Sleep - Volume One

Chris Hakius of Sleep played drums the way elephants march through a swamp. It's slow, it's sludgy and it's fucking heavy as hell. This whole album is just one huge piece of Stoner metal magic. One of the things that defines his drumming on Volume One is the way he seems to play off the guitar more than the bass. Little guitar licks will be accented with ride bells or tom shots, and while he never seems to play something steady and rhythmic, there is this underlying feeling that he's just trudging through the muck with the rest of them.

It's heavy handed, drum pummeling goodness, and It's something I wish I could have seen live, even once. Drummers like this occupy a completely different realm than the usual rock or jazz guys, they play to parts rather than rhythms, and in Stoner metal when it works, it works great. Sleep put out great albums long after they broke up (Dopesmoker is something of a relic) but Volume One is where they really came into their sound, while making a lasting impact on the genre.

After Sleep disbanded Hakius took to the skins for Om until 2008. Sadly, he hasn't really been playing much since. When Sleep reunited for 2009's All Tomorrows Parties Hakius was there, but for 2010 Jason Roeder of Neurosis has taken his position. I can only hope he'll pop up in some band soon, guys like him don't come along too often.