Before cinema had sound it had live music performed to the audience and since then the relationship between picture and music has never ended. There have been a few heavier bands that have dipped their toes into the production of soundscapes for motion pictures in recent years but none quite live it as much as San Francisco-based Sleepbomb. Adding to their already impressive catalogue of scores for Metropolis, Nosferatu, Night of the Living Dead and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Sleepbomb have now added Conan the Barbarian with the release of Songs in the Key of Conan. Sleepbomb has delivered another great performance of ritualistic post-metal, doom, stoner and drone that fits the aesthetics of the film beautifully. There are areas of confinement as well as wide open plains, film or no film, Sleepbomb takes the listener on a great adventure.
Is it a punishable offence to admit to not having seen such a cult film until the time of writing this? It is testament to the quality of the music of Sleepbomb that the 77 minutes of music were good enough to write about but curiosity itched as to how they would fit in the themes of the movie. These songs are inspired by the imagery of Conan but create its own as well as impact those it was written for. As with the film the songs move from the heavier introduction of ‘Forged In Steel/Blood On The Snow’ through to moments of darker contemplation. In doing so the band sits somewhere between the repetitive and ritualistic sounds of Pothamus, the atmospheric expansion of Year Of No Light, along with drone, synth and hints of progressive stoner soaking through.
With some of the synth parts the music seems to fit the period of time the film was produced more accurately than its original classic score. The synth is ever present and even in the heavier tracks such as ‘The Serpent’s Eye’ or ‘Fear The Night’ the synth makes appearances sometimes warping into psychedelic organ tones or as icy cold walls in others. There is a good deal of experimentation with woodwind here as well and it’s quite prominent in the more jazzy ‘All The Gods Cannot Sever Us’. However, it is the guitar, bass and drums that drive and build, that surge and dominate overall. As with the sparse dialogue of the movie, this album wraps a lot of atmosphere into the output, there is no empty space so when connected both the eyes and the ears have plenty to computate.
There is no doubt that experiencing Sleepbomb doing their music live would be enthralling, especially when matched up to the film it is based on. Even with 16 tracks and without those things Sleepbomb provides lots of engaging ideas and sounds that fill the biggest of canvases with some of the finest doom tinged instrumental post-metal there is. Songs in the Key of Conan is another excellent instalment in this bands output.
