Like many phenomena in science, you can barely predict when it will happen, and even when you can, you are not always ready for it. Kind of like a comet, a unique blooming flower, or a blue moon, the rarest of events will make you appreciate being alive but also question your reality. If you experience a once in a lifetime event, count yourself lucky indeed. Fans of doom legends Sleep fans counted themselves lucky when the band, long dormant, came back to life in 2009. Since reforming, most would have been happy with just glorious live performances, insane volume in their ears, and all that weed smoke filling their lungs. But the band had other plans. After the single The Clarity (Adult Swim Singles), the band has been promising us a new album. Surprise releasing the album on 4/20 with one’s days’ notice is forgivable if you are this band only.
The Sciences (Third Man Records) opens with just a squonchy squelch of feedback as the title track, and you are immediately reminded that Sleep is home-base for so many bands; the alpha and omega name in doom metal that places them in league with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as one of the most imitated, unfuckwithable bands of all time. Capped off with an epic bong rip, the album opens in earnest with ‘Marajuannaut’s Theme’. Every song title on this album rules so hard. The music too, as the hypnotic riffs, the wall of crunchy bass and slick drumming just fills your ears. All the waiting, all the wondering dissolves in an instant as the anticipation of mana received turns into tube amp melting tears of ecstasy. The riff is just everything. Everything great about this band in one riff, one song. Al Cisneros bass playing, bass tone and vocals on this track are all ridiculous. Jason Roeder (Neurosis) has always been a bit of an underplayer live with Neurosis by necessity, but here is perfectly within his rights to go nuts on the kit. Amazing.
The aptly named ‘Sonic Titan’ is just that. A monolithic jam, and a revelation. Matt Pike’s tone here is the most guitar tone to ever guitar tone. So good. My fellow scribe at Ghost Cult, Aleida La Llave coined the term “Pike Juice” in our circle, and whatever magic mushrooms on crack that represents, this song has it. Just soak in the Pike-ness of it all and be free. Unspeakably heavy, yet tuneful and anything so far in 2018. The one-minute bass breakdown at the five-minute mark is maybe my favorite moment of the album. Another epic beast of a song, ‘Antarticans Thawed’ has been around for a few years, performed live, and on bootleg recordings. Here it is in its glory. The track starts off a little more subdued, with a militaristic drumbeat. High On Fire has never been the most political band, other than pro-legalizing the Mary Jane, but in these times of trouble this intro just cuts right through me. Buzzsaw riffs come in as the track starts to take shape. Slow and sinisterly heavy like the modern equivalent of ‘Black Sabbath’, the song. Great lyrics, although beats me what the hell they are getting at with these songs. This is the one case for me where it almost doesn’t matter.
‘Giza Butler’ has the best bass line of the year right now, and maybe the best name too! Such a killer track, full of atmosphere and sick playing from Pike. Best riff of the year, and arguably the best song we will hear in 2018, and it’s only April. The crushing heavy metal gallop at the end of the song will call to mind some earlier High On Fire songs, which is neat.
Finally the half introspective heavy blues, half mellow psychedelic trip out of ‘The Botanist’ brings things to a close. Brilliance dropped on wax. Time to pick your cotton-mouthed jaw off the floor. Game over dude. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait another 26 years for a follow-up.
9.5/10
KEITH CHACHKES