Sleeping Giant - The Beauty of Obliteration

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Sleeping Giant is a stoner/doom/sludge band from Reykjavík, Iceland who are dropping their full-length debut album, “The Beauty of Obliteration.”  

This album fucking smokes. Riffs for days. No, wait. Riffs for years. And groove. And bass that could shake apart Mt. Doom.  Sleeping Giant has a very accessible sound, and I don't mean that in a bad way. But it is instantly infectious and takes doom/sludge/stoner to heights that can be as blistering as they can be hazy.


I love it when bands of this style have an old school approach with the instruments but an extreme approach with the vocals. The death growls/screams are fantastic and their contrast with the more classic passages of the band brand of doom/sludge/stoner sounds GREAT. The album has more than a few moments that lean towards an aggressive nature—the tempo can hit whiplash speeds when you least expect it. The production/mix is on fire—every instrument has a pocket universe in which they live, and thrive, while connected to the greater whole.


The opening song, “Conquer,” is just that: here to make presence known and to destroy. The bass drops are bottomless, the riffs an effective combination of stoner haze and abrasive sludge. The death growls have a smooth cadence, rolling around with the devastation with ease. The tempo kicks up a bit in the second half of the song but it’s the melancholic solo that really grabs the ears tightly. 


The bass guitar in “The Monk,” is like a lead weight but instead of sinking down, it uses its strength to pull the entire song with it. The guitars cleverly alternate between thick grooves and more up tempo moments until the later half when a low, slow groove washes over the musical landscape.  While all this doom sludge is rising, the vocals are ripping through with a massive performance. 


The final song, “Abysmal Flame,” has a lot of swagger and confidence in the riffs. As they ebb and flow through the power of the almighty riff, the drums put on a mighty tight performance that pushes the song forward. The middle passage delivers a catchy, intense performance with some of the best riffs on the album and even some leads that give it all a psychedelic vibe. Afterwards the song flows to a crawl and a sinister, twisted sonic soundscape ends the song, and album, on a doomed out jammed.


All in all, Sleeping Giant's “The Beauty of Obliteration,” is a solid doom/sludge album that successfully mixed stoner and death elements into an engaging sound.


Rating: Great















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