''The Sciences'' is the fourth studio album by American

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band

Sleep Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...

. The album was released with little warning on April 20, 2018 through

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Soho, London—with ...

. It was the band's first full-length album since ''

Dopesmoker ''Jerusalem'' and ''Dopesmoker'' are two versions of the third album by the American heavy metal band Sleep. The former title was released in 1999 by The Music Cartel and the latter was released by Tee Pee Records in 2003. The music for these al ...

'' (2003), on which the song "Sonic Titan" appeared as a live bonus track. Just a month after the release of ''The Sciences'', Sleep released the non-album song "

Leagues Beneath "Leagues Beneath" is a single by the American stoner doom band Sleep. The song was released for free digitally on May 23, 2018 through Adult Swim's 2017 singles series, marking Sleep's second entry following 2014's "The Clarity". "Leagues Beneath" ...

" through

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

's 2018 weekly single series.

Background and composition

In 2009, Sleep re-formed and played a handful of shows. "

The Clarity "The Clarity" is a single by the American rock band Sleep. The song was released digitally for free on July 21, 2014 through the cable network Adult Swim's 2014 weekly singles series. The release of "The Clarity" also marks the first release of ne ...

", the band's first new studio material since 2003's ''

'', was released in 2014. In an interview with

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

about the release of that single, the band wrote, "Sleep has been sporadically writing riffs for a while now ..There is no preconceived idea of what the new material should be. It would be an amalgamated effort of decades of riff immersion." In 2017, the band released a

morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

message on their website confirming that a new album was nearing completion. During a break in a North American tour, ''The Sciences'' was released on

April 20 Events Pre-1600 * 1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII. 1601–1900 * 1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament. * 1657 – English Admiral Robert Blake destroy ...

, 2018. Musically, ''The Sciences'' is a

stoner rock Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep. ...

album built upon the distorted, downtuned, and slow bass of

Al Cisneros Al Cisneros (born September 23, 1973) is an American musician. He is the lead singer and bassist for stoner rock/ doom metal bands Sleep and Om. He also was a member of Shrinebuilder and Asbestosdeath (the precursor to Sleep) and has put out ni ...

playing alongside the similarly low guitar of

Matt Pike Matt may refer to: *Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) *Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...

. Repetition of riffs and passages is employed, working to create a "hypnotic state" supplemented by Cisneros' vocals, which are similarly meditative to his work on the band Om. In keeping with Sleep's aesthetic, much of the lyrics have to do with

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

and are delivered in a reverential, "quasi-religious" fashion. The song "Marijuanaut's Theme", which ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' cited as the best track of the album, begins with the sound of Cisneros using a

bong A bong (also known as a water pipe) is a filtration device generally used for smoking cannabis, tobacco, or other herbal substances. In the bong shown in the photo, the gas flows from the lower port on the left to the upper port on the right. ...

. Along with the cannabis references, ''The Sciences'' makes multiple allusions to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

heavy metal pioneers

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

, whose sound inspired Sleep.

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...

is referenced in the lyrics, and the song "Giza Butler" is a play on the city

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

and the name of Black Sabbath's bassist,

Geezer Butler Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is a English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell ...

. Later in "Giza Butler", references are made to several things in

Frank Herbert Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920February 11, 1986) was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel '' Dune'' and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked a ...

's 1965 novel ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

'', including the

gom jabbar This is a list of terminology used in the fictional ''Dune'' universe created by Frank Herbert, the primary source being "Terminology of the Imperium", the glossary contained in the novel ''Dune'' (1965). ''Dune'' word construction could be clas ...

(referred to as the "bong jabbar") and

Muad'Dib Paul Atreides (; later known as Paul Muad'Dib, and later still as The Preacher) is a fictional character in the ''Dune'' universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is the primary protagonist in the first two novels in the series, ''Dune'' (1965) ...

(as "Muad'Doob").

Release

''The Sciences'' first appeared as a listing on streaming websites on April 19, 2018. It was released a day later on

, 2018, a date significant in

cannabis culture Cannabis culture describes a social atmosphere or series of associated social behaviors that depends heavily upon cannabis consumption, particularly as an entheogen, recreational drug and medicine. Historically cannabis has been used an entheo ...

. The album was made available as a limited vinyl in two colors and for streaming on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. It debuted at number 49 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and was Sleep's first album to chart in the United States.

Critical reception

''The Sciences'' was met with critical acclaim. The album received an average score of 84/100 from 11 reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". In the review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Mark Deming compared the album to the band's previous release, claiming that "''The Sciences'' may not be as daring and ambitious as ''Dopesmoker'', but it finds Sleep working at the top of their game in the studio, and their resinous howl is still a weird marvel to behold." Dan Franklin of ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

'' praised ''The Sciences'', writing, "Sleep present an alternative pathway for the hyper-technological age. Elon Musk's battery-powered ascent to the stars and colonisation of Mars be damned, perhaps we just want to get high and drift on a spacewalk. Sleep have finally delivered the soundtrack." Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', Trystan MacDonald awarded the album a nine out of ten, suggesting that it is either as good as or better than ''Dopesmoker''. Fred Pessaro of ''

Revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

'' lauded the album, calling it "the best stoner-doom record we've heard in a long time." Writing for ''Metal Injection'', Greg Kennelty said, "''The Sciences'' is the first Sleep album since 2003's ''Dopesmoker'' and is very much worth the wait, if not heavier than expected." Cody Davis of the same publication gave the album a perfect score. Zoe Camp of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' praised the album, especially highlighting Pike's guitar riffs as some of the band's best. Camp concluded her review by writing that "with ''The Sciences'', Sleep have given stoner-metal acolytes a bonafide miracle." Writing for ''

'', Grayson Haver Currin considered the album an ideal comeback for Sleep, saying that the six songs "burn perfectly". Langdon Hickman of ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' wrote that ''The Sciences'' "confirms why they are considered the greatest stoner doom band of all time, one of doom metal's greatest treasures, one of metal’s biggest crossover acts in the broader underground musical world, and one of the greatest heavy rock bands to roam the planet." ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

s Ron Hart said ''The Sciences'' "truly is the band’s best album yet".

Accolades

Track listing

All music written, composed, and produced by Sleep. ;Notes * The songs "Sonic Titan" and "Antarcticans Thawed" were both originally written during the ''Dopesmoker'' sessions. * Original 2018 releases of ''The Sciences'' featured "Antarcticans Thawed" before "Giza Butler" in the track listing.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. Sleep *

– vocals, bass,

water pipe Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water delivery ...

– guitar *

Jason Roeder Jason Roeder is the drummer of the Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Ar ...

– drums Additional personnel *

– production *

Noah Landis Noah Landis is an American keyboardist, best known as the keyboard player for American band Neurosis since 1995. Landis's keyboard sound varies between textural and moody overlays, sampled effects/noises and the occasional hook. Landis also plays ...

– engineering, mixing * Christopher Acevado – photography * Josh Graham – layout *

Bob Weston Bob Weston (born 1965) is an American musician, producer, recording engineer, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason AnkenyAnkeny, Jason. " Bob Weston: Overview from Allmusic.com declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over th ...

– mastering

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sciences Sleep (band) albums 2018 albums Third Man Records albums