With the length of time that has elapsed since Sleep released Jerusalem, it would be logical to think that with the passage of time, Sleep’s ability to forge earth-crushing riffs might have diminished. But no, The Sciences can stand beside Holy Mountain and the aforementioned Jerusalem. It is, in the best possible way, exactly what you’d expect. Huge riffs from Matt Pike, Al Cisneros’s Sabbath-esque bass lines (indeed the album features a track wittily entitled “Giza Butler” – Ancients Aliens meets Black Sabbath, which sums up a lot of Sleep’s inspirations). “Sonic Titan” and “Antarcticans Thawed” are classic Sleep tracks, with a real cosmic (out-there, mannn!) vision. Sleep’s music is true, not in an elitist cliquey way but sincere, and in many respects genre-breaking, Sleep have metal’s good points but none of its negative ones.
(Third Man Records)
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