After the tragic break up of Sleep the doom world was at a loss. Sleep being a tremendous influence in the conception of stoner doom as well as drone and sludge metal. Once one is able to digest the tragedy of Sleep’s split it is easy to see it generated two of the most important bands in modern doom, High on Fire and Om. Matt Pike with High on Fire quickly rose to fame due to his unusually aggressive approach to the sludge genre. Om on the other hand pursued a more pensive and melancholy trail down the doom path. Adding elements of drone and folk to Sleep’s background with traditional stoner doom makes for an interesting cocktail. “Pilgrimage” is the band’s Southern Lord debut, Om’s addition to the roster prove that Southern Lord is indeed one of the most important labels in modern metal. Beyond Om’s impressive discography the selling point of “Pilgrimage” is that it was recorded and engineered by the great Steve Albini, known for his work on Nirvana’s “In Utero”, High on Fire’s “Blessed Black Wings” and many, many more.

The album opens with the title track, which is a strung out 10 minute mellow psych opus. Clean bass tone, Om trademarked chants and slow droning drums. Though the song itself is quite simple but it carries an unusual power.

The next two tracks really allows the listener to come to grips with Om’s sound, the dirty, crunchy bass, more strangely catchy chanting and heavy slow drumming. Furthermore compared to Om’s previous albums the bass work is much more complex… for lack of a better word, verbose.

The final track is just a shortened version of the opener, though it is a generally useless track since the full-length song is far from boring It gives the album on a whole a circular structure, which brings the album to a glorious close. Om continues to impress, and the tremendous work for Om and High on Fire one can only wonder, maybe Sleep’s demise was better for the evolution Doom/Drone metal.