Recorded in 1996 and not released until 1999 - originally under the title Jerusalem - the story behind the Californian doom trio’s Dopesmoker is quite the journey. Where they finally landed is nothing short of magnificent.
Dopesmoker is an hour-long epic of stoner rock, certainly the genre’s highest (bong) water mark if you ask us. A slow evolving piece of extremely heavy music that took incredible focus to accomplish, and also one that offers great rewards to an attentive listener.
Following the bands’ Volume One (1991) and Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992) records, their third record began to take shape slowly whilst touring, with extended thunderous drones blossoming into a single 60-minute magnum opus to marijuana that the band refused to edit or split up into sections under any circumstances. Developed over four years and finally recorded in 1996, the band’s new label partner London just didn’t get it. Unable to release it and leading to deadlock, Sleep ultimately disbanded.
But, with something as powerful and neolithically heavy as Dopesmoker, it surfaced as bootlegs and unauthorised pressings over the subsequent years, winning great critical acclaim and a legion of dedicated fans. In 2011, the band’s Al Cisneros started work with the iconic Southern Lord label, and the following year, Dopesmoker was finally released as a fully realised version of its original concept. Split over three sides of wax, the Southern Lord version also features artwork from longtime Sleep artist, Arik Roper, who created something specifically special for the albums’ euphoric rebirth.
The edition that we are delighted to have back in the racks is the following 2022 edition on Jack White’s Third Man Records, featuring remastered audio from the original source tapes and the previously unreleased studio deep cut ‘Hot Lava Man’.
“there was so much to memorize for that album, and we had to do it in like three different sections because a reel-to-reel only holds 22 minutes. It was really cool, but it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
- Matt Pike, Sleep.
You all know that we love weed and you all know that we love sludged out stoner metal, but to write off Dopesmoker as something jokey or vacuous is hugely missing out on an extraordinary listening experience. It is as complicated and nuanced as highly celebrated experimental and ambient albums, and the tones they created are nothing short of genre defining. A slow motion epic of sonic grandness, Dopesmoker is inarguably one of the most - if not the most - important heavy albums of all time. Sleep created an album of mesmeric and substantial weight, you just got to try it at least once.
