A fifty-two minute song by Christian stoner doom metal band Sleep.
"Extreme" is an endangered adjective, nearly destroyed by misapplication and repetition, and yet it is the only appropriate descriptor for this masterwork. Nearly an hour in the eschatologically downtuned key of C, this is the heaviest, slowest, most gigantic rock you will ever hear. At appropriate volume, the buzzy mud of the guitar/bass double crush combines with the giant's heartbeat of a kick drum to force the listener down into a theta wave meditative state. You could collapse into this record like a feather bed.
Most importantly, Jerusalem is also, without any shred of doubt, the most stoned thing (of any medium) currently extant. What becomes readily obvious when the track is listened to under the influence of any amount of marijuana is that Jerusalem is the product of people who are permanently as stoned as humanly possible. In fact, I seriously doubt it would be possible to write, play and record this album in a sober state; how would you know where in the song you were? It's far too slow for any normal human being to count measures. The only answer is to become one with the weed gods and the distorted mantra they demand.
If the music were not sufficient to convince you that Sleep were at the zenith of bakedness, there are the lyrics. Remember: Sleep is a born-again Christian band... with a twist. Essentially, if in the entirety of the new testament the word Jesus were to be replaced with marijuana you would have Sleep's theology. A primary feature of the second pressing's album art is a pot leaf nailed to a cross.
Jerusalem, lyrically, is (vaguely) the story of a group of religious pilgrims journeying through the desert in search of the holy land while very, very, very high. Here, for your edification and enlightenment, is the story:
Timestamps provided to illustrate the dirgelike pace
(7:23) Drop out of life with bong in hand
(7:55) Follow the smoke toward the riff filled land
(8:25) Drop out of life with bong in hand
(8:57) Follow the smoke toward the riff filled land
(12:59) Proceeds the Weedian. Nazareth.
(15:38) Proceeds the Weedian. Nazareth.
(19:23) Creedsmen roll out across the dying dawn
(20:05) Sacred Israel holy Mount Zion
(20:48) Sun beams down onto the sandcean reigns
(21:31) Caravan migrates through deep sandscape
(22:52) Lungsmen unearth the creed of Hasheeshian
(23:19) Lebanon
(23:30) Desert legion smoke covenant is complete
(23:49) Herb bails retied onto backs of beasts
(25:30) Stoner caravan emerge from sandsea
(25:48) Earthling inserts to chalice the green cutchie
(26:08) Groundation soul finds trust upon smoking hose
(26:28) Assemble creedsmen rises prayer filled smoke
(28:30) Golgotha
(28:51) Judgement soon come to mankind
(29:19) Green herbsman serve rightful
(29:48) Hemp seed caravan carries
(36:09) Rides out believer with the spliff aflame
(36:46) Marijuanaut escapes earth to cultivate
(42:08) Grow room is church temple of the new stoner breed
(42:49) Chants loud robed priest down onto the freedomseed
(43:31) Burnt offering redeems completes smoked deliverance
(44:19) Caravans stoned deliverants
(44:55) The caravan holds to eastern creed, now smokes believer
(46:08) The chronicle of the Sinsemillian
(47:16) Drop out of life with bong in hand
(47:49) Follow the smoke toward the riff filled land
(48:17) Drop out of life with bong in hand
(48:52) Follow the smoke Jerusalem.
Sleep apparently recorded Jerusalem after being signed to semi-major label London Records as a gigantic "fuck you" to the corporate music world. Their sizable recording budget was spent almost entirely on Green amplifiers, marijuana, and producer Billy Anderson (who has worked with eyehategod, Jawbreaker, Neurosis, Brutal Truth and others). London Records decided the album (the song comprises one entire album) was unreleasable and dropped Sleep from the label.
Fortunately for Sleep they retained the rights to the master recording and ultimately released their opus on Rise Above Records in 1998. The album artwork of the original pressing features a woodcut of a Hebrew priest bowing down before a smoking censer. Inside the front cover is a lovingly crafted bong which appears to be made out of a gourd. Both of these photos rest on a deep green, leafy background. This pressing features the full lyric sheet, album credits, and a "highest thanks to the father and the son" dedication. A subsequent pressing has no label information on it at all, and the cover art is instead a hand-drawn, dreamy desert scene. The insert has no lyrics and abbreviated album credits. The CD itself sports the crucified pot leaf motif.
This album will test you, but I recommend listening to it under two conditions: you must be very high on the pot and you MUST listen to the whole thing. The first fifteen minutes will feel like a joke; the epic reality of what has been accomplished with this recording may only dawn in the final blasting guitar drones.