The Clarity

While I still love Dopesmoker I've slowly grown to .. not hate Sleep, but certainly dislike them. They're a band that by the end was 95% aesthetics and had the most annoying fanbase this side of Tool.

I mean, the aesthetics are good, or at least well done. The cover art, gorgeous. The guitar and bass tones, things of beauty; all crisp and detailed and thick and clear, the drums sounding amazing. If you were judging an album on everything bar the actual musical content, this is a classic. Unfortunately, that's not how it goes.

What we have once you peel away all the lovingly sculpted tones and all that is a bunch of riffs that have been done a few million times - suffice to say riffs lose power every time you hear a different band doing it- all these increasingly boring early Sabbath riffs, open strings a dronin, the same minor pentatonics beaten into the ground. The lyrics too; "The dealer is my refuge" suggests junkie scum, not a weed warrior proceeding to Nazareth or whatever. I dunno man. I got two kids, I got boogers to pick, I got shit to do. I just can't see why I would bother listening to some c-grade stoner doom when everything from early Sleep to Bongripper to the entire Elder discography etc etc is all a 1000 times better than these thoroughly subpar tunes.

Maybe I'm just that grumpy boomer at a wedding who doesn't dance to any of the songs and tells everyone that he wished they were playing some Eagles. But I reckon that it's more likely that this is a collection of very boring riffs given a huge amount of window dressing; a pig in (very expensive) lipstick. Stick with dopesmoker.

Wariness and skepticism regarding reunions should be rallying cry of all metalheads. For the few who return as dominant and creative as ever, the majority return just to sink their previous cred in banality and crass commercialism. So I was relieved to find Sleep engaging in the former rather than the latter. Their initial reunion tour a few years back gave dedicated Sleep-heads like myself a first real chance at hearing the band live and they crushed. And now, after almost twenty years, a new track. Does it further the holy writ of one of metal's most revered cult acts... it does, if you are open to it.

To begin with, this isn't entirely the same band that recorded those early hazy doom classics. Chris Haikus absconded from Sleep off-shoot OM awhile back and decided not to continue with Sleep at all. His absence is sorely missed. Neurosis's Jason Roeder steps in and does an admirable job of keeping that metronomic, head-nodding time. But the swing is gone. Very few metal drummers swing like Haikus did and it was essential to the Sleep formula. Accounting for that is important in deciding whether or not this new era of Sleep is for you.

The opening bass notes set the table for a heavy and hypnotic jam that falls more in line with OM's early offerings: Pike's guitar just layers over that bass line in trippy synch. The guitar and bass tones are cleaner and that scuzzy 70's vibe is definitely missing a bit. Al's vocals are also softer, cleaner, and more forward. Except for Pike's soaring solo, it all sounds a little off at first. It took me several listens to get into it, but once I accepted it for what it is, a new iteration of Sleep similar to the previous one, but not exactly the same, I started to dig it. Sleep are progressing and moving forward and not just imitating their teenage selves in current middle age. I dig that. And the more I sank into the groove of this tune, the more I felt that tentacles of Sleep reaching back, but also aiming forward.

"The Clarity" is a catchy song and a sign of good things to come from a band who l thought might never record again. And I dig that its free considering they could have easily pulled a cult, vinyl-only, limited edition 7" trick on us like other recently reunited acts have. Good on Sleep to share a quick buzz with us.