Chris Hakius

Chris Hakius
Chris performing live with OM.
Background information
Birth Name	Christopher Louis Hakius
Born	14 December 1971
Occupation	Musician (Former); Truck Driver
Genres	Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Instrument(s)	Drums
Years active	1989 - 1996, 1998 - 2009
Labels	Earache, Tupelo, Southern Lord Records, Tee Pee Records, Rise Above Records, The Music Cartel, Holy Mountain, Neurot
Associated acts	Asbestosdeath, Sleep, Om, The Sabians

Chris Hakius is a former drummer based out of California.

Active from the early 1990s to the late 2000s, Hakius is best known for his tenures as a founding member of the seminal stoner metal band Sleep and the Eastern heavy band Om. He is known for his straightforward drumming style, that would compliment the often-transcendental styles of both bands, along with the religion-influenced hard rock of The Sabians.

Hakius would be active from 1989 - 2009, with two short retirements from music before bowing out of music entirely by 2009. He would contribute three albums each with Sleep and Om, along with two albums for The Sabians.

Biography

Asbestos Death

Chris joined Al Cisneros, Tom Choi and Matt Pike to form Asbestosdeath in 1989, with their first show being at a high school talent show. The band would play sporadically in the California and release two 7" records before renaming themselves as Sleep in late 1990.

Sleep

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Sleep.

Sleep would form in late 1990, with their first show taking place in early 1991. Their debut album Volume One was released in 1991 via Tupelo recording company. Frequently compared to bands like Saint Vitus, Sleep soon gained a devoted fanbase within the developing doom metal scene. After just a handful of shows in the summer of 1991, founding guitarist Justin Marler quit the band soon after to take up life as an orthodox monk. This left the band as a power trio for the recording of their Volume Two EP, which was released officially by Off The Disk Records in 1991. By the fall of 1991 the band started adapting more of the sound they are known for, having worked in new songs like "Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme" and "Inside The Sun" by that point.

The band's next album was sent to Earache Records as a demo. Recorded at Razors Edge studios in San Francisco by Billy Anderson and Chris Savino, the tape showcased Sleep's love of all things retro from the blatant Black Sabbath/Blue Cheer influences to their fixation with 1970's-style tube amplification. The label immediately signed the band and released the tape exactly as it was received.

Sleep's Holy Mountain would be released in November 1992 is widely considered a seminal album in the evolution of stoner metal, with Ozzy Osbourne purportedly calling them "The closest thing to the original Black Sabbath". From 1993 to 1994 the band would start touring in the United States and Europe with the likes of Cathedral, Penance, Cannibal Corpse and Nik Turner's Hawkwind to name a few. The album's release was followed by offers from London Records and Elektra Records, with Sleep ultimately signing with London. Around this time, Earache released its first Black Sabbath Tribute album, and Sleep contributed a cover of "Snowblind".

After legal wrangling with Earache that delayed production they began work on their third album, Dopesmoker, in 1995 (Though the song had been in the works as early as 1994 as indicated by live performances.). Much to the dismay of executives at London Records, Dopesmoker was a single song more than one hour long. London Records declared the album unmarketable and refused to release it. Sleep returned to the studio and then submitted their second attempt at the new album. They had renamed it Jerusalem, re-written some of the lyrics, tracked it in six "parts" and trimmed it down to a "lean" 52 minutes, but it was essentially the same as Dopesmoker. London Records again refused to release it (Though promo CDs and cassettes do exist from the label.). Frustrated and generally unhappy with the situation, Sleep would ultimately disband in 1997 with their last known live shows at the time happening in 1994 (Though some fans have stated the band performed in 1995).

In May 2009 Sleep reformed to perform two exclusive reunion sets in England as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. These shows would be notable as Chris Hakius' final performances with the band. Notably, Sleep would perform Sleep's Holy Mountain in it's entirety for the first time along with selected portions of Dopesmoker and introducing an unreleased song entitled "Antartican's Thawed". Jason Roeder (Neurosis) would take over the drum role in 2010 when Sleep would choose to remain active.

The Sabians

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on The Sabians.

The Sabians were formed in 1999 by Justin Marler and Chris Hakius (At the time of the band's creation temporarily retired from music and actively working as a truck driver.) after Marler had served a lengthy stint as an Orthodox monk serving in Alaska and Russia, at some point creating a counter-culture zine titled Death To The World. Notably, the last time Marler and Hakius performed together was on Sleep's album "Volume One" in 1991. Patrick Huerta would join as a lead guitarist and after working through a series of bassists Rachel Fisher (Chris Hakius' wife) would join as the band's bassist. Justin Marler and Chris Hakius spoke of the band's creation in an early interview:

“	“Well, its not a myth, well not really. After I left Sleep in '91, I went to a Russian Orthodox Monastery near Redding. It's not in the hills of Humboldt, but its near Redding. I lived in the monastery for seven years and went to Alaska and lived in a monastery there for quite awhile. Just two and half or three years ago, I came out of the monastery and joined up with Chris again to play music. So it wasn't a commune, it was a monastery.”	”
	— Justin Marler, Panache

“	“Well, we recorded "Holy Mountain" and toured on it. Then we went and recorded "Jerusalem" Album. Justin was only on Volume 1 though because then he went to the monastery. So after "Jerusalem" we called it quits as Sleep. Then I quit for about two years. Then Justin called me up and said he wanted to do a project like we're doing now. "Yeah, I was in retirement from playing drums. I just drive a big rig, and I play drums again now. Then Matt hooked us up with studio space because its really hard to find a place to practice in the Bay Area. So we shared a studio with High On Fire. That's at the point where we met Patrick who became our lead guitar player. And our latest and final bass player is Rachel. She's really talented. This is our second show with her...”	”
	— Chris Hakius, Panache

Early on the band performed around the California area, releasing a demo titled "Empty The Heart" before getting signed by The Music Cartel in 2001. A tour of the west coast with Totimoshi would follow sometime after along with recording their debut album Beauty For Ashes with Alex Newport. A second album titled Shiver would follow in 2003. However, roughly around 2004 The Sabians would disband. Justin Marler would end up moving to Austin, Texas and follow up by forming the bands Shiny Empire and Quick And The Dead. Chris Hakius would rejoin former Sleep bandmate Al Cisneros in Om in 2003.

