Riff Of The Month: Sleep - Dragonaut

Artist: Sleep
Track: Dragonaut
Album: Holy Mountain (Earache Records, 1993)

The riff for this month is by the legendary doom metal band SLEEP and it is from the song "Dragonaut" which is off of their second album "Holy Mountain". The album was released in 1992 as a follow up to "Volume One"and is probably one of the most widely received Sleep records alongside the album "Dopesmoker".

You really only need to listen to the first 30 seconds of this song to understand why this is even worthy enough to be the first post for "Riff of the Week" (not that there is any glory behind that considering I may have 20 people who read this blog a month). This song starts off with a lot of groove which is almost in resemblance of a common bues progression but with a lot more Black Sabbath influence rather than Robert Johnson. The song opens up more around the one minute mark and the riff really starts to break out and come alive, which is how it should be in all honesty. The track is very raw but for it being recorded in 1993 it sounds very much like an early Sabbath recording. I believe Ozzy had even stated that they were the closest band he had heard that sounded like Sabbaths sound int he 70's.

But enough of me rambling on about this song and just listen to it and take it all in. For those of you who love stoner rock/doom metal and looking to expand your record collection, this is the band to check out because chances are the bands you love that are out today took a lot of their influence from this band. The lead singer/guitarist of Sleep, Matt Pike later went on to form the band High On Fire and have put out several records on Relapse Records and E1 music. - newnoise|zine