"Black Sabbath", "Paranoid", "Master of Reality", "Volume 4", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", and "Sabotage". Those are the first six, and for a long time the only true Black Sabbath albums ever released. With all respect to Dio, Zakk Wylde was right, those were the only true Black Sabbath albums...and even then, he said it was Ozzy era, but "Technical Ecstasy" and "Never Say Die", while not as bad as some fans will make them out to be, were even really not true Sabbath albums as far as what I think of when I think of Black Sabbath. It's not just me though, there's a number of other fans of Black Sabbath that will agree with that. However, the next true Black Sabbath album came from an unlikely source. By that, I mean that it didn't come from Black Sabbath.
In 1993 an unknown trio out of San Jose known as Sleep put out what would slowly become one of the most legendary "stoner metal" albums ever. Of course, at the time the albums was almost a complete unknown. Still today most people you talk to who consider themselves to be music fans will say that they have never even heard of Sleep. Sure, go to a metal show and you'll see at least one sleep shirt as well as at least 60% of the people there being familiar with this album, but even still, for what it is, it should be known at a much higher level. I'm thinking in the 90% or more range. It truly is an incredible piece of music that brings the listener back to the early days of metal perfectly.
Anyway, leading up to "Holy Mountain", Sleep had been a four piece band featuring Al Cisneros on bass and vocals, Matt Pike on guiter, Justin Marler on guitar, and Chris Hakius on drums. With that group they released the album "Volume One", which was a heavy, sludgy masterpiece. It featured a wonderful glimpse of what was to come, but at the same time stands very well on its own as a very good album. The next year, 1992, would see two things happen. One was the release of an EP, "Volume 2", which had cover art that made a clear reference to Black Sabbath, and of course on the album was a very solid cover of "Lord of This World". Also, guitarist Justin Marler left the band. Marler would go on to join a monastery.
With "Holy Mountain" the album wasn't as heavy as "Volume One", but the Black Sabbath worship was absolutely suffocating. The albums starts off with "Dragonaut" which is a song that opens with possibly one of the catchiest guitar licks you will ever hear. The riffing that eventually kicks in is some really awesome riffing. The vocals are solid, but forgettable, to be completely honest. However, a major reason they're forgettable in this song as well as really on the first few songs on the album, is because the instrumentals parts of the song are just so incredible that they don't allow for much more to be remembered. "The Druid" is a clear example of it. The main riff to that song is still among one of my favorite riffs ever. Heavy and unbelievably catchy. Next up is "Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme" just try to listen to that song and tell me that you aren't hearing something off of the first couple of Black Sabbath albums, and not just something, but one of the best parts of either of those albums (as much as I love songs like "Iron Man" and "Paranoid", to me they're good songs while some of the jamming portions on songs like "Hand of Doom" and "Rat Salad" are the real highlights, and on the first album it's a similar feel with the other songs). "Some Grass" isn't much more to me than a filler/bridge type of track, but it leads up to "Aquarian". The second half of the album is a bit heavier, and "Aquarian" shows this, but even still, very catchy, but still heavy riffing and some great, bluesy licks throughout. "Holy Mountain" follows that up with a dose of heaviness before breaking in. This is where the vocals really start to become more noticeable. This is where, in my opinion, not only are they more noticeable, but the lyrics really pick up. By the time "Inside the Sun" comes on everything is going forward like a steamroller. More juicy riffing, more bluesy solos and licks, some great lyrics. The vocals are more yelled in a more guttural way throughout the song. Before on the album you had heard more guttural yelled vocals, but not to that extent. "From Beyond" starts what I consider to be the grand finale of the album. It really reminds me of something that you would find on the first Om album, but it's got more of that Sleep feel to it with the catchy riffs and the vocals more yelled rather than in Om where they have more of a chanting sound. "Nain's Baptism" is more of an outro to the album with a slow finish, although very catchy.
When you listen to it all together you get an album that is full of catchy riffing and fun licks along with some very solid lyrics throughout. After "Holy Mountain" Sleep would go on to release their song "Dopesmoker" as "Jerusalem" first, then re-release something more of what they intended to later on as the album "Dopesmoker", which had a bonus on it in the form of a live version of a song called "Sonic Titan". However, even this wasn't what they had really intended for it, as they would release it one more time in 2012, this time with a live version of the song "Holy Mountain" also included with "Sonic Titan" and another version of "Dopesmoker". "Dopesmoker" is an absolute masterpiece in itself as a sludge symphony of sorts with a theme to it, lasting for a little over an hour with several movements. While it's surely another lesser known classic as well, "Holy Mountain" is the ultimate lesser known classic for the band.
After Sleep, Al and Chris would go on to form Om, a band that for the first 8 years was a 2 piece. Chris left that in 2008 and was replaced by Emil Amos from Grails, and they would add Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe who would do several different things for the band in 2011. They have released several great albums that are much more mellow than Sleep. Meanwhile, Matt Pike would start High on Fire which started as more of a sludge metal band, but would develop into something much more aggressive over time. High on Fire has gained a pretty strong following and Om has been very successful with more of a cult type of following. The band would later reunite and has toured, but has yet to release another Sleep album. Chris Hakius left in 2009 and was replaced by Jason Roeder from Tribes of Neurot.
Still, to the subject at hand, "Holy Mountain" took what Black Sabbath did on their first 6 albums and brought it back in force. Black Sabbath would later release a legitimate new Black Sabbath album with "13" in 2013, a solid album that was very well received by critics and fans alike. Still, "Holy Mountain" is an even more genuine example of what Black Sabbath did through 1975, and they did it first. It's not just that "Holy Mountain" brought back Black Sabbath, it's that it was an amazing album full of very memorable riffs and bluesy licks throughout. When it went off into jam type moments it didn't feel like a Phish album, it felt like a true doom jam. The album is a great album from every angle, and is, to me, one of the great rock/metal albums of all time.
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