"OK metalheads assemble:how do we feel about Sleep's the Sciences?*"
While I'm awfully tired of stoner/sludge/doom acts-who seem to get by more due to gear and a "crushing" *sound* than strong musical ideas-Sleep is one of the OGs (well, as OG as you can get when trying to sound like *that* band in the 90's) and I think this new record is shit-hot, in many ways their most perfect album in the sense that it manage to combine the crushing sound of the stellar but "difficult"/artsy-fartsy Dopesmoker/Jerusalem epic with the more compact, Sabbath-groovy songs from "holy mountain" which was based on demos and sounded accordingly (=thin). Good shit if you ask me with some absolutely killer riffs (good riffs was this bands strongest suit alongside the fat rhythm-section, old drummer has been replaced by dude from Neurosis which made me worried but new dude delivers the goods, less groove than on "holy Mountain" though). "Giza butler" is my jam... Tiny minus points (?) for not containing any lyrics as brilliantly stupid as "Drop out of life with bong in hand/follow the smoke toward the riff-filled land"...
*and apologies to binlahab for ripping off his posting-style, I just couldn't help it...
Like you said, its a mix of all their works; nicely mastered. I feared that while a bunch of good old stoner rock songs was all but guaranteed the tension they mastered in Dopesmoker to make a relatively simple song so complex (and to last an hour) they would lose..but it's superb.
Kudos to them,I think the reason why they were able to pick up so easily was because they were all pretty damn active. Also, whats with the Neurosis hate there guy!
3. "Nothing wrong with Neurosis..." In response to Reply # 1
They made some GREAT records. No, I associate that band with more "clever", patterned and "tricky" drumming whereas Sleep had this loose, primal stoner groove going. The drumming on this record is actually quite "tricky" too but he seems to "get" Sleep's aesthetic as well so you get a nice blend.
That said, a bit too much "hello Kitty" (https://youtu.be/_aRu_3WvE6c?t=277) on the ride in "Marijunaut's theme". It starts great but about halfway through, dude suddenly seems to decide to play "cool" patterns on the ride which would have sounded awesome on some fusion record in the 70's but not really what I want to hear from Sleep. REALLY not a big deal though...
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