"There’s loads of dark metal bands that I really like: the first Mayhem record, Darkthrone, people like that. But in the end, ‘Jerusalem’ is heavier and more powerful than any of the dark metal bands. It takes the best elements of Black Sabbath and then amplifies them even further.
“It’s a record that I always used to put on before I went out and I’d listen to the whole thing because it was so emotive. It gave me loads of energy, even though it’s so slow and doomy. I love the fact that they released it all as one, hour-long song and how it was able to come out in that form. It means it’s never been vetted really. For me, it’s the best heavy guitar record ever made.
“There’s something almost meditative about ‘Jerusalem’ and part of the band Sleep went on to form another band, OM, which is extremely meditative. So in Sleep, you can really hear the meditative atmosphere aspects of it, I like how hypnotic it is, that’s the reason I would always put it on.
“Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were my entry points to metal, then I read a book called Lords of Chaos which I suppose a lot of people who are interested in learning about black metal have read. Then moving on and listening to the first Mayhem record, I thought it was pretty much like punk, but rather than just being snarling and aggressive, it goes beyond that and turns into something really evil. And I realised I liked the roughness of metal.
“’Jerusalem’ is a flow. You’re hearing the band in the room as it happens and because it’s so unplanned it feels like a jam, which makes it much more subtle. They probably played through the whole hour a load of different times and it was probably different every single time. That’s what I love about it, when you hear the record you’re really getting the atmosphere they created at that time and they managed to capture that on record. There isn’t another record quite like it, and I also love all the records that the band members of Sleep made after it.
“Josh from The Horrors and I went to see Sleep live and – although the guitarist was barely able to stand up because he was very, very drunk – it sounded amazing. People don’t realise how hard it is to make this music sound so good on stage. It’s something I aspire to and it’s an invaluable skill, right down to the way you position the mics on stage. For me the best metal is lo-fi, it’s highly sought after, getting music to be distorted in the right way. There’s such attention on the guitar in this record. Some guitarists play with a lot of pedals, but it can be really inspiring when you have a guitarist who can make music with very little and Sleep do that.
“The first time I heard it was on The Horrors second American tour in 2008. We went to LA, and went to the place everyone goes to, which is Amoeba Records. I got a copy of Dopesmoker, which is the album after Jerusalem and that’s how I first heard ‘Jerusalem.’ But all I remember at first was thinking how awful the artwork was. It was really terrible"
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