Album Review: Various Artists – Cathedral of Smoke

Album Review: Various Artists – Cathedral of Smoke

Reviewed by Patrick O’Reilly

Since the release of 1993’s ‘Sleep’s Holy Mountain’ LP, this band has been considered one of, if not, THE premier stoner rock band on the planet (or any other planet!) With monumentally heavy riffs and a mind warping rhythm for over thiry years, this band has gifted us with superlative releases, like the epic hour plus hymn to Weed ‘Dopesmoker’ and 2018’s ‘The Sciences’.

Who knows how many bands they influenced and to what degree? Here are a bunch of them though that have come together to deliver a tribute album to the stoner legends.

The first band is Abel Blood who take on the track ‘Giza Butler’ from ‘The Sciences’ album. This is a pretty faithful rendition of the original, maybe a bit slower, and with deeper vocals, it gets the album off to a great start.

Next comes Buzzards of Babylon and their take on probably Sleep’s most well-known track, ‘Dragonaut’. This is a really cool version, with a much cleaner bass tone and more shouted vocals giving it a much different atmosphere. The addition of a section from ‘Dopesmoker’ in the middle of the track really sets it apart though as one to listen to.

Dee Calhoun brings a weird dark country vibe to their version of ‘From Beyond’ from the ‘Sleep’s Holy Mountain’ LP, with steel guitar and a gnarly southern twang to the vocals, before Fuzzing Nation deliver another faithful rendition of a Sleep classic, the mighty ‘Marijuanaut’s Theme’ from ‘The Sciences’

Instrumental guitar spectacular ‘The Botanist’ then features, delivered by a person or band just named ‘Lizzy’ with its spectacular and noisy guitar intact followed by ‘When the Deadbolt Breaks’ delivering an almost gospel-tinged version of ‘Holy Mountain’ from ‘Sleep’s Holy Mountain’

It’s no mean feat to cover ‘The Suffering’ from Sleep’s debut LP, Volume 1 but that’s exactly what ‘Owls over Oaks’ have done here, with a truly demented bass tone and some seriously guttural vocals.

It’s the turn of Poste 942 next to deliver a tasty version of ‘Hot Lava Man’ the additional track tacked onto the ‘Dopesmoker’ LP and they turn in a bizarrely swift and jaunty effort, kind of like a post punk version of Sleep if that can be imagined! Then Serpent Kiln show us how ‘Catatonic’ from Volume 1 might sound had it been made in the early grunge era, all noisy rock harmonised with female vocals.

Closing the album is another country styled effort, Shadow Witch bringing out the slide guitar and organ for a surreal mash up between Bon Jovi and Sleep which works surprisingly well and is a worthy finish to the album.

For me, a tribute album needs to sound different than the original artist, otherwise what is the point? I think this is mostly achieved here, some bands achieving this to a better degree than others, for fans of Sleep it’s a no brainer, they will relish listening to songs they know so well sounding so different, for others it’s still a solid album that hopefully will serve as a gateway into one of the greatest heavy bands to ever play on this earth.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.