Volume Two (Sleep)

Volume Two (Sleep)
The album cover which in itself plays on the iconic "Vol. 4" by Black Sabbath.
Extended play by Sleep
Released	1992
Recorded	September 1991 at Razor's Edge (Recording) & Pauler Acoustics (Mastering) in San Fransisco, California (Recording) & Northeim, Germany (Mastering)
Genre	Stoner Metal, Doom Metal
Length	13:22
Producer	Billy Anderson, Sleep
Sleep chronology
Volume One (1991)	Volume Two (Sleep) (1992)	Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992)

Volume Two (Or Vol. 2) is the first EP by stoner metal band Sleep, released in early 1992.

Background

Not long after Volume One's release, Sleep began work on their next album. Between this the band recorded a handful of songs at Razor's Edge, which ultimately got released by Swiss label Off The Disk as an "official bootleg". The album cover of course is a play on the iconic album cover of Vol. 4 by Black Sabbath. The original press has black/orange sleeve and the inner sleeve is orange coloured, while the later press' inner sleeve is white. Inside the original press there is a sheet of paper, yellow coloured, "info-sheet NO.3, fall 1991".

The cover of Black Sabbath's Lord of This World was a studio recording with added live introductions and crowd noise. The packaging claims that the cover of Lord Of This World was performed live in 1979, at the Radio City Music Hall. This is an inside joke as the members of Sleep were around seven years old. This is also a reference to Radio City Music Hall being a venue where Sabbath had performed though the band itself wasn't actively touring in 1979 as around that time the band had been working on their ninth album, firing Ozzy Osbourne and hiring Ronnie James Dio in June that year. Black Sabbath are also specifically thanked on this release.

The Druid and Nain's Baptism appear here in early incarnations (Note the different bass solo bridging the guitar solo in The Druid and Nain's Baptism being much shorter.) but would both be re-recorded for Sleep's Holy Mountain.

Volume Two would prove to be one of the most valuable and sought-after Sleep releases, commanding prices anywhere from 50 ~ 250 USD on the secondary market. A bootleg 12" LP surfaced in the late 2000s with a live set at Gilman St. as a bonus. In 2010, Off The Disk Records issued a 6x7" boxset with their various singles over the years, which included Volume 2.

Tracklist

Sleep - Volume Two

• Lord of This World (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward) - 6:37
• The Druid (Early Version) - 4:46
• Nain's Baptism (Early Version) - 1:59

Personnel

• Al Cisneros - Electric Bass, Vocals
• Matt Pike - Electric Guitar, Son of Care E
• Chris Hakius - Drummer of Sleep
• Billy Anderson - Engineer
• Günter Pauler - Mastering

External Links

• Vol. 2 on Discogs