Sleep's Holy Mountain

What became this album was sent to Earache as a demo. The label signed the band at once and released the tapes exactly as they had arrived, untouched. Billy Anderson engineered, and the production is credited to Anderson and the band. The line-up is three: Al Cisneros on bass and vocals, Matt Pike on guitar and Chris Hakius on drums. The word "stoner" appears in the lyrics of two songs and cannabis leaves fill the sleeve, and for those reasons among others the record sits at the centre of how stoner rock came to be named at all. The metal press took to it, and the band were written about alongside Kyuss as the head of the new current. The cover art is by Robert Klem. "Dragonaut" and "Some Grass" were used in Harmony Korine's 1997 film Gummo. In May 2009 the album was played in full as part of the Don't Look Back series curated by All Tomorrow's Parties. The band would stop working for years afterwards, so this is also the last record they left while functioning as a group. The running order here is the original's as printed.