SHEAVY — The Electric Sleep (review)

SHEAVY — The Electric Sleep album cover Album · 1998 · Stoner Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
Sheavy (sometimes typeset as sHeavy, to emphasise their heaviness) are a long running Stoner Rock/Metal act from Canada. The Electric Sleep was their second full-length studio album and was released in 1998.

Sheavy are an underrated but important contributor to the genre, who may not have had the same level of success as their American peers but who still managed to release powerful and enjoyable albums their entire career, and persist on constantly since their 1993 inception. The band are a perfect outfit to discover and explore for fans of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Clutch and others. Of course, Sheavy are recommended for fans of Ozzy era Black Sabbath…. in fact, historically sometimes people confused the band’s doomier tracks as actual Black Sabbath tracks!

Singer Steve Hennessey sometimes does an incredible job of specifically mimicking the exact and particular nuances of Ozzy’s unique voice, which is impressive. The band aren’t always Sabbath clones however, sometimes the vocal style is quite different and very often the music will move outside of Sabbath’s remit, so there is still plenty of uniquely Sheavy style material to enjoy.

They have had a few line-up shifts in their time, but aren’t exactly an unstable revolving-door type band. Steve Hennessey and guitarist Dan Moore formed the core of the band for almost two decades, with Ren Squires on drums for at least one decade.

This album features a nice mixture between up-tempo buzzy rockers with melody and groove and then slow, doomy numbers or quiet tracks that show off the band’s large musicality and vocal talent. The whole album is full of impressive and interesting lead guitar work, with multiple solos and little flourishes of Talk-Box and other effects all over the place. The production is great, with a very warm, analogue sound to boot.

Highlights include ‘Saving Me,’ which is a bouncy riff lead rock number, the lyrically amusing ‘Automaton’ and the eclectic nine-minute album closer ‘Star Dust’ which explores several moods, from Pink Floydian sounds to big doomy riffs, to speedy solo filled sections.

Overall The Electric Sleep is an interesting and very enjoyable collection of warm, analogue sounding Stoner Rock/Metal tracks from a talented and underrated Canadian band who never gave up trying. The Electric Sleep is one of their better albums, and if you enjoy it check out Celestial Hi-Fi too. In Summary; highly recommended to any fans of the genre or the aforementioned bands.
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