The Sabians

The Sabians
The Sabians.
Background information
Origin	Oakland, California, USA
Genres	Doom Metal, Hard Rock
Years active	1999 - 2004
Labels	The Music Cartel
Associated acts	Sleep, Om, Shrinebuilder, Shiny Empire, Quick And The Dead
Website	Facebook
Current members	Justin Marler Patrick Huerta Rachel Hakius Chris Hakius

The Sabians were a band active from 1999 to roughly 2004. Notably it served as the first musical project involving former Sleep guitarist Justin Marler since a seven-year stint as an Orthodox monk. It also featured former Sleep drummer Chris Hakius in his first musical stint after Sleep's dissolution in 1997. However, the band itself follows more of a hard rock sound with hints of doom metal in a drastic departure from Sleep's signature stoner metal sound.

The band is named after a religious group who lived in southern Mesopotamia.

History

The Sabians were formed in 1999 by Justin Marler and Chris Hakius (At the time of the band's creation temporarily retired from music and actively working as a truck driver.) after Marler had served a lengthy stint as an Orthodox monk serving in Alaska and Russia, at some point creating a counter-culture zine titled "Death To The World". Notably, the last time Marler and Hakius performed together was on Sleep's album "Volume One" in 1991. Patrick Huerta would join as a lead guitarist and after working through a series of bassists Rachel Fisher (Chris Hakius' wife) would join as the band's bassist. Justin Marler and Chris Hakius spoke of the band's creation in an early interview:

“	“Well, its not a myth, well not really. After I left Sleep in '91, I went to a Russian Orthodox Monastery near Redding. It's not in the hills of Humboldt, but its near Redding. I lived in the monastery for seven years and went to Alaska and lived in a monastery there for quite awhile. Just two and half or three years ago, I came out of the monastery and joined up with Chris again to play music. So it wasn't a commune, it was a monastery.”	”
	— Justin Marler, Panache

“	“Well, we recorded "Holy Mountain" and toured on it. Then we went and recorded "Jerusalem" Album. Justin was only on Volume 1 though because then he went to the monastery. So after "Jerusalem" we called it quits as Sleep. Then I quit for about two years. Then Justin called me up and said he wanted to do a project like we're doing now. "Yeah, I was in retirement from playing drums. I just drive a big rig, and I play drums again now. Then Matt hooked us up with studio space because its really hard to find a place to practice in the Bay Area. So we shared a studio with High On Fire. That's at the point where we met Patrick who became our lead guitar player. And our latest and final bass player is Rachel. She's really talented. This is our second show with her...”	”
	— Chris Hakius, Panache

Early on the band performed around the California area, releasing a demo titled "Empty The Heart" before getting signed by The Music Cartel in 2001. A tour of the west coast with Totimoshi would follow sometime after along with recording their debut album "Beauty For Ashes" with Alex Newport. A second album titled "Shiver" would follow in 2003. However, roughly around 2004 The Sabians would disband. Justin Marler would end up moving to Austin, Texas and follow up by forming the bands Shiny Empire and Quick And The Dead. Chris Hakius would rejoin former Sleep bandmate Al Cisneros in Om before retiring from music in 2008 to raise a family.

Members

• Justin Marler - Guitar, Vocals (1999 - 2004)
• Patrick Huerta - Guitar (1999 - 2004)
• Rachel Fisher - Bass (1999 - 2004)
• Chris Hakius - Drums (1999 - 2004)

Discography

• Beauty For Ashes (2002, The Music Cartel)
• Shiver (2003, The Music Cartel)

List of Known Tours

• 2001 West Coast Tour (With Totimoshi) (2001)
• 2002 Shows (2002)
• Shiver North American Tour (2003)

Links

• Archived Website
• Archived Flash Intro for Shiver
• Utter Trash interview with Justin Marler.
• 2002 Interview via Cosmic Lava