and Matt's supreme riffage.

It was also a really cool experience to compare High on Fire Matt from Scion Rock Fest a couple of Months ago to Sleep Matt now. Even when he's not on the mic he's still a commanding presence on the stage. For fucks sake, the dude is a commanding presence everywhere he goes man. Matt Pike, for those not lucky enough to have met him yet, is one big motherfucker. Physically and personalitywise. Dude takes up the room. Al and Chris are a little more reserved, a little quieter, a little mellower, but you can hear Matt cracking jokes from across the fucking town man. That attitude definitely carried over into his playing. He sounded like a fucking vengeful god returning to Earth. It was a sight to behold.

Holding it all down though was the heart and soul of the band, Al Cisneros. According to Chris, Al was really the chief riffsmith of Sleep. Each member contributed their own stuff but it was really Al who would come to the table and lay out the jam. Off to stage right, he held that shit down like the keystone in the arch of doom. Driving shit when it needed more weight, dropping it out when it didn't and keeping it flowing with his signature if not somewhat matured vocals that definitely show the influence of a couple of years in OM. That's not to say he was a fucking monk chanting away in the dark, there's still mad growl there, but it actually feels like his sense of rhythm is even better now (if that's even possible).

Well... even if that's somewhat of an exaggeration, I can tell you one thing, the fuckers were all loud enough to make up for any flaws, that's for fucking sure. My then newly and now life long friends LeAnn & Larson from Florida & Louisiana respectively, who look like this:


had the fortunate/unfortunate experience of getting caught in just the right spot where the super super low frequencies from the instruments and the PA collided and it was actually so loud and so low LeAnn fucking threw up. Apparently according to one of the sound dudes, the band was hitting "illegal" notes, i.e. the notes that police broadcast at loud volumes into unruly crowds that have a depressing and nauseating effect on the victims. Fuck dude, if that ain't heavy, nothing is.

The highlight of the night was definitely when, for the encore they came back on an played a newly finished 15 year old song called Antarctica's Thaw which was written write around the time of Dopesmoker. Live, the song came in at somewhere around 10-15 minutes and definitely showed a lot of similarities to parts of Jerusalem and Sonic Titan. As a given it was slow and heavy as shit but it was cool to see a glimpse into the direction the band would have moved in had they stayed together. It definitely gives a good picture of where OM came from, though not High on Fire as much.

The second night was much of the same and just as amazing. Again they went with mostly repeats from Holy Mountain but mixed in some other pieces of Jerusalem again (although no Proceed the Weedian this time... bummer.) I could write a whole 'nother hyperbolic fragment of mindscreed about that night too but it'd really just be the same thing over again. That thing would be Sleep are, were, and will always be fucking rock gods. No doubt.

In the words of Lucas, "Sleep review: uh, they were fucking as fucking awesome you would think they would be. Times Two"