Volume One is a rarity in Sleep's short catalogue, not only because it is by far the least popular among fans, but also because it is the one that presents the most distant sound from the one that made Sleep relevant. I mean, of course this is still doom metal, but the overall sound is much closer to sludge metal than anything else. The Black Sabbath influences are still present, but there is also worship to Melvins and Black Flag. The hardcore punk influences are at times obvious and noticeable, as in "The Suffering" when the song picks up speed in one of the main segments or in the beginning of "The Wall of Yawn". The main responsible for this is Chris Hakius with one of his most aggressive performances, being the main piece in those fast moments.
The riffage is dark, depressing, lugubrious, there is a sense of unease that accompanies the whole work, reinforced by the aforementioned riffs but taken care of by the whole band, be it vocals, bass or simplistic but devastating rhythmic segments. This is all exemplified through the songwriting, incredibly mature and interesting for such a young band, but they were clear on what they wanted to do, making each song have not only memorable riffs, but also unique sections that give a certain dynamism to a genre that is not known for that kind of performance. The joint vocals fit together perfectly, the dual use of the guitars at times brings a superior power in terms of heaviness to what Sleep would give us in their career, and Cisneros shows one of his first signs of talent on bass.
Despite that, the album can't help but have only one bullet in the chamber, the style throughout the work is the same, of course there are touches to give the songs distinctiveness from each other but it all ends up coming back to the same style over and over again, all the songs are the execution of the same idea and unfortunately the second half is no better than the first so it falls a little bit behind. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing if you like what they do, and luckily the album doesn't tend to be too long so it rarely gets boring, but you have to accept the lack of variety it offers.
Perhaps this flaw is due to the fact that the band, even though they were already clear about parts of their ideas, were not consistent enough to pull out a more creative and deeper work, but they really don't need to, because this is one of those cases where a band's debut is accompanied by a perpetual youthful energy that permeates every second of the album.
Volume One is pure rawness, an album without filters of any kind that has a lot to offer in such a simple format, and that's where much of its greatness and charisma lies. An album dense and dark enough to capture you and never let you escape, as it did with me.
The riffage is dark, depressing, lugubrious, there is a sense of unease that accompanies the whole work, reinforced by the aforementioned riffs but taken care of by the whole band, be it vocals, bass or simplistic but devastating rhythmic segments. This is all exemplified through the songwriting, incredibly mature and interesting for such a young band, but they were clear on what they wanted to do, making each song have not only memorable riffs, but also unique sections that give a certain dynamism to a genre that is not known for that kind of performance. The joint vocals fit together perfectly, the dual use of the guitars at times brings a superior power in terms of heaviness to what Sleep would give us in their career, and Cisneros shows one of his first signs of talent on bass.
Despite that, the album can't help but have only one bullet in the chamber, the style throughout the work is the same, of course there are touches to give the songs distinctiveness from each other but it all ends up coming back to the same style over and over again, all the songs are the execution of the same idea and unfortunately the second half is no better than the first so it falls a little bit behind. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing if you like what they do, and luckily the album doesn't tend to be too long so it rarely gets boring, but you have to accept the lack of variety it offers.
Perhaps this flaw is due to the fact that the band, even though they were already clear about parts of their ideas, were not consistent enough to pull out a more creative and deeper work, but they really don't need to, because this is one of those cases where a band's debut is accompanied by a perpetual youthful energy that permeates every second of the album.
Volume One is pure rawness, an album without filters of any kind that has a lot to offer in such a simple format, and that's where much of its greatness and charisma lies. An album dense and dark enough to capture you and never let you escape, as it did with me.