Sleep's <i>Holy Mountain</i> To Be Reissued, Possible Reunion

BY Denise FalzonPublished May 6, 2009

San Jose, CA's revered stoner doom metal band Sleep will be reissuing their 1993 Earache Records debut, Holy Mountain, on June 16. The special edition release will include rare photos, a cover of Black Sabbath's "Snowblind," as well as a video for the song "Dragonaut."

As we previously reported, Sleep will be reuniting to perform at this weekend's All Tomorrow's Parties' The Fans Strike Back festival in the UK. The band will be performing the entire Holy Mountain album, as well as tunes from 2003's Dopesmoker.

In an interview with Brooklyn Vegan, Sleep bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros (Om, Shrinebuilder) commented on the decision to reunite for the festival:

Promoters have constantly tried to get that band back together, so that was never an impetus. It was really more about when we were ready as people. The main reason, the only reason really. The three of us as friends had gone through an indescribable disappointment with Sleep. it never blossomed in the way that we focused our youthful energies, and then it broke. When it ended at the last practice, we were all devastated, heartbroken and really just shattered. It was debilitating, in this catatonic state for all of us. Anyway, we've always reserved an option as to how it would be really healing to play those songs again on our terms, and not Earache's or London's or certain I-don't-even-want-to-mention terms but for us, the friends that met in school. Since Sleep ended, those songs have remained as trapped energy in all of us for essentially 12 years. These shows offer a way to heal, and to close it with peace and a smile inside. It's an opportunity to have catharsis and put those songs in the sky where they belong, to move forward and let it purge.

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