MB Metal Classics: "Dopesmoker" by Sleep
 

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You know what to do...

It's a goddamn classic. I wish their other albums were as good because they really nailed the heaviness on Dopesmoker. Voted 10/10.

holy mountain is at least twice as good

Fixed.

This album is unbelieveably boring. Is the video stuck on a loop? Nope. It's just actually that monumentally repetitive and uninteresting.

It's got a nice, heavy sound - but Matt Pike's other band, High on Fire, exists - so I don't need this album.

It's a got a few moments where something almost happens, but they only seem refreshing because the rest is such a non event. Dopesmoker indeed - but I don't touch that stuff so...

1/10

Hypnotic plods at their best.

Anyone voting under 7 needs to get their head checked.

I love High On Fire and I love Sleep, but they're two completely different moods for me. I can't imagine substituting one for the other. Where High On Fire are high octane rock 'n roll that makes me want to drive fast, Sleep, especially on Dopesmoker, are vast and almost meditative. The mood of the album is similar to Tuvan throat singing to me. It's not surprising that two thirds of Sleep went on to form the very meditative band Om.

Yeah, you're right, High on Fire was a bad example. I'd forgotten how much fast paced Motörhead inspiration was fueling that band.
I'm just so bored by this Sleep album. The whole "let's play this riff for one hour" gimmick and the way Matt Pike is literally singing just one note for the duration is just impossible for me to appreciate. It's just not how I listen to music.
I'd probably get along better with both other Sleep albums and other somewhat similar bands.

It's just that I'm not a fan of stoner and sludge metal to begin with. At all.
So an album like Dopesmoker just has "no" written all over it. I don't even think the 1 is an overreaction. I don't get anything out of the album at all.

PM me your address and I'll send you a teddy bear stuffed with the dope dope.

I'm just saying you need to approach that kind of music the way you would approach listening to Tuvan throat singing or Gregorian chants or Indian ragas. It's music that envelops you, not music you hum along to.

Also, I believe it's Al Cisneros singing on Dopesmoker, not Matt Pike.

But those three genres all have a more harmonically developed quality to them that is more interesting and immersive. Dopesmoker is built in rhythmically driven, but very simple, riffs and vocal lines that don't do a lot to create an atmosphere or give me anything to get enveloped in. I just think it's flat.

I searched Youtube for a random Tuvan throat singing album and it destroys this Sleep album.

Just because Huun-Huur Tu is a 10/10 artist doesn't mean that Sleep isn't.

There's an objectively massive amount of atmosphere on this record too, you're either too high or not high enough if you think otherwise. Maybe you just have garbage audio.

Atmosphere is totally subjective and I'm not feeling it.

I entirely disagree. You don't have to enjoy atmosphere to recognize it and this album's got it out the ass. Inarguable tbh, it's mostly because of the heavy focus on timbre and cadence making it hypnotic.

I've got a different view of that. Any album can be atmospheric the way I look at it. If I somehow subjectively click with the sound of an album in some mysterious way, then I can find it very atmospheric - even if it's just a pop album. Kylie Minogue's album, Body Language has that quality to me. It's oddly dreamy and gets me in a certain mindset if I sit through the whole thing.

But even if it was a qantifiable thing, it would still at the very least be entirely subjective whether it's an engrossing atmosphere or not.

That's stupid.

So you don't think a pop album can have some indescribable "feel" to it that somehow elevates it for you?

Absolutely all artforms have this quality to me, but only in music and movies do I call it atmosphere.

To me, it's not merely a question of whether an album places extra much emphasis on textures and timbre.

An album can have a distinct atmosphere yes. That's different from being atmospheric.

No wonder we don't agree.

Kind of like how The Beatles utilize guitars but Sgt. Pepper's isn't a guitar record. Atmospheric music is driven almost entirely by its atmosphere or how it can consume yours.

Also I think you need better speakers/headphones. I could see not finding this engrossing if you listened to it on tinny earbuds.

And Dopesmoker has more involved drumming than any of the genres I compared it to (with the possible except of ragas). So what? The point I'm making is about the mood of those genres and this album, not about what is or isn't complex about them.

Since the old one's broke, I've been using a less than amazing set of PC speakers (not supposed to be permanent, but I'm low on funds), but my headphones are good enough and have lots of bottom end.

It's just not interesting to me. I mean, the first three minutes or so go well, but then I get fidgety. Then it goes on for an hour.

Not much to do with its atmospheric qualities, you just don't like the climate it seems.

Yeah. The album doesn't make me feel anything but a desire to change the channel. That's all I'm saying. It's a big pile of not a lot.

6/10 because of some really good moments.
But overall it's a pretty repetitive and boring-ass record. If the length would be twice as short, that album would be much better.
Holy Mountain is way better to me.

Dopesmoker could be boiled down to a 12 minute opener, then there could be some other tracks and the album could be better. At least it's kinda unique. But that's a half hearted attempt at saying something nice about it. I legitemately can't think of a metal album I've ever heard that I wouldn't rather listen to. Not even from the vast pool of really ****ty ones. At least then, there could be a trainwreck to react to. Dopesmoker is a very expertly painted wall that I can watch as it dries.

this texas guy gets it.

i still gave it an 8 because it’s hella good, i just tend to gravitate towards holy mountain a lot more. i don’t see it as a 10 because there are too many moments that i could just do without.

i think the biggest struggle seems to be understanding that this is to be listened to as one piece, and not like a traditional album. if you ever go into this expecting “songs” you’re probably gonna end up disappointed because it just doesn’t really play that way.

Since it's just one big track, I don't think there's any choice but to listen to it as one piece. I find it hard to believe many people would be confused about that once they realize what's going on.

Do you have drone of any kind in your repertoire? I get that a taste thing, but I feel like this is a preference like being turned off by DM vocals: it's something you can "unlearn" pretty quickly.

what if i told you that your reaction makes me think you’re confused by it

I don't have any outright drone. I was looking through my collection for some albums that arguably work a little more on that sort of level, than what I mostly listen to - but it's still music with a lot of "movement" when compared to drone.

The albums I have that come closest (but not very close):

mary jane leach - ariadne's lament
https://i.scdn.co/image/44bbe5a30cb9...19df11c589b490

Jenny Hval - Mehses of Voice
https://assets.boomkat.com/spree/pro...e/original.jpg

I was gonna say Holy Herndon's album, Platform, but I'm listening to it right now and there are far more shifts and much more melody than I remembered. It's very sound and texture centric, but in no way droning.

Well, the original release, as Jerusalem, was split up into six tracks so theoretically you could listen to the different parts as different pieces of music.

I didn't know that. Listening through the album, I didn't notice it ever having good places to place a cut - so the six track version must still be pretty seamless.

It is. Still, there are different movements within the song so there are places it could be broken up. If I remember correctly, the way the record company did it was kind of arbitrary though.

Okay. Okay. I didn't get it before. I do now. Fuck.
:band:

definitely one of my favorite overrated albums 7/10

You mean you get Dopesmoker?

Trollheart is high as ****.

Yep
Nope

Dopesmoker? Holy Mountain? Which one's better? They're both legendary albums that defined the genre. 10.