AN INTRODUCTION TO STONER ROCK
In (Ten Of) My Favorite Albums
Some time in high school, I was introduced to the genre of “stoner rock”; ironically when I was completely straight edge and the most intoxicated I had ever been was when I stayed up past midnight and got high on the sleep deprivation that followed.
For those unfamiliar, “stoner rock” is a blanket term draped over a wide-range of “heavy” music. It is mostly derived from the hard rock, metal, psychedelic, and overall experimental worship of sonic excess of the late 60’s and early 70’s; with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, Vanilla Fudge, Leaf Hound, Cream, and Deep Purple and many many more bands being some of the first pioneers. In a way it can be seen as the logical progression from the first people that dared to turn their amps up as loud as possible and bask in the feedback and distortion caused by such irresponsible usage of electronic power, the previously mentioned bands included. There are also numerous off-shoots and intersecting genres including “doom metal”, “space rock”, “desert rock”, “acid rock”, “sludge”, and “whatever the hell Task Force Freedom is making”. Because of this, while the genre is often described as “slow to mid-tempo with heavy distortion and groove-laden bass sounds”, there is a lot of variance within the genre for those that listen close enough; and, to be honest, the genre is also incredibly hard to define, with many “stoner rock” musicians discrediting the label and “stoner rock” music differing widely across the genre.
However, as the name suggests, it’s also music that is popular with fried metalheads who like to blast this music while they pull some tubes. While my own usage of illicit substances is a private and unimportant matter, discovering this genre was hugely influential in my musical life and has shaped my own creations. While the sound is often described with various buzzwords, like “heavy” or “fuzzy” or “psychedelic”, I think it is best understood by picking up a guitar, cranking it as loud and distorted as possible, and hitting a big power chord; that incredibly strong resonance blasting your ears will instantly change how you perceive music. And it’s that base idea that is translated to all the instruments in stoner rock; you simply love the sound of them and want to sink deeper and deeper into that sound. Whether it’s the splash of a cymbal, the fuzz of a guitar tone, or the thump of a single bass note, you just want to craft those sounds into a groove so undeniable that you can play it again and again and harder and louder and completely immerse into the murky waters.
But for those that can’t do that, here is a selection of stoner rock albums that I personally love. Crank them as loud as possible and may they change your life or at least make your ears bleed, or maybe both.
MASTER OF REALITY - BLACK SABBATH (1971)
While, as previously mentioned, there are many bands that contributed to the stoner rock movement, this album is generally accepted as the foundation, the first step, the origin; 10 post-rip coughs followed by one of the most perfectly heavy riffs ever created by the hands of mortals with a song proclaiming one’s love for the herb, and music was never the same. I’ve already, and will continue to at any given chance, rave about Black Sabbath, but this album in particular has an extremely strong influence on yet another genre created by Sabbath. While their first two albums created heavy metal (among a handful of sub-genres), this album blew a big cloud of smoke into it and made it a whole new thing; they infused it with a head-spinning groove and experimental psychedelia.
The playing of every member of the band, and the production of the entire album, laid the corner stones for every stoner rock album that would come after. Every move used by Sabbath on this album, including song structures, guitar down-tuning, riff ingredients, bass tones, drum patterns, production techniques, and even the very tone of the vocals or the color and font of the album cover, has been repeated, copied, used as inspiration, and straight up ripped off by hundreds of other bands; and even if they didn’t know it, they were probably ripping it from a band that ripped it from a band that ripped it from Sabbath.
Even tracks like “Embryo”, “Orchid”, and “Solitude” solidified the playbook for the genre being more than just distorted guitar and heavy rhythm sections; they opened the door for an ironically lighter side of heavy music. Black Sabbath had utilized similar ideas on their previous albums, but the usage in the context of Master of Reality firmly planted it into the zeitgeist of the genre. Many bands in following projects would include hauntingly beautiful acoustic interludes and trippy, heartfelt songs in between their heavier songs; basically derived from those three songs.
Have I made my point clear or do I need to create a whole lecture series on Black Sabbath?
