Before he reached rockstar status with Queens of the Stone Age Josh Homme was in a little stoner metal band
called Kyuss. In QotSA Homme handles both lead guitar and
singing duties, however, in his Kyuss days,
at the tender age of 15 to 22 he was just
a young phenom guitarist. Though the
band is filled with highly talented stalwart performers, I think Homme’s unique
guitar tone, which he achieved by playing through a bass amp, is what gives the
band their dirty, dusty, desert sound that makes them a completely unique
entity in the metal genre.
Kyuss is one of
those bands that somehow never quite reached the level of recognition they
deserved, and in fact, are sadly mostly obscure, which is crazy given how
awesome this band is. Though their
entire catalog is worth giving a listen to, my favorite is
their third album, Welcome to Sky
Valley.
Maybe the band didn’t want
to get big, because they didn’t do themselves any favors or make this album very accessible due to the fact that they lumped their songs together on
this album three per-track, which makes listening to an individual song a bit
of a pain in the ass. As an
full-album-or-nothing guy I don’t have such a problem with this, but I can see
how it would really bother a lot of people.
With Welcome to Sky Valley, Kyuss achieved a unique sound that others have tried to duplicate, but failed. Homme's guitars have a low trudgey tone that induces instant head banging. The bass thunders, and when you add in the drums you get a unique heavy sound that feels slow, but actually moves along at a pretty fast pace.
The only caveat here is that vocalist's John Garcia's voice is a bit of an acquired taste. His range is quite limited, but he never tries to go outside of his comfort zone and if you do enjoy his voice, then it is no sweat.
Criminally under-listened, Kyuss may just be the best band not many folks of heard of. If you aren't already a listener, remedy that ASAP. Every song on Welcome to Sky Valley is an incredible piece of desert metal magnificence, and unique sounding. So get out there, get your hands on Welcome to Sky Valley and branch out from there. Enjoy!
Check out the Demon Cleaner video...Sorry, I wasn't able to embed it!
With Welcome to Sky Valley, Kyuss achieved a unique sound that others have tried to duplicate, but failed. Homme's guitars have a low trudgey tone that induces instant head banging. The bass thunders, and when you add in the drums you get a unique heavy sound that feels slow, but actually moves along at a pretty fast pace.
The only caveat here is that vocalist's John Garcia's voice is a bit of an acquired taste. His range is quite limited, but he never tries to go outside of his comfort zone and if you do enjoy his voice, then it is no sweat.
Criminally under-listened, Kyuss may just be the best band not many folks of heard of. If you aren't already a listener, remedy that ASAP. Every song on Welcome to Sky Valley is an incredible piece of desert metal magnificence, and unique sounding. So get out there, get your hands on Welcome to Sky Valley and branch out from there. Enjoy!
Check out the Demon Cleaner video...Sorry, I wasn't able to embed it!
No comments:
Post a Comment