Chris Hakius has left the Om:


http://www.roadburn.com/frames.html

Hello Burners!
BREAKING NEWS: OM WITHDRAW FROM LONDON AND NETHERLANDS/ROADBURN SHOWS WITH CURRENT 93

"Om have regretfully had to pull out of the Roadburn and QEH shows that they were playing with Current 93 due to he sudden and unexpected departure of Om's drummer, Chris Hakius, from the group. Al Cisneros of Om and David Tibet of Current 93 are very saddened to announce this, but it was beyond their control."




edit: their site isn't working for me but this is what their myspace says:

Om is continuing forward with a new drummer and working on a new recording. Please check omvibratory.com and this page for updates. A live vinyl only LP "Om - Live at Jerusalem" will be forthcoming. This is Chris Hakius' final release with the group. I personally apologize to east coast fans who planned on coming out to the shows. Please know that Om will be back in your area later in 08. Thank you to all of you. Live dates resume in late spring. There is a LOT of new material on its way. Shrinebuilder is also forging ahead. See you all soon. -al
http://www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

That's a complete bummer, OM were in their peak and I've never seen live!


I saw High On Fire last december and they were brutal, a really intense show. Matt Pike is a monster on stage! My fav album of HoF is Surrounded by thieves.

oh shit!

can om still remain om without chris? i mean, half their sound came from chris and al's chemistry more than the sound.

and shrinebuilder will still go on, but with or without chris?

anyway, about the death... vinyl, i emailed relapse and they said they had a database crash and couldn't process some orders, but now they sent my copy.

sleep is the only band to have as equal influence to sabbath in the doom slooooooowwwww metal genre. its true. i slept on them so bad untill my trusty metal head younger bro (and my bass destroying trumpet screeching musical partner in crime, outta the 5 bands ive been in hes been in 4) put on dopesmoker for me in 01. it was christmas eve we were both in highschool and soooo bored so we got stoned, like real stoned, in this barn we used to have in the back of the house. we wanted to listen to records and chill afterwards, and he was like here put this on, i was like what the fuck is this? hes like well, you dig sabbath, neurosis etc.. right? and im like well yeah, so he put it on. i didnt speak through the whole duration of the song. and ive been hooked ever since. high on fire is great live and om puts out great records, but neither bands will ever top dopesmoker, holy mountain, or jerusalem. in the lineage of slayer, sabbath, earth, venom, obituary as truly innovative influential desvastatingly heay music.

shit! that sucks

i cant belive it though, i was at the jerusalem show!!!!
i was at the lst real OM show!!1 (with release anywease)
how can he play without chris though?
btw the jerusalem show was five hours long, it was insane
i didnt stay at the whole thing though...

man, i don't think another drummer can fill his shoes, but i hope i'm proved wrong

now this is bad news....good luck to Al, but that sucks.

My issue with the new album is they faded the songs too early...

wow, now I'm really glad I made the effort to see them the 4 times I did....

fugazifan: do you think they'll release the whole 5 hours (as a box set of course)?

---

is there another drummer that's as subtle as chris? like t&b says, here's to hoping.

my guess is no.
cause they played a few songs twice cause they knew that they where going to release it as an album....
they'll probably release an album with
like a 40 minute
flight of the eagle
and
at giza
and another song
or something like that.

yeah, it seems that way for them, to record a very long piece of music and then trim it down.

i think the irony of them playing in jerusalem wasn't lost on them...would it've kill them to invite matt and play dopesmoker? hahahaha.

so live in jerusalem was just released.

and yeah, i finally got death is this communion in vinyl (green) a few months back, pretty sweet.

Sleep are reforming for ATP.


Like, what the fuck and stuff.





Legendary stoner rock band Sleep split up in 1998 after releasing two hugely influential albums. Members went on to form underground heroes High On Fire and Om. They reform for two performances at ATP as a world exclusive that will never be repeated.

http://www.atpfestival.com/atp/Event...StrikeBack.php

thats credible but only if its the actual trio and the guy from Grails isn't playing drums.

I'm missing OM on monday because Dälek is playing in my former hometown the same day. Otherwise OM would be much more tempting as I've seen Dälek a year ago, but I can't deal with the cost and travelling that would be mandatory if I attended the OM gig.

Shit.

I've been meaning to get sleep albums ever since that gilbert -bloke introduced them to me around three years ago, but I haven't.
However, The Art of Self defence is pretty much a perfect album.

fuck yes dude, "IIIrd Gatekeeper" is my favorite Skullflower. I just said on here yesterday how it reminds me of Hawkwind being stripped down to a minimalist Noise-Drone unit while still maintaining that Psychedelic Drugged Out Scum sound that I love.

That said, Sleep is amazing. And Om's last albums have demanded repeated listens from me for some time. "Live In Jerusalem" is just dynamic. I really love Om dearly. High on Fire I used to dig but havn't listened to much recently. I like "Surrounded by Theives" though.

new Om drummer is weak

i disagree.

i've seen Om w/ both Chris and Emil. both have different styles, but i think both fit w/ what Al is trying to do.

i think al cisneros is a good enough bass player that it allows the new drummer to get away with being unremarkable, chris hakius's playing was far more intricate and complemented the bass excellently, whereas the new guy just keeps time & doesn't bring anything new to the table at all.

honestly, i feel the opposite...i thought Chris was rock solid laying down a solid framework, but intricate would be the last descriptive term i'd use, at least in the live setting...maybe i should re-visit the recordings to see what i missed.

ive seen them with the new drummer and dug it, though ive never seen them with the old drummer...not sure if i prefer one over the other...but shit was looouuuuudd