Kyuss

styles: hardcore rock, heavy metal
others: Fu Manchu, Negative Creep

Welcome to Sky Valley
Elektra, 1994
rating: 8.0
reviewer: dunc

Some people may argue that Welcome to Sky Valley is the best Kyuss album. Me? I’m not sure. Definitely seems more ambitious. Widescreen, panoramic; much bigger sound -- heavier. However, it is not so catchy. The liner notes say to listen without distraction. There are subtleties in the sound; atmospheres which can only be picked up with repeated listens. It seems more based around "the blues jam in the desert" than Blues for the Red Sun.

For me, some of the tracks seem a bit long and ponderous. But having said this, these songs are still miles better than virtually everything else in this genre. Maybe because Blues for the Red Sun is so amazing, that I think of this album as a bit of a disappointment. As I write this review, "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop" plays; the ending is short blasts of guitar sound for about 15 seconds.

It's important to note that this record is split into 3 "acts". "100 Degrees" starts the 2nd section briskly, then breaks into chili-esque funky interlude before returning to the chorus. Next up, on "Space Cadet", a psychadelic intro is followed by expansive lyrics. Maybe the idea is to start off fast then go down into introspective mode. After all, this is stoner rock. This would work for stoners. But I get bored with some tracks half way through and skip ahead.

The next track, "Demon Cleaner", starts promisingly: "I’ve got the demons in me, I’ve got to brush them all away." This is Kyuss at their best. Before you know it, "Demon Cleaner" ends prematurely. The last section starts again introspectively before launching into heavy riffage: "Take one to the mountain, take one to the sea, take one to the belly of the beast, then take one to me."

Next track, "Odyssey", is an obvious highlight on the album. It is a monster of a track. Renew the faith. Kyuss are best when they don’t mind sounding like rock dinosaurs and just point there speakers to the sun and guzzle down all the excess. I have just realized that the vocals sound similar to Ian Astbury’s out of the Cult. "I wake up tomorrow today, I could be dead, I live my life alone, never going home, just like she said, It’s just a song to sing." Watch out for the scatological bonus track. I guess it’s offensive.

Welcome to Sky Valley is an epic record with some obviously great compositions. So, if you’ve got a week to waste and the refreshments to aid the wound, go ahead. But I couldn’t recommend it to people checking out Kyuss for the first time. I’d stand by Blues for the Red Sun until the end of time. That’s what this record sounds like. The end of time.

1. Gardenia/Asteroid/Supa Scoopa and Mighty...
2. 100 (Degrees)/Space Cadet/Demon Cleaner
3. Odyssey/Conan Troutman/NO/Whitewater
4. Lick Doo -
 

Blues for the Red Sun
Dali Records, 1992
rating: 9.0
reviewer: dunc

To avoid cliches about stoner rock or desert bands is difficult. Like grunge, this is a scene that either exists or doesn’t depending on your perspective. If you like heavy music and buy a lot of it, Kyuss may slide into to the mire of other related bands like The Obsessed or St Vitus. If you look from the outside, you can easily begin to focus on the environmental influences of these bands and begin to try and create a scene. It seems that the desert bands, if they exist, are different from the grunge bands in that they seem able to keep the level of their notoriety just out of the mainstream. This music seems like the diametric opposites of punk and hippy colliding. At one moment a Sabbath riff present itself followed by psychedelic interludes.

The general sound of this record is full of low end sounds. Guitars tuned down to C? Just as rain influenced the Seattle bands, Kyuss are obviously influenced by the sun, deserts and highways; the heat induces trippiness, so you want to get on the open road to cool down. Space out in the shade. This record reflects these two feelings perfectly.

But somehow none of this conveys how good this record is. Yes, it’s been done before, but maybe not so influenced by experimental ambitions. Some tracks are jammed out, others just rock, but the listener will never know where they’re going on this lost highway. The standout tracks are the pacy road monster "Green Machine" in which the riffs, Negative Creep–like, gun the song up to lyrics such as "I’ve got a wheel inside my head, a wheel of understanding.. cool breeze, get the hell away from me", While "50 Million Year Trip" shimmers brightly before galloping across the plains, then settling down to build up to a heavy riff. Melodies overlap as vocals come in, "I am dreamin’, I am rollin’, I am hidin’, I am running, but I’ll never forget you, never forget you." This all before the song descends into a pyschedelic swirl, only to build again.

Camp fires are burning and cars are revving up, the amps are up to 11, but the bass is low slung, towering riffs give way to sand storms. As the sun sets, the ceremony has just begun. The darkest hour is before the dawn. This is a beautiful timeless organic record.

 1. Thumb
2. Green Machine
3. Molten Universe
4. 50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up)
5. Thong Song
6. Apothecaries' Weight
7. Caterpillar March
8. Freedom Run
9. 800
10. Writhe
11. Capsized
12. Allen's Wrench
13. Mondo Generator
14. Yeah