Om

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Om.

At some point in 2003, Cisneros met up with Hakius about possibly forming a new band, opting to not have a guitarist due to the intrigue of exploring music as a duo. Om officially formed in 2003 with their first official live performance was on Sunday, August 14, 2004. On February 14 of 2005 their debut album Variations on a Theme was released via Holy Mountain Records, billed as the "triumphant return of Cisneros and Hakius", attaining largely positive receptions. The band sporadically played shows around the San Francisco area in 2005, notably the ArthurBall.

Conference of the Birds followed on 17 April 2006 and has since become one of the duo's seminal releases. Two split releases, recorded during the Conference of the Birds sessions, followed that year; the first was a split with Current 93 titled Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun (Blackship Shrinebuilder) released in June, with the second, a split with Six Organs Of Admittance, dropping in July. Sporadic appearances in New York and a mini-tour followed in support of the album.

At some point after the release of their second album, Om toured with Grails, where Cisneros would meet and befriend future drummer Emil Amos. After this tour was the band's first full tour of Europe, including a date at the Roadburn Festival. On 13 September another album would follow in the form of Pilgrimage, their only studio release on the Southern Lord Records. Two North American tours, the Pilgrimage Tour, would happen in support of the album. Shortly after, the band performed two nights in what was the Israel Pilgrimage. Their 5 December 2007 show in Jerusalem has become an infamous performance that spanned five hours, a portion of which saw a physical release on the Southern Lord LP Live at Jerusalem in 2008.

In 2008 the band performed a short tour of the west coast of the US, and also had a short east coast tour scheduled. On January 20, Om performed at the Echoplex in what would be Chris Hakius' final performance with the band, with a jam including sections from future songs "Thebes" and "Gebel Barkal" being the last song played.. Chris Hakius would retire from music after this show, barring a brief return at the beginning of the Sleep reunion in 2009. Hakius was also notably intended to drum for Shrinebuilder, a supergroup that initially featured Hakius, Cisneros, Scott Weinrich and Scott Kelly. Dale Crover would take his place in that band, which were active from 2008 - 2011.

In an interview with AVClub, Al spoke of Chris' depature:

“	"He mentioned that his heart wasn’t in it any longer and out of respect for the music he wanted to step down and I respect that. We still talk and are still friends. He’s since basically retired from playing—he’s onto a different phase. For me there is no end to the song. No option.”	”
	— Al Cisneros, Av Club

Shortly after Hakius' departure, Cisneros reconnected with Emil Amos, which ultimately led to Amos becoming the new drummer for the band.

Bands

• Asbestosdeath - Drums (1989 - 1990)
• Sleep - Drums (1990 - 1997, 2009)
• The Sabians - Drums (1999 - 2004)
• Om - Drums (2003 - 2008)
• Shrinebuilder - Drums (2008)

Personal Life

Chris Hakius has retired from music on two occasions, once in roughly 1996 to take up a job as a truck driver and a second time in 2009 to raise a family and resume his job as a truck driver. He currently lives in California with his wife Rachel and has one child.

Discography

Asbestosdeath

• Unclean (7" Single) (1990)
• Dejection (7" Single) (1990)
• Dejection, Unclean (Compilation) (2007, Southern Lord Records)

Sleep

• Volume One (Studio Album) (1991, Tupelo)
• Volume Two (7" EP) (1992, Off The Disk)
• Sleep's Holy Mountain (Studio Album) (1993, Earache)
• Jerusalem (Studio Album) (1999, Rise Above Records; The Music Cartel)
• Dopesmoker (Studio Album) (2003, Tee Pee Records; 2012, Southern Lord Records)

The Sabians

• Beauty For Ashes (Studio Album) (2002, The Music Cartel)
• Shiver (Studio Album) (2003, The Music Cartel)

Om

• Variations on a Theme (Studio Album) (2005, Holy Mountain Records)
• Conference of the Birds (Studio Album) (2006, Holy Mountain Records)
• Om / Six Organs of Admittance (Split 7" with Six Organs of Admittance) (2006, Holy Mountain Records)
• Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun (Blackship Shrinebuilder) (Split 10" with Current 93) (2006, Neurot)
• Pilgrimage (Studio Album) (2007, Southern Lord Records)
• Live at Jerusalem (Live Album) (2008, Southern Lord Records)
• Live at Amoeba (Live Album) (2022, Holy Mountain Records)

External Links

• Interview with Hakius
• Interview with Sleep featuring Hakius

References

V·T·E The Sabians
Members	Chris Hakius • Justin Marler • Patrick Huerta • Rachel Huerta
Studio Albums	Beauty For Ashes • Shiver
Associated Bands and Artists	Sleep • Om • Shrinebuilder • Asbestosdeath • Lamentation