Does It Doom? Heavy Riffs & Drugs Worship.

 

This time, I want to talk about my guilty pleasures, the music and bands that I loved listening to while pretending to hate them. This was either out of reaction or because I was just too shy to admit that I liked them. But as you grow up, you learn not to care about other people's opinion and being provocative just isn't fun anymore. Back in the 90s most bands had no problem admitting that they liked the Stooges and the MC5 as much as Black Sabbath and Hawkwind. You had never encountered music like this before, and you were at a loss as to how to categorise it, but you were absolutely certain that it was completely amazing! Does anyone not remember the first time they heard "Spine of God"? Was there anyone who said they didn't like it who wasn't an idiot?

As I mentioned in a previous post, all my friends were (and still are) metalheads. It was only natural that we would influence each other. I've never been keen on metal without punk or doom elements, but I didn't mind going to their place and listening to some cool thrash bands, as they didn't have either coming to mine and listening to some trashy garage punk. We all listened to Monster Magnet, Kyuss, Cathedral, Hellacopters and Mudhoney, for example (perhaps for different reasons), but the most important thing was that we all liked them! The same goes for Stooges and Sabbath. For instance, everyone else was going crazy over 'Paranoid', I was the guy who got a kick out of 'The Wizard' (that wailing harmonica!).

And it wasn't just the influence we had on each other as a gang, there were other signs as well. When I first bought and played Black Flag's "My War", I instantly thought it had more in common with "Vol. 4" than with any other punk album. In fact, their label also featured Saint Vitus, who played at an even slower pace than Iommi and Ozzy's band. At the time, both SST bands sounded punk enough to alienate metalheads, yet still metal enough to do the same for punks. They were also psychedelic, with a completely innovative druggy approach. That's what punk was always supposed to be, shock everyone, right?! The same goes for Corrosion of Conformity and Lee Dorian, a huge punk rock fan whose label is named after a Black Flag song and whose band was as if Iommi was dead and Fred Sonic Smith and Wayne Kramer were replacing him.

Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that I'm an expert on stoner/doom genre (because I'm not), but I think I can easily handle a playlist of some of the catchiest and grooviest tracks from different decades that anyone can listen to and agree are good enough to grab a beer and roll a joint to. (I never liked marijuana. I thought of it as a hippie thing and I never liked the idea of laughing all the time for no reason. However, I admit that this plant has beneficial qualities in some cases, at least to some records. I was always a cigarette and alcohol guy, I guess, before I quit them both.) 

Here's a stoner/doom kinda compilation from someone who's certainly not a metalhead or a stoner, but who definitely knows a thing or two about fuzz, wah-wah and distortion. I mean, I've never tried heroin, of course, but I do have a shelf full of different pressings and copies of "L.A.M.F." and a tattoo on my arm, you know... Oh, and I still hate fuckin' hippies!  

1. Born Too Late - Saint Vitus
2. Funeralopolis - Electric Wizard
3. Midnight Mountain - Cathedral
4. Paegan Love Song - Acid Bath
5. Murky Fen - Slabdragger
6. Caravan - Lowrider
7. Greenthumb - Bongzilla
8. Streetside - The Obsessed
9. This Mortal Decay - Beastwars
10. To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth - The Entombed
11. Dixie Whiskey - Eyehategod
12. God Luck And Good Speed - Weedeater
13. State Of Non-Return - Om
14. Picking From The Box - Spiritual Beggars
15. King Of The Road - Fu Manchu
16. Gardenia - Kyuss
17. Cyclops Revolution - Monster Magnet
18. Mad Prophet - Nightstalker
19. Dragonaut - Sleep
20. Empress Rising - Monolord
21. Vote With A Bullet - Corrosion Of Conformity
22. Swan Song - Down