The band is Sleep and the record is called Dopesmoker. It is 2 songs, the first one, Dopesmoker, clocking in at 63 minutes. It was rejected by their label, shortened, renamed 'Jerusalem' and broken up into suites. Now it has been restored to its original form.
This album sounds like the result of distilling Black Sabbath from a gas to a solid, denser at the core than a collapsed star. Listening to the thick sludgey riffage is akin to doggy-paddling through an ocean of warm peanut butter. There is a bizarre dissonance to the sound yet it is strangely soothing once adjusted to the wall of buzzing, throbbing sound. I listen to stuff like this when I am working, visualizing dimly lit floating empires of ashen desolation in the echoing voids of outer space...
I don't really smoke dope anymore. I love the idea of it, the ritual and everything else that goes with catching the buzz and just relaxing, thinking stoned thoughts...However being laden with responsibilities that I did sign on for, I cannot be a functional doper. I haven't tried to be and failed, I just know myself well enough to know that I cannot get through a normal day of obligations in a haze of green fluff. I was unable to perform reliably when my only responsibility was to show up at work at 5pm so I will use that as a rule of measure. I do not approve of the way that it makes mediocre things seem fantastic (i.e. television shows that I would never watch in a clear state). My eyes become so absurdly red and doofus-like, it is a like a caricature and Visine hardly works. As I get older, sometimes i get 'the fear' and it taints the experience completely. Finally, my wife doesn't really like drugs and at this point in life I have no problem with that so I just avoid them. Who needs to be stoned with a disapproving eye cast upon you? Yuck. That is poo.