Hello Down There

Two scuzzy doom guys critique a list of bands playing this
year’s MusicfestNW. Upon spotting Om, whose bassist/vocalist Al
Cisneros fronted Sleep, the quintessential stoner-metal group of
the 1990s, one character groans an odd, lazy “disastrous” to the
other.

It’s one of a few seemingly off moments in an animated spot that
publicizes the festival’s acknowledgment of metal music while
lampooning metal culture. But had the advertising agency that made the
commercial already heard Om’s forthcoming God Is Good album on
Drag City—not Southern Lord, which released 2007’s soft/loud
Pilgrimage—the caricature’s dis would make perfect sense.
On its fourth LP, Om pursues “more meaningful things,” explains new
drummer Emil Amos (also of Grails and Holy Sons).

“It’s leaving behind a lot of those obsessions with darkness.
Because really, is Om a doom band?” he asks. On “Meditation Is the
Practice of Death,” where the reward for braving the always-steep Om
incline—not the least bit rocky—is a guest flautist’s
breeze, the answer is no. The two-part “Cremation Ghat” attains similar
peace. Droning tamboura, hand claps, comfortable drumming—no
distortion, no doom.

Amos, who lives in Portland, joined the California-based duo when
Chris Hakius—Cisneros’ rhythm-section partner since his pre-Sleep
band Asbestosdeath—left amicably in January 2008. Says Amos, “The
way Chris and Al saw music was more of a parallel language to a
spiritual progression, and that made a lot of sense to me.” He fondly
recalls “heated discussions” on Grails’ tours with Om. To them, bass
and drum fills were like confessions. “What you decided to play to them
would mean something about who you are—your spiritual
education.”

As for today’s naysayers, be they animated or simply bored?

“When people put the Om record on and they’re like, ‘Oh, not heavy
enough,’ we’re just going to go, ‘Yes, exactly.'”