Stoner Metal

This week on “Into the Pit: A Metal Blog” we are going to delve further into the underground realm of heavy metal music by discussing the stoner metal subgenre. Stoner metal is simply a more intense version of stoner rock music, and is a combination of heavy metal, psychedelic rock, and blues rock.
Stoner metal is in many ways very similar to both stoner rock and sludge metal, and bands that are given one label are frequently given the others as well. Sludge metal usually tends to avoid the heavy use of psychedelia though, which is very prominent in stoner metal.

Musically, stoner metal is characterized by its use of guitars that make use of psychedelic effects, such as feedback, wah wah, and fuzzboxes. The guitar sound is also almost always heavily distorted. Song structures are usually very complicated and often consist of unusual time signatures, extended instrumental jams, as well as drone sections.

Several bands such as Hawkwind, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and The Blue Oyster Cult helped to set the tone for the development of stoner metal. The biggest precursor to stoner rock though was the band, Blue Cheer. Blue Cheer was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and with their monumental debut, Vincebus Eruptum, they managed to really influence the onset of the stoner rock/metal movement of the 1990s.



Many metalheads around the world consider the first real stoner metal album to be Blues for the Red Sun by the band, Kyuss. Kyuss came out of the Palm Desert scene and shocked the world with their innovative sound. Kyuss put out several other legendary stoner metal albums such as Welcome to Sky Valley and …And The Circus Leaves Town. The band was led by guitarist, Josh Homme, who is now the frontman of the extremely successful hard rock band, Queens of the Stone Age. Homme has also recently participated in the band, Them Crooked Vultures, with Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. Kyuss has recently reformed without Homme and is touring under the name, Kyuss Lives!



Another major force during the 1990s stoner metal scene was the San Jose metal band, Sleep. Sleep was more heavily rooted in doom metal than Kyuss, and they are highly regarded for their very influential albums such as Sleep’s Holy Mountain, Jerusalem and Dopesmoker. Sleep eventually broke up and their guitarist, Matt Pike, received the most post-Sleep success with his highly acclaimed sludge metal band, High on Fire. In 2010, Sleep reunited and have played several shows since.



Stoner metal remained popular during the 1990s with other bands such as Monster Magnet, Goatsnake, and Orange Goblin building off of the success of Kyuss and Sleep. Today, stoner metal remains a very prolific scene, but has a large following of many devoted fans.