[Jeff Guidry]

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.

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Many of the psychedelic bands of the late 60's also inspired the newest crop of "stoner metal" bands, like Blue Cheer:

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...and Hawkwind:

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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:

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He later went back to The Obsessed and recorded more stuff:

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And is involved with other bands like Spirit Caravan:

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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.

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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.

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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:

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Yeah, that's Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age

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WARNING: bad words

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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.

 

[limpidglitch]

Funny, I had yet to realize that Hawkwind was stoner rock, always thought space rock, but of course you're right.

Probably my fav:

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[fuseboxx]

Oh great, I love this kind of music. Kyuss was my entry point to this (which is the same for a lot of people, I assume) and I think Blues for the Red Sun and Welcome to Sky Valley are great albums.

Colour Haze is another favorite band, which mixes the typical stoner sound with some heavy psychedelic grooves. Last year's release - All - was awesome.

Japanese band Boris' Akuma no Uta is also an album I love. I discovered it just recently and it has that stoner/sludge thing going on. Around the same time, I also discovered Om's Conference of the Birds, which is a very restrained and sublime stoner record.

On the more sludgy side of things, I tend to prefer the more atmospheric works and both Isis and Pelican were my entry points here. But two of the records I really ended up loving were Neurosis' Souls at Zero and Battle of Mice's A Day of Nights - heavy as frak.

And as far as doom goes, I'd hate to be cliche, but nothing really beats early Black Sabbath. Call them heavy metal or proto-doom or whatever... they pioneered the doom sound and are the best in creating it.

Some of the good recent releases I've heard are:

- Spiritus Mortis' The God Behind the God, which is Albert Witchfinder's new project after Reverend Bizarre disbanded. Pretty much the same traditional doom sound. Good stuff.

- Church of Misery's Houses of the Unholy, which is another great stoner album by a Japanses band.

- Kylesa's Static Tensions, which is a good stoner-meets-sludge release.

 

[Sabrage]

I always had trouble getting into stoner rock outside of Kyuss... Kylesa, Boris and Melvins (who I'm surprised to see left off of this) are all great, but outside of that I always find myself straying towards the heavier stuff, like Earth or Neurosis. If I could find more like Kyuss, I would definitely listen to the genre more, but nothing else seems to compare. I love that fuzzed-out super-bassy sound though.

 

[fuseboxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabrage /img/forum/go_quote.gif Earth

The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull kicks ass.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabrage /img/forum/go_quote.gif Melvins (who I'm surprised to see left off of this)

They aren't left off, it's just that I didn't intend my introductory post to be in any way comprehensive, as there is simply too much for a single post to encompass. I hope that others like yourself will come along and mention their favorties.

Melvins have been a favorite of mine since the early 90's and I have seen them live more than any other band.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuseboxx /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull kicks ass.

I like Dylan Carlson's newer stuff quite a bit more than the old Earth...yes, Earth 2 is a classic of the genre, but it verges a little too much into purely experimental/noise territory for me. I feel the same way about Sunn O))), Khanate, Burning Witch, etc., who actually take more from black metal and harsh noise/power electronics than they do from rock music. Boris in fact shares more with their Japanoise cousins like KK Null, Incapacitants, Melt Banana, with their more punk and hardcore influences. Boris slows it down in keeping with the current post rock craze.

Here is an old clip of KK Null performing with Merzbow:

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...and here is Merzbow with Boris (sorry, couldn't find any live tracks):

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[elbuzzard]

one of the seminal bands of the 90s stoner scene is SLEEP.
their album Holy Mountain on Earache records is one of the catalysts to the stoner revival of the 90s. Matt pike later went on to start High on Fire. Al Sicsneros and Chris Hakius started the 2 piece stoner groove drone band Om.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Just got in a clutch of new CD's yesterday:

OM Variations on a Theme
OM Conference of the Birds
OM and Current 93 Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun EP
Saint Vitus Born Too Late
Trouble Psalm 9

I've listened to the Saint Vitus, great classic rock/Sabbath-y vibe to it with Wino's distant, pained vocals, a classic of the genre. OM's efforts are just amazing, with the rarely shifting bass attack hypnotizing the listener into an ecstatic state, just amazing stuff, and even with only slight variations in the attack, it makes for and engaging listen.

Haven't had a chance to listen to the Trouble CD yet, I'll report back later.

Also, OM has a new CD out on Drag City records called God is Good. You can get an mp3 or FLAC download in addition to the vinyl or CD release.

I can't stress enough how much I like OM and how important I think they are to the whole stoner metal revival, adding a much needed uplifting spiritual context to the usual booze, partying and "devil worship" aspect of typical metal, a great antidote to all that silliness IMO.

 

[elbuzzard]

@jeff

nice! I have the first 2 Om records and they are addicting.
for some reason i dont get bored listening to the same riff over and over!

check out SLEEPs final record DOPESMOKER or the original version called JERUSALEM. Sort of the precursor to the Om calalogue IMO. There is a whole back story of this one song opus. Ill need that new Om too.....if you havent checked out stonerrock.c0m yet there is alot of info there.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Yes, I have already "followed the smoke into the riff-filled land".

Though I forgot about stonerrock.com, thanks for reminding me.

 

[terrymx]

Not much into this genre, but I recommend Starchild and SlowHorse, both disbanded.

Starchild - Earthless free here: http://www.hellridemusic.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=9072
YouTube - Starchild - The Futurist

Slow Horse on MySpace (there is one copy available on gemm.com)

I would consider Esoteric's debut album Epistemological Despondency as having stoner elements aside from being funeral doom, but I really can't recommend it since it can be quite unpleasant to listen to.

Hopefully this won't offend too many people: BO)))RING

 

[Jeff Guidry]

LO)))L I think Sunn O))) is pretty tedious myself, frankly they are a noise/experimental outfit and really aren't a rock band at all IMO. But I don't want this thread to get genrefied and hung up on definitions, so I won't mind if so-called post rock bands or noise bands or anything else gets mentioned so long as they have a rock basis to them and are relatively slow tempoed and feature bassy sounds. Sunn O))) uses the raw materials of rock (guitars, pedals and amplifiers) to make their sounds and explore the territory of raw power in their music rather than any other rock consideration like riff, rhythm, lyric, etc. and so have a place in the whole discussion of stoner rock, albeit on its fringe.

 

[elbuzzard]

a few others that i like are:

Dead Meadow a 3 piece from Washington DC. Heavy blues psychadelic with some whiny vox.

Earthlessanother 3 piece from southern California. Heavy blues psychadelic featuring the drumming of Mario Rubalcaba from Clickitakiktowi and Rocket from the Crypt.

Drunk Horse from San Francisco. More Rock and Roll than stoner.


of course the Melvins.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

There's another thread started by sknight entitled "doom metal" that may have recommendations that those interested in this thread may find valuable too. Bumping this one so that people will see both, and hopefully keep one or the other alive.