The first time I actually heard Wall of Sleep was reviewing Sun Faced Apostles for the archaic paper version of Load of Noise. I instantly fell in love with the jovial tone of the bouncing riffs and the strange melodies of Gabor Holdampf’s vocals. The vocals are a controversial subject with people I have talked to about Wall of Sleep, and the band actually parted ways with Holdampf in 2009. I always loved the dynamics that Holdampf added to the band’s sound - his delivery made me picture a warlock bellowing incantations from a storm swept mountain peak.
Sun Faced Apostles really peaks with the title track, which is a classic doom rock anthem that reminds me of Paradise Lost at their epic best. The interweaving duel guitar harmonies of the chorus give way to an outro solo to end the world with. There’s a particularly good clip of this on YouTube, with the crowd head banging as one - completely enraptured by the mega-riffs pouring off the stage.
The band get their doom chops out on this album with the track ‘Ship of Stake’, which rumbles and swells like a disturbed ocean. Like a polar bear swinging its head in a zoo confinement, the song bristles with untapped power and flows with riff after riff of pure doom. The supremacy is then unleashed with the magically titled ‘Time of the Goblins’. I cannot state more categorically that this is the best song title of all time, and the music itself is amazing too. The best things that Wall of Sleep do are all evident here: the romping tempo, the sudden evolution into Thin Lizzy guitar-porn, the endless grooves and the vocals jumping out at you at unexpected angles and pitches. They even reference ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ in the solo, which I like to think of as taking it back for the Sabbath fans.
I often wonder how big this band would be if they were American or English. The reason for this wondering is that everyone I’ve forced to listen to Wall of Sleep really likes them, but then somehow discredits them upon learning their origins. The number of bands playing this sort of classic metal inspired doomy rock is great and Wall of Sleep are as good as any of them, or at least were.
Sun Faced Apostles reaches another peak with the doom romance of ‘The River’, flowing like its namesake. The closing two tracks ‘From The Bottom of These Days’ and ‘Mother Sand and Father Stone’ couldn’t be more different; the former being a groovy rock romp and the latter being a doom drone with low end orchestration that seems to carry tangible weight.
The main reason I love Wall of Sleep is because they deliver the riffs. Relentlessly. The ever present guitar work of Sandor Fuleki has to be the most underrated body of work in rock and metal history. He solos with a feel and tone reminiscent of Tony Iommi and shits riffs with the consistency of Kirk Windstien. His writing has developed and evolved over the course of the albums I’ve chosen to cover and I believe it actually reaches new heights with the follow up to Sun Faced Apostles; the masterpiece of slow-burning rock that is ‘...And Hell Followed With Him’. But that’s for next time, so in the interim - search 'Wall of Sleep' on YouTube and bask in the riffs...
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