OM - God Is Good
Thebes
Meditation Is The Practice Of Death
Cremation Ghat Part I
Cremation Ghat Part II
When Sleep reached the pinnacle of the all-sabbath worshipping genre of stoner-rock with the hour-long mantra to things green and funky 'Dopesmoker', an album comprised of a single song branded 'unmarketable' by the record company, they could go no further, and eventually broke up. From this an incredible thing happened, we got the two halves of sleep, no longer combined, but separated, with the Mid-range 'Symptom Of The Universe' sound covered expertly by Matt Pikes High On Fire, and the low-end, tripped out sound taken by OM, originally formed by Sleep's rhythm section, Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, the latter of which left the group to be replaced by Grails drummer, Emil Amos last year.
This being the 2nd release by the new lineup, and the first full-length it sees the band gelling more and experimenting further with instrumentation and songwriting.
Mr. Amos has a much more 'Cobham-esque' sound, compared to the hypnotic -battery of Chris Hakius, and when the drums make up half of the instruments used on the songs, this can have a big impact on the bands style. Luckily his jazzier style of playing complements Al's tripped out lyrics and fuzz-bass nicely on this record.
Opening with the 20 minute 'Thebes' its clear from the start this is a band moving away from the 'Dopesmoker Part II' sound of earlier work displayed on 'Variations On A Theme', with much more emphasis on Chanted Mantra-like vocals and Meditative Percussion than outright dirty bass tone.
Fans of stoner metal might find this too much of a departure of the classic 'Sleep' sound and miss the point of this spiritual music, but fans of the band should revel in this rejuvenated era of these musicians, currently producing some of the best music of their careers to date. Highly Recommended
Reviewed by Andrew Williams
'God Is Good' Is out now on Drag the City
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