SLEEP
*The Sciences*
(Third Man Records)
Sleep’s surprise release of *The Sciences* (six songs, 53 minutes total) is remarkable for many reasons: it’s the band’s first full-length album in 20 years; it was released on 4/20; and its themes of cannabis culture seem perfectly timed with the changing attitudes about the drug, both for medicinal and for recreational use. In other words, Sleep has never been more relevant. “Marijuanaut’s Theme” tells the adventure of an astronaut--an “inhaler of the rifftree”--bound for “Planet Iommia,” while “Giza Butler” relates the earthbound tale of “The CBDeacon” performing daily sacraments, including “salutations to the cultivators...bless the Indica fields/grateful for the yields.” But the lyrics (not necessarily sung, more like chanted or recited) are secondary to The Riff--the super-fuzzed-out, repetitive power chords that are the backbone to every Sleep song. The deliberate downstroke picking of guitarist Matt Pike allows each fuzzy chord time to ring out and to resonate. “Sonic Titan,” mostly an instrumental composition, builds like other past Sleep songs, such as “Holy Mountain” and “The Clarity,” with a bare, blusey riff that is tweaked and explored during the song’s 12-minute runtime. For a different approach, “The Botanist” instrumental track relies less on this type of riffage and more on guitar leads and single-note progressions, which results in a more cerebral sonic appeal. “Antarcticans Thawed,” a song played live for years, is the most glacially paced composition on the album and relies on lyrical allusions to H.P. Lovecraft’s story “At The Mountains of Madness.” The 14-minute track represents the band’s most complex arrangement, with more frequent tempo changes and the most freeform, discordant guitar solos on the album.
9/10
Link to print version of this review. It appears on page 28 of the June 2018 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine.
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