Published on Feb 27, 1998
The best part about being a writer for “The Daily Vault” is that
I get to tout bands that I love that not many people are aware of.
I swear that this is the best band in the world that nobody knows
about (or at least they used to be), worthy of being placed next to
the mighty likes of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden as the best
metal bands this decade has produced. Of course, like the above
mentioned bands, Kyuss can’t be easily pigeonholed with a label
such as “heavy metal,” since they are also true originals with
their own unique sound. In a fair world this band would’ve been
huge while the craven likes of Michael Bolton and Celine Dion
toiled in obscurity instead of receiving Grammy Awards and making
millions of dollars. Unfortunately, as we all know, the world is
far from fair, and Kyuss broke up quietly in 1996 with little
fanfare, as their muscular music was far too extreme and insular
for the masses to comprehend.
I first noticed the band when I purchased the band’s second
album Blues For The Red Sun (I’m not familiar with their first;
Blues is the album that started getting the band some attention, at
least from some critics and a small underground following). This
incredible album was aptly titled, its music conjuring visions of
the scorched Arizona desert amidst speaker blowing chaos. The
follow up, officially titled
Kyuss but better known and more easily identifiable as
Sky Valley (because of the sign on the album’s cover bearing
that inscription), was an even stronger outing. The album was
delayed for almost a year due to record company complications, but
Sky Valley proved to be well worth the wait.
Repeat after me: Kyuss kick ass. Worshiping at the alter of
Black Sabbath, this band has an explosively raw sound built around
mountainous, fuzzed out riffs, huge thudding bass lines, and
colossal drums. This is no compromises, Sabbath inspired
progressive metal by a tremendously talented band.
Sky Valley is composed of three different parts, each of
which are divided into several songs segueing into one another.
It’s not as snobbish as it sounds; the band simply wanted to
dissuade listeners from skipping tracks, a good strategy since the
album works best when taken as a whole.
The band blends an incredibly big sludgesound around mellower
instrumental bridges that seem psychedelic in tone, and even throws
in a catchy pop metal song with multi-tracked, echoey vocals. Kyuss
also adds some melodic guitar passages and experimental dabbling;
these are mere interludes from the bands bludgeoning metal assault.
Just let the band carry you away in their awesome surge, their
fuzzy, sludgehammer instrumentals giving way to John Garcia’s
bluesy bellow for earth rattling demonstrations of pure power.
Clearly this is a band that has reached a symