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Katy St. Clair

Being associated with a band as influential as Sleep can be both a blessing and a curse. For the two members of OM, Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, themselves former Sleep peeps, they must constantly deal with comparison and, of course, living in the shadow of another sleep offshoot, High On Fire. But the drummer and bassist have done something amazing with their legacy, creating a whole new heavy sound with just two instruments.

They played after Boris at Amoeba, so the once sizable gathering was even larger by the time they took the stage. Om's music is much more conducive to good ol' fashioned headbanging, and the front row was lined with dudes at the ready. They began with the song "To The Shrine Builder," which can only be described as "boogie metal," for lack of a better phrase. And, to compare them to Sleep (sorry guys) the song lasted forever. While other metal bands explore weird time changes and sprightly jaunts into Middle Earth, Om seems to be jumping genres entirely at times, moving into good old fashioned rock and roll, stuff that verily "swings," and even pop. Only the mildest hint, mind you… this is definitely a metal band.

The second song was their best, and the most traditional doom metal of the three they would play. "Flight of the Eagle" combined tambourine with a downward spiral of doom; an interesting juxtaposition, all right. I suppose, if one were to be literary, the song would be the metaphorical representation of an eagle swooping down on a mouse, breaking its neck, then soaring back to its nest to feed its cute lil chicks. Yep.

Finally they played another song from their album Conference of the Birds, "At Giza." By this time sweat was pouring off of both of them, and, if Amoeba sold booze, everyone would've been buying them a beer. Good show.