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Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep.
Rolling Stone claims, "What stoner rock delivers, slowed down and magnified, is the riff, the persistent legacy of Mississippi blues. Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were the first to make a monolith of it." Sir Lord Baltimore were called "the godfathers of stoner rock" by Classic Rock magazine, who went on to state that Leaf Hound have been cited for influencing countless bands in the stoner rock movement, including Kyuss and Monster Magnet. James Manning of Time Out London recognises The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" as "laying the foundations for stoner rock with the relentlessly spiralling outro".
Buffalo's 1973 sophomore release Volcanic Rock has been "heralded as the first great stoner rock record," the song Sunrise (Come My Way) "has since been shamelessly cannibalized for its parts by more stoner-rock bands than you can shake a bong at," and the songs Till My Death and The Prophet have been likened to later stoner rock. Primevil's album Smokin' Bats at Campton's has been called a "touchstone" of stoner rock. Jim DeRogatis has said that stoner rock bands are "reaching back for inspiration to the psychedelic, proto-metallic jamming of bands like Cream, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Hawkwind."
According to DeRogatis, the roots of stoner rock can be heard on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality, Hawkwind's 25 Years On 1973–1977 box set, the aforementioned Blue Cheer album, Deep Purple's Machine Head and Blue Öyster Cult's Workshop of the Telescopes. The 1970s California-based supergroup Captain Beyond have also been described as "pioneers" of stoner rock. Black Sabbath's Master of Reality is often cited as the first album of the genre,Steve Taylor, A to X of Alternative Music, Continuum, 2006, p.199Steven Rosen, Black Sabbath – Uncensored On the Record, Coda Books, 2011 and Martin Popoff states: "When 'Sweet Leaf' kicks in, one witnesses simultaneously the invention of stoner rock".Martin Popoff, The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time, Ecw Press, 2002, p.132 Allmusic summarizes this unique fusion as follows: "Stoner metal bands updated the long, mind-bending jams and ultra-heavy riffs of bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Blue Öyster Cult, and Hawkwind by filtering their psychedelia-tinged metal and acid rock through the buzzing sound of early Sub Pop–style grunge." However, Kyuss members Josh Homme and John Garcia have shrugged off the heavy metal influence, and instead cite punk rock and hardcore punk, particularly the sludgy hardcore of Black Flag's album My War as influences.
During the early to mid-1990s, a number of southern-California bands developed the style that would be called stoner rock. In 1992, Kyuss emerged from the Palm Desert Scene with Blues for the Red Sun. Critics have hailed it as "a major milestone in heavy music," while NME described their music as an attempt to figuratively melt "a hundredweight of hot desert sand into metal". Kyuss – Muchas Gracias: The Best Of – Album Reviews – NME.COM In 1992, San Jose doom metal band Sleep released their album Sleep's Holy Mountain, and along with Kyuss were heralded by the heavy metal press as leaders of the emerging stoner scene. These two bands were among the first to introduce a psychedelic groove to their doom metal-influenced sound. Kyuss biography A year earlier, New Jersey's Monster Magnet released their debut album Spine of God, which displayed fewer metal influences but was psychedelic and sludgy, in the vein of their California peers. Together with these three bands, southern-Californians Fu Manchu, who released their eponymous album in 1994, are credited with being "one of the most enduring and influential bands" of the genre. In 1994, San Francisco's Acid King and Britain's Acrimony released their debut albums, both of which adopted this psychedelic approach to doom metal. Though more closely associated with the grunge movement (which itself sometimes influenced, was influenced by, and occasionally overlapped with stoner rock), Soundgarden has also been cited as "stoner metal" or influential on the stoner rock genre, with their 1994 album Superunknown being described as a "stoner rock classic". Other influential bands from this era include Clutch, Sons of Otis and Corrosion of Conformity. Leafhound Records – Acrimony biography
MeteorCity soon signed a number of musicians and bands from the Palm Desert Scene, including Hermano, Unida and emerging Swedish stoner rock bands such as Lowrider, Dozer and The Mushroom River Band. During this time, The Hidden Hand and Spirit Caravan also began to gain popularity within the developing scene.
Songs for the Deaf, their next release in 2002, included a single from the album peaking at No. 1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks. Another label focusing on the international stoner rock scene was Small Stone Records, which released a number of compilation albums of stoner rock bands doing covers of 1970s music, including (2000), Sucking the 70's (2002), and Sucking the 70's – Back in the Saddle Again (2006).
In 2002, the Orquesta del Desierto was formed featuring key members of the major desert rock bands and released two albums.
In 2009, the magazines Decibel and Terrorizer released issues featuring a list of the 100 greatest and most important albums of the 2000s, respectively. The stoner band Electric Wizard's Dopethrone was featured on both lists, being placed 10th on Decibel's list and 1st on the Terrorizer's one."100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade", Decibel Special Collector's Edition."Terrorizer's Secret History #2", Terrorizer Souvenir Issue.
Since Kyuss' break-up, the success of the bandmates' other projects has caused the Kyuss back catalog to become more widely listened to and their fanbase has inevitably swelled. The sound has been continued on by directly descendant bands Unida, Slo Burn, Hermano, Mondo Generator, Fu Manchu, Brant Bjork and the Bros, and at times by Queens of the Stone Age, who have since largely departed from Kyuss' stoner rock sound, and reject the label, preferring the term "desert rock".
Mainstream exposure (2000–present)
(active since 1993) performing live at Hole in the Sky 2008]]In June 2000, Josh Homme's new project Queens of the Stone Age released their breakthrough album Rated R, which helped bring the stoner rock sound into the mainstream, despite the band themselves rejecting both the genre and being labeled as such. QOTSA Reviews| 1999/11/24-Jam!: He Ain't Joshin
The European scene: stoner rock and beyond
As acknowledged by Dave Wyndorf, the lead singer of Monster Magnet, in a 2015 interview: "Europe is really good for psychedelic music." So much so that some US stoner rock bands will even choose to tour Europe rather than North America. Founded by a French aficionado of stoner rock, the website MoreFuzz.net has been a big promoter of the stoner rock scene in Europe and internationally. Stoner rock bands in Europe, much like their North American counterparts, mix elements of heavy rock music with psychedelia and acid rock. The influence of Black Sabbath or Blue Cheer can be heard – among other examples – in bands such as the Swedish Graveyard and the German Kadavar. Instrumental stoner rock bands such as Karma to Burn are rare in the US but are more frequent in Europe.
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