I admit to being new to the whole stoner metal genre. For most of my youth it was the faster the better. But bands like Clutch and Black Sabbath always remained some of my most favorite bands. It was while exploring some Clutch videos on youtube that I first came across the mighty Sleep. A fan had taken their track Holy Mountain and had it playing over an edited video of a trippy movie called Holy Mountain. The song was crushingly heavy so I decided to give the whole album a go, and immediately fell in love with it. Unfortunately for all of us fans of Sleep, they have since disbanded. Guitarist Matt Pike moved on to play in High on Fire, and drummer Chris Hakius and singer/bassist Al Cisneros went on to form the feature band of this review: Om.
God is Good is the band's 4th full length studio album, and first with replacement drummer Emil Amos. It spans 34 minutes over top of 4 tracks, 19 of which are dedicated to the first track alone. Not exactly packed full of new material, but none of their albums ever have as 4 tracks is actually the longest any of their albums have ever been. When you hear that the first track is 19 minutes long, you can kind of figure that it could literally count for 3-4 normal sized tracks, but I don't. If you make one song it will have one over all theme- no matter how long. Plus when you only have a bass and drums it's not like the songs are overly complex. But don't take that as nit-picking. I just REALLY want to hear more from these guys.
The first track is titled Thebes. And let me just say right now, if you aren't really up to date on all the mythologies/ancient holy texts and such than the lyrics will make no sense to you, as the didn't to me. But it doesn't matter. The musicianship is tremendous, and it would have to be for just a rhythm section to keep you interested for all 34 minutes of the album. Unlike most tracks of Thebes' size, it's not broken down into many smaller parts, or movements. In fact I'd say there's only really two parts to it, but they flow together so fluently that you don't really catch that you're listening to a different melody until it's already been played through for a couple of minutes. The style of music can only be described as Eastern. Aside from over all song structure, there's even a tambura playing here and there in all the tracks. It's sort of what you'd expect to hear if you were watching a movie where someone was in India doing something around the holy lands. There's also some Tibetan throat singing too. Al's contribution to the singing is an even more laid back talking/chant than it was back in Sleep.
The next song is my favorite on the album: Meditation is the Practice of Death. What a stellar track. I admit, it's not music for everyone, but if you like stoner rock and just want to be in a laid back mood- this is the song for you. I don't even smoke weed and I already know what it's like to be high after hearing this song. The lyrics are crazy to someone like me who has no idea of the stories or texts that he's pulling the ideas from. The bass line is thick, and the only thing that's gonna cut it up is the sharp ride cymbal hits from Emil.
The last two tracks are all instrumental, aside from the occasional chant or throat singing. The first of the two, Cremation Ghat I, is dominated by percussion in the first half, and some chanting in the second half. The second track, aptly titled Cremation Ghat II is largely string instrument dominated and features the most use of the tambura.
Overall I'm really happy I decided to take a chance with this album. It's definitely not one of those albums where you can just listen to it whenever you want to. It'll take some time out of your day if you spin this CD. More often than not you'll just play Meditation is the Practice of Death over and over as it's not as long as Thebes, but actually has singing in it unlike the Cremation Ghat tracks. The album artwork was what you would expect with this type of music. It's simple, and has the holy/ancient overtone about it. It's really a no frills band, so the no frills artwork is essentially what was needed. For that, I'd give it a 6/10. It's not spectacular, and it would have been nice to have something that you could stare at more when listening to the trance like music, but it'll suffice.
The music is very different from anything I've heard around today. Sure Intronaut touched on the whole Eastern-style of playing with Reptillian Brain, the final track on their latest album Prehistoricisms. And I'm sure there's other bands around that have too, but no one I've heard of sounds like Om. Even if there was a band around that sounded like Om, fuck 'em, cause they don't have Al Cisneros on bass. I give the music on the album a 7/10. I'd like to have more content. The album is only 34 minutes long. There's hardcore and grindcore bands that have longer albums than that. In spite of that, the music that is there is great. It's actually very relaxing to listen to, and will surely be a hit the next time your friends want to pass around the pipe.
That gives Om's God is Good a 14/20. It's a great album, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes stoner rock, but they could have done a little bit more with it. I understand that everything about this band is minimalistic, but it should be taken as a compliment that I want more from the band. Hell, half of the music out today I don't even want to hear 3 minutes of let alone 34. So don't let the lower overall score fool you. Om is Good. Really good. And, there are rumors that Sleep is getting back together for some tours in 2010. All the more reason to hang up a black light and cop all of Om, High on Fire, and Sleep's albums.
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