Epic, god-like heaviness
Quite simply, this album is for me the definitive example of stoner rock. Sleep really managed to transcend all the limitations of the genre with this album by magnifying and stretching stoner rock/metal's elements to an extreme rarely ever attempted, let alone achieved with this much success.

Be warned: this album is not for the casual metal fan. It is repetitive, droning and it unfolds at a glacial pace. The vocals are sung in a hoarse monotone and the lyrics can be ridiculously over the top: "Drop out of life with bong in hand / follow pot smoke toward the riff filled land".

But somehow, Sleep managed to take these elements and turn them into a bona fide masterpiece. The length of the song actually works in its favor -- there is simply no other way that these fuzzed out, C-tuned riffs, played at unbelievably slow, heavy tempos, could otherwise be developed the way they deserve to be. The band plays together with supernatural chemistry, grasping the sprawling changes with precision. There are also excellent uses of dynamics utilizing stops and starts and changes in volume, and a few cosmic solos from Matt Pike, too.

And about those silly lyrics: I suppose there is an element of humor to them, but the way they are delivered by Cisneros and the roiling power of the band backing him up manages to transcend any campiness. By the end of the record you aren't laughing at the words and the story they tell, but getting ready to rid yourself of all worldly posessions to join the procession of "weedians" on their long journey to Nazareth. It's a neat trick, to be able to use that sort of comic-book imagery to preach a quite sincere religion of marijuana use. Only Sleep has really been able to pull it off this well in the metal world.

Yes, like the title of the record and the lyrics certainly imply, this is a great album for doing a few bong hits and zoning out on the deep spaces and mountanous riffs. Sleep weren't just unshy about promoting pot smoking, cannabis worship was very nearly the band's entire reason for existing in the first place. It's a record by and for pot heads, obviously.

But you don't need to be high to enjoy this. The musicianship alone makes it worth hearing, and the gloriously fuzzed-out, detuned guitars are every metalhead's wet dream. I have listened dozens times to this record. While it's too demanding a listen to be the sort of CD you would would want on heavy rotation, I find myself pulling it out every few months and giving it another spin when I want to truly get lost in titanic riffs for an hour or so.

An essential album for any fan of heavy music, and one of the best metal albums ever. Hard to beat.

even Deeper into Sleep
After Sleeps Holy Mountain has infected your brain with it's purity and perfect metal essense you will want to go deeper into the music.. this album delivers on that in a big way, a single 60 minute track of the best heavy metal ever created.. broken into several movements it's a deeper release than "Holy Mountain" and delves further into less constructed elements and more structureless forms.

Monumental doom drone...!!
If your looking at this, and know what it is... Then buy it!!! You know you want it, a monumental metal 63 minute song!! It`s brilliant!!

Matt Pike Should Have Done The Vocals On This.
My only complaint and I still give it five stars. It's not about playing fast, or even the fact that this is heavier than hell. It's the way Sleep strung the whole song together. By the end of the song, like 64 minutes, if you haven't been smoking, you'll sure as hell feel like you have. Not many bands can pull that off. Matt Pike's future, High On Fire, can certainly do it, old Sabbath without a doubt, Electric Wizard's Dopethrone. Matt Pike's vocals would have made it that much heavier, in my opinion. Still, one of the heaviest metal releases, ever. Worth the price to be in your collection of CD's heavy enough to level the earth.

no really this sucks ...
I loved 'holy mountain' but really this sucks, long, repetitive and requiring chemical support to listen to.