Such was the buzz that surrounded Sleep back in the mid-90s that London Records ended up offering them a six figure deal.
Alongside Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Cathedral and Electric Wizard, they were young hopefuls in a new generation of bong-loaded, amplifier worshipping guitar heroes, kneeling at the gore-festooned altar of Black Sabbath. The story of Californian doom metal stoner rockers Sleep has gone down in legend.
Heavier than: Dr Manhattan’s massive blue cock in a giant lead condom. Put it on your stereo, smoke a lid and then await enlightenment.
If you don’t own this album, stop what you are doing now and purchase it. The Palace Of Heaviness is accessed by the Road Of Excess via the Tradesman’s Entrance Of Bad Vibes and the band’s daily intake of vodka, cannabis, speed and LSD while recording means this album is sick in every sense of the word. Dorset Satanic doom revivalists Electric Wizard set the bar to a new all time low at the turn of the century when they recorded this masterpiece. We might as well get the obvious one out of the way first. All of them to a man, are so heavy they deserve to be listened to on one knee, facing north, drinking red wine out of an upturned skull goblet while wearing the most extravagant hat you own and displaying the kind of pained expression that suggests you’ve just trodden on an upturned plug with bare feet. This said, there are a handful of albums so heavy that age will never lighten them, such as Black Sabbath’s ‘Master Of Reality’ and Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’.Īnyway, I hope some of these albums enrich your week – if not your entire life. Back through the the velvet loon-panted mists of time, ‘Physical Graffiti’ by Led Zeppelin, ‘Painkiller’ by Judas Priest and ‘Machine Head’ by Deep Purple would have been considered the epitome of heaviness but as the ante has been upped over the years, they’ve become less mind-fuckingly heavy. Metal bands have to become ever more fiendish in their attempts to achieve heaviociousness as time crawls on. You’ll notice that most of these albums are ‘modern’ – ie, recorded in the last 25-years. So a band such as Megadeth may have the best guitarist in the world and a band such as Iron Maiden may have many of the best riffs but compared to Melvins or Harvey Milk, they are lighter than a dandelion seed landing on a bowl of Angel Delight.Īs a point of order I’ve kept this list down to one inclusion per band in case it just ended up looking like an Electric Wizard discography. Also massive metal bands can achieve greatness but playing to a mass audience can often be a bar to ultimate sonic density because it usually means rough edges get smoothed down.
0 kommentar(er)