Favorite Tracks: Lord of this World, Solitude, Into the Void
BLUES FOR THE RED SUN - KYUSS (1992)
Following Sabbath, the next two bands that more officially made stoner rock a genre came with Sleep and Kyuss. I could write quite a lot about this album, but frankly, you should just listen and discover for yourself. What I want to point out instead, is the poor commercial performance of this album, which is indicative of this genre at large; it only sold 39,000 units. When Nevermind came out, the initial shipment had 46,000 units and it would later go on to sell 10 million (an unbelievable and deserving amount for that album). Something I love about stoner rock is how relatively unknown and underappreciated it is. This album, Blues for the Red Sun, was a milestone in stoner rock, heavy metal, and the greater rock scene, and it didn’t even make it on a single chart (except when it peaked at 26th on the “Hungarian Physical Albums” chart in 2023, 31 years later).
Further, it planted the mental seed for future bands to create album-centric projects; songs that meld into one another and a certain vibe that is created by listening to the album as a whole. This is a carry-over from stoner rock’s primitive roots of the late 60’s/early 70’s psychedelic and hard rock era, in my eyes specifically Led Zeppelin’s overtly album-focused approach, but Kyuss’ usage on this album helped firmly plant it into the style of stoner rock.
Much like Sabbath and Zeppelin, there are no joke innumerable bands that have been influenced by this album; from the style to the production to the equipment used to every little friggin detail, it has influenced heavy music ever since it came out. *That one part around 3 minutes into 50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up) just came on and I have to turn it up and literally hangbang my chair around while I shred the air guitar; such a tasty jam* (My roommate just asked if I made this song… dude, I wish I did).
Ok I’m back. Essentially this album kicks ass and, like Black Sabbath’s entire career, is greatly underappreciated; the kind of album that seems to come from another realm or higher power or something I don’t know the word for. Turn it to 11 and headbang your nose into your steering wheel until it bleeds onto your work clothes.
Favorite Tracks: Molten Universe, 50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up), Writhe, Mondo Generator
CLUTCH - CLUTCH (1995)
First off, the production on this entire album is tremendous; every time I listen, I hear something new. There are layers and layers of sounds and perfectly executed studio tricks that make this album a swirling concoction of spaced out beauty; backwards solos and drum tracks, strange distant noises buried in the mix, doubled and echoed vocals, songs that bleed into each other, fading and panning techniques, great mixing; just a complete package.
Further, this front to back phenomenal album is unique in the genre for being a certain style rather particular to Clutch. While it has memorable fuzzy riffs on top of heavy basslines and hard drumming that carry every song, the themes and way in which the core ideas of stoner rock are applied seem almost specific to this album. There’s songs called “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth” and “Texan Book of the Dead” and lyrics about paranoid government conspiracists, sea shanties, and… to be honest, half the time I barely know. Like what the hell does this mean:
Hauled ass to Memphis, I spoke to the Pharaoh
He told me his dreams, I counted the sparrows
Steve McQueen got nothing on me
I'll take you back west of Pleiades
I have no clue, but damn it sounds hard when Neil Fallon is on the mic. He was about 24 at the time of recording this album but had a voice that literally sounded like a gravel road; he could make just about anything sound so cool. Even something so ridiculous as:
One for the money, two for the show
And a knick knack paddy whack
Give the lord a handicap
Ooh ee ooh ah ah
Twing twang walla walla bing bang
B-I-N-G-O
E-I-E-I-O
sounds like the hardest lines ever when he’s yelling them over crazy heavy, spaced out grooves.
Even the obligatory nod to that creative force of a plant, Spacegrass, is done in their own weird style, with lyrics about cruising through “Galaxy 500” in a “Dodge Swinger 1973, top down, chassis low” with “Jesus on the dashboard” while the “planets align” and a “Jupiter cyclops winks at me” because “yeah, he knows who's driving.”
The whole album just sounds like the sonification of a grizzled sailor with a beard down to his belt slamming a glass of whiskey and deadlifting 500 pounds while smoking a number and chest hair literally grows with every rep.
Favorite Tracks: Rock n’ Roll Outlaw, Escape from the Prison Planet, The House that Peterbilt, 7 Jam
COME MY FANATICS… - ELECTRIC WIZARD (1997)
Enter the doom… One of the few bands that can rightfully call themselves heavy, Electric Wizard overtly carried the torch lit by Sabbath, even naming themselves by mashing two Sabbath songs together (Electric Funeral & The Wizard). Despite their long career and multiple line-up changes, they’re most known for their genre defining Dopethrone, and for good reason. That album is disgustingly heavy and contains some of the most well-known riffs in heavy metal to date. However, I, ever the contrarian, have a certain affinity to the preceding album, Come My Fanatics…
While conceptually it is similar to Clutch’s self-titled, having astronomical themes and long jams with layers of sounds, Electric Wizard does away with any notion of hope and weirdness; instead opting for nihilism, the occult, and impending death and disaster. For example, the second verse on the album is:
I hope this fuckin' world fuckin' burns away
And I'd kill you all if I had my way
But I'll live forever, questions curse me why
Oh, Lord above, why won't you let me die?
followed by sounds I imagine are akin to how it feels to be spaghettified, sans the close proximity to a black hole, accompanied by horrific screams of agony and despair…
Coming in at 50 minutes with only six songs, it sounds like every bad thought you’ve ever had running through your mind at the same time while you unknowingly become more and more intoxicated on a psychedelic someone slipped you; it’s awesome. The thing is, once you get past the head-splitting heaviness, you can actually hear some incredible musicianship. The bass and guitar both have tones so beautifully ugly that it seems as though, as YouTube commenters say, they can “open a void” and “crush your hopes and dreams”, the drumming does a perfect job of accenting the riffs while keeping everything interesting with seemingly constant fills, and the studio production adds a depth of strange, unearthly sounds to the mix.
This album also furthered the poor commercial performance and generally underground nature of stoner rock. While it is often sited as a major turning point in the doom metal scene, an album where nothing was the same after its release, it made no charts in its home country of the UK and has only made it on one chart, coming in at 28th in Finland in 2011, 14 years after its release.
If you’re missing my point on this one, watch this, crank it up, witness the drummer hit those filthy triplets, see the crowd snap their own necks, and feel the weight.
Sidenote: This is one of my go-to “sleep on an airplane” albums because it pairs well with the sound of twin jet engines 15 feet from your head. I have no idea what is wrong with me…
Favorite Tracks: Return Trip, Doom Mantia, Ivixor B
THE ACTION IS GO - FU MANCHU (1997)
The album cover says it all with this one; within 50 seconds, you will feel like that guy absolutely shredding a bowl. While many stoner rock bands keep their heaviness at a slower BPM, Fu Manchu shows the skater/surfer influence of stoner rock with an infusion of punk rock and head-bangingly danceable grooves. This album meanders through straight-up punk, heavy metal, and just juicy psychedelic jams, all driven by the perfect drumming of Brant Bjork (previously of Kyuss) and lead guitar of Bob Balch. Sans the “doom” aspect of the genre, this album retains its heaviness with a much more energetic vibe and right-down-the-barrel rock sound.
Favorite Tracks: Burning Road, Grendel, Snowman, Saturn III, Nothing Done
18 AD - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (1997)
While this is just one song, this song goes hard; and is also off the album Burn One Up! Music for Stoners, a compilation album which is often credited with coining the term “stoner rock”. In many ways, this song epitomizes many core tenets of the genre: a heavy riff-driven sound with strange, repetitive vocals, a thick, full bass sound that carries the song, and groovy drums. I wish Josh Homme (previously of Kyuss) had taken this one song and made it into an entire album.
Favorite Track: 18 AD
SLO BURN - AMUSING THE AMAZING (1997)
This was actually one of my first introductions to the genre, as usual courtesy of my uncle, and it holds a special little place in my heart; I remember jogging around the track in high school late at night while listening to this on my iPod touch from a torrent I had ripped off the internet.
This is a lesser known, as the band only made one demo tape and one EP, but nonetheless great leaf in the stoner rock tree. Fronted by John Garcia (formerly of Kyuss), Slo Burn followed a straight-forward hard rocking, riff-driven approach with a tinge of desert punk. While it may lack some of the dynamics and sonic complexity of other stoner rock projects, and only consists of four songs, I kind of love how these four guys jammed this hard and then just disbanded to do other stuff. It was such a short chapter in the tome of stoner rock but shows how many hidden gems there are to discover.
Favorite Tracks: The Prizefighter, Muezli, Pilot the Dune, July
JALAMANTA - BRANT BJORK (1999)
Already making two appearances on this list, drumming on Blues for the Red Sun and The Action is Go, Brant’s debut solo album is a notable addiction to the genre. Recorded in a week-long session, Brant talentedly contributed drums, guitars, bass, percussion, vocals, painting, photography, and layout for this album (along with help from Mario Lalli of the desert rock pioneers Across the River, Yawning Man, and Fatso Jetson). With such a singular vision behind the project, it shows a specific sound hidden within the stoner rock, and specifically desert rock, scene. Remember what I said about just loving the sound of an instrument and wanting to sink deeper into it? This album does that but instead of the sound of a distorted power chord getting mashed, it’s the tink of a ride cymbal. Displaying a drum-driven sound, the songs give a more laid-back, stripped-down view of what stoner rock can be; with much less noisy distortion and bone-crushing tones, this album deviates from the now-defining core of stoner rock. However, despite this, it still holds true to the general vibe of the genre. The repetitive, trippy songs give that sense of meditative, jammy, all-encompassing sound that the genre derives its ethos from.
Sidenote: I once met Brant Bjork. I was seeing him play in a small venue in Boston and when I walked in, the guy in front of me dropped his drink ticket. I picked it up and said, “Hey man, I think you dropped this.” The guy turned around and in the chillest voice I’ve ever heard, said, “Thanks man, you can keep it.” I realized it was Brant and was immediately star-struck, the only time in my life I have ever been. I think I said, “Are yo - you’re Brant!?!”, and shook his hand, but I blacked out like Will Ferrell in Old School and barely remember. I do remember it being a sick show though.
Favorite Tracks: Lazy Bones, Cobra Jab, Too Many Chiefs…Not Enough Indians, Low Desert Punk
DOPESMOKER - SLEEP (1996-2022)
This might be the stoner rock album. An album consisting of one hour long song; one song of chugging power chords playing riffs so long you don’t even realize when they repeat, punctuated by ripping solos, a tremendously heavy rhythm section, and lyrics about a Weedian caravan trekking through the desert to The Holy Land; this song is a pilgrimage. Remember what I said earlier about hitting a huge power chord and letting its resonance change your entire life? That’s what this whole album is. The band’s custom-built amps were designed to be so loud, no one was capable of going into the same room as them… Multiple times, I have sat in complete silence and listened to this entire epic; like an ancient Gregorian chant, it has a way of hypnotizing the listener and sending you into parts of your brain you did not know existed.
Favorite Tracks: Dopesmoker (0:00, 14:00, 38:50)
CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS - OM (2006)
While Dopesmoker was a monumental album in the stoner rock canon, record label squabbles would stifle its release (with about 6 different versions having been released over 26 years) and subsequently lead to the temporary breakup of Sleep. Matt Pike would take his blistering guitar talents to High on Fire, showcasing the aggressive and punishing high end of Sleep, while Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius would maintain as a rhythm unit and form Om, displaying the meditative, interfaith (ironically synonymous with the term “omnism”) undertones that had, and would continue to, substantiated Sleep’s discography.
Consisting of only two songs, At Giza and Flight of the Eagle, this album clocks in at over half an hour. While their debut album dove heavily into the worship of distorted sonic excess, and their later albums would explore the religious aspect of their style while introducing different instruments and musicians, Conference of the Birds sits right in the middle; it blends both sides of Om, while staying true to their stripped down roots. They were able to create complete sonic journeys with just two people using three modes of noise: bass, drums, and vocals. And it’s this simplicity of form that allowed them to execute it with incredible talent and complexity; because they had limited tools to work with, they were able to explore the worlds contained within. I also verge on arguing that this album captures the overall ethos behind the stoner rock genre; using your instruments to create a trance that makes you want to sink deeper into the sounds, thereby furthering the trance-like state.
Sidenote: the live version of At Giza from Live Conference includes one of the greatest jams of all time, starting around 36 minutes in (on the album), although you need the entire song for the proper context and build-up. Also, listen for that one guy in the crowd who yells out “YEAH!” The ability to inspire a human to react in such a way with just bass and drums is noteworthy.
I also find it necessary to include the bonus track, Bedouin's Vigil, originally from the split 7-inch with Six Organs of Admittance, Split, but also included on the Japanese release. Coming in an uncharacteristically short four and a half minutes, this song encapsulates a condensed and easier to digest form of the incredibly amplified low-end and behemoth take on holy connection that Om created in their prime years. Singing of an archaic style, akin to ancient orthodox chanting, hovers over a bass and drum track that sounds like otherworldly armies marching onto the field of battle.
I recommend you experience their world on a solitary day with plenty of sunshine and clouds to admire and ponder.
Favorite Tracks: At Giza (13:00), Flight of the Eagle
There are numerous more tremendous albums in this genre; too many for me to include. This is but the tip of the green iceberg, from a personal selection of favorites; hopefully I have done a half-way decent job of encapsulating this genre. For those that so choose, may you enjoy the smoke filled land we explore.