[GROUP PICK] In 1969, Black Sabbath helped breathe life into a new form of rock called heavy metal--and in 1991, Sleep did the same thing to heavy metal, ushering in a bigger, jammier, and smokier incarnation called stoner metal. Although metal had reached it's peak in popularity in that time, for a lot of fans it had lost it's luster. Metalheads and stoners went underground, finding refuge in genres like doom metal and bands that just jammed hard in their friend's basements, beer-in-hand and bong smoke filling the rooms, like the metal they fell in love with--and Sleep was there to help. Their 1992 release "Sleep's Holy Mountain" was stoner metal's early magnum opus, and set a high bar for those that followed. With widespread critical approval and murmurings in the metal scene about them being the second coming of Black Sabbath, they should have complete artistic freedom on their next project... right? Well... although promised complete artistic freedom at first, once actually signed to London Records, the A&R member who had made the promise was replaced, and Sleep had a dilemma. For the past several years, they had been crafting an hour long epic, referring to it as "Dopesmoker" (due to the massive amounts of cannabis that were "critical" to the writing process) when performing it live and in 1996, freshly out of their deal with Earache Records, they were ready to record it. The band felt as if it was one song and needed to remain that way, without editing it down, but London Records didn't agree. They wanted something that was a little more marketable and had David Sardy create a mixed down 6 track version of it. Sleep and London Records stayed in a deadlock over this and the band actually broke up over the negative experience, Al Cicerno and Chris Hakius going on to create the transcendent band Om and Matt Pike creating High On Fire. But the album was destined to be set free and in 1999 a bootleg version called "Jerusalem" was released, the title based on what the band had been calling the song late in the process, with a Middle Eastern desert theme in mind. However, it was only the 6 track cut of the album, so finally in 2003 they released "Dopesmoker," the song in it's entirety. Join Brad and Jon on this weedian odyssey, with a very special guest, Veronica Echavarria of Madison hardcore punk band Black Cat...
Next Up: (05-04-20) The Ventures - The Colorful Ventures
Black Cat links:
https://www.facebook.com/BlackCatMadison/
https://blackcatmadison.bandcamp.com/releases
Insta - @black_cat_madison_
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST NUMBER ONE: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Z67Ka5xedSfYIvWw6YNt4?si=GG5CAvtUQ0CWpr74gRn-_A
Other Links:
www.twitter.com/RevoloverAudio
www.anchor.fm/AlbumConceptHour
www.twitter.com/AlbumConceptPod
www.myspace.com/AlbumConceptHour
www.ko-fi.com/RevoloverAudio
