Om: Advaitic Songs (Drag City, 7/24/12)
Advaitic Songs, the fifth album from drone-doom duo Om, “pushed the [band’s] material to even greater heights.” Again combining Eastern mysticism with those elements of drone and sludge, the band this time emphasized softer moments and added more string accents. The chemistry between bassist/singer Al Cisneros and drummer Emil Amos (also of Grails), on their second album together, was apparent.
Om: Advaitic Songs (Drag City, 7/24/12)
“Gethsemane”
Borne from the rhythm section of stoner-metal trio Sleep, Om has spent nearly 10 years combining drone and sludge with chant cadences and Eastern motifs and philosophy. Advaitic Songs is the duo’s fifth full-length and second with new drummer and coconspirator Emil Amos of Grails, whose work with bassist/singer Al Cisneros has pushed the material to even greater heights.
Sleep: Dopesmoker (reissue) (Southern Lord)
“Dopesmoker” (excerpt)
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Sleep_Dopesmoker_excerpt.mp3|titles=Sleep: “Dopesmoker” (excerpt)]Since its adulterated release and subsequent reissue in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Sleep’s Dopesmoker (also released as Jerusalem) has stood as a monolith of metal. With its weighty, repetitive, hour-long opus, the stoner/doom-metal trio played a pivotal role in the evolution of metal by pushing conventions, well, higher. But under the weight of contractual issues pertaining to its epically lethargic piece, the band broke up before seeing a complete version of Dopesmoker available to the public.
This summer, the hypnotic drum/bass duo Om (featuring Al Cisneros of Sleep and Shrinebuilder) will release its followup to God is Good, a two-LP/CD set titled Advaitic Songs. If you have 90 seconds to kill, check out the album’s mysterious teaser.
Saint Vitus, Probot, Warhorse/The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Shrinebuilder — you name it, heavy-rock legend Scott “Wino” Weinrich probably had a hand in it.
As Harvestman, Neurosis guitarist Steve Von Till channels Germanic and Celtic folklore with themes of psychedelia and electronica to accentuate meditation, spirituality, and trance states through music.