Sleep - The Sciences
(Third Man)

I, like a lot of you I'm sure, were not expecting a legitimate, finished, brand new Sleep full length to come out this past April the 20th. I was instantly on board and excited for this, even though I wasn't all that head over heels about the their single, "The Clarity,” that was released last year. Sleep is a band that I feel is way more impactful when they're able to spread out over a long run time. And on The Sciences, the gears are running as smoothly as ever for the now almost 30 year old band. They really have not skipped a beat on here, it's Sleep doing Sleep, and crushing it. One could say they have their sound nailed down to a "science". This is easily their cleanest sounding record to date, the guitars and bass are gargantuan and thick with intoxicating resin. Al Cisneros's vocals are put right up in front of the mix, his chat-like / meditative delivery totally controlled and consistent. There is a somewhat noticeable lack of variation in the riffs, but it's a good fucking riff. And I really can't put it against them since their last album was a one hour-long song. It's a minor nitpick at most. The whole album just feels right. It feels like a real Sleep album that they made because they were inspired to. Everything I truly love about Sleep's music is intact and not tampered with in any way. In fact, now it's a bit more real and down to earth! I was already thoroughly enjoying myself with this record, but I took a look at the lyrics and just feel more in love with the whole thing. Sleep are not trying to be scholars here. This is all about weed and gnarly, metal as fuck references, (like Dune and Star Wars). The lyrics come off like a sci-fi novel a group of heshers would dream up while laughing as they keep coming up with even more totally excellent ideas for space adventures. I'll end this with one of my favorite lines: "The rifftree has risen - the bong is to live in". (VII)
Check out a track here.