In honor of darkangel's VERY long lived and multi installment threads about black metal, I thought I would start a thread about stoner metal, stoner rock, sludge, doom, or any type of heavy music that incorportates heavy guitars, lots of bass, and is generally slow paced (sometimes midtempo, but rarely ever fast).
I have flirted with the genre for quite a while, cutting my heavy metal teeth like most people on Black Sabbath, the pioneers of the genre, who so thoroughly defined it that most bands struggle to be anything more than just a Black Sabbath tribute band.
Many of the psychedelic bands of the late 60's also inspired the newest crop of "stoner metal" bands, like Blue Cheer:
...and Hawkwind:
Yes, that's Lemmy from Motorhead on vocals, he's bloody old.
And of course the obvious influence of all the heavy blues practitioners of the era like Led Zeppelin, et al.
A figure to remember in all of the discussion of the new wave of stoner rock is Scott "Wino" Weinrich. In one form or another he has been involved in making slow, heavy rock since the early 80's, and only now with the rise of the Southern Lord music label has he been getting recognition as godfather of stoner rock and the link from Black Sabbath to the present day.
In the early days he played with The Obsessed but left that band to join Saint Vitus:
He later went back to The Obsessed and recorded more stuff:
And is involved with other bands like Spirit Caravan:
Early Saint Vitus had an SST hardcore feel to it, where Spirit Caravan had a definite southern rock feel, showing the various influences creeping in next to the central Black Sabbath sound.
Some would also argue that Dylan Carlson, mastermind of the band Earth deserves as much credit for influencing the current stoner metal scene.
Dylan Carlson has the unfortunate distinction in music history as being the man who sold the shotgun to Kurt Cobain that he used to kill himself. It messed him up for a long time, but fortunately he came out of this funk and has produced many masterful recording under the Earth moniker.
The 90's showed a blossoming of interest in this sound in the wake of the collapse of grunge, with many bands releasing solid records. Just to show a few:
Yeah, that's Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age
WARNING: bad words
I can't possibly give a full accounting of stoner rock in a single post, but I hope these live clips give you some feel for the scope of the music. If you have favorite bands to recommend, or favorite clips to share, please do, I want to learn as much about this genre and what's available as possible.
I have flirted with the genre for quite a while, cutting my heavy metal teeth like most people on Black Sabbath, the pioneers of the genre, who so thoroughly defined it that most bands struggle to be anything more than just a Black Sabbath tribute band.
| + YouTube Video | |
Many of the psychedelic bands of the late 60's also inspired the newest crop of "stoner metal" bands, like Blue Cheer:
| + YouTube Video | |
...and Hawkwind:
| + YouTube Video | |
Yes, that's Lemmy from Motorhead on vocals, he's bloody old.
And of course the obvious influence of all the heavy blues practitioners of the era like Led Zeppelin, et al.
A figure to remember in all of the discussion of the new wave of stoner rock is Scott "Wino" Weinrich. In one form or another he has been involved in making slow, heavy rock since the early 80's, and only now with the rise of the Southern Lord music label has he been getting recognition as godfather of stoner rock and the link from Black Sabbath to the present day.
In the early days he played with The Obsessed but left that band to join Saint Vitus:
| + YouTube Video | |
He later went back to The Obsessed and recorded more stuff:
| + YouTube Video | |
And is involved with other bands like Spirit Caravan:
| + YouTube Video | |
Early Saint Vitus had an SST hardcore feel to it, where Spirit Caravan had a definite southern rock feel, showing the various influences creeping in next to the central Black Sabbath sound.
Some would also argue that Dylan Carlson, mastermind of the band Earth deserves as much credit for influencing the current stoner metal scene.
| + YouTube Video | |
Dylan Carlson has the unfortunate distinction in music history as being the man who sold the shotgun to Kurt Cobain that he used to kill himself. It messed him up for a long time, but fortunately he came out of this funk and has produced many masterful recording under the Earth moniker.
| + YouTube Video | |
The 90's showed a blossoming of interest in this sound in the wake of the collapse of grunge, with many bands releasing solid records. Just to show a few:
| + YouTube Video | |
Yeah, that's Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age
| + YouTube Video | |
WARNING: bad words
| + YouTube Video | |
I can't possibly give a full accounting of stoner rock in a single post, but I hope these live clips give you some feel for the scope of the music. If you have favorite bands to recommend, or favorite clips to share, please do, I want to learn as much about this genre and what's available as possible.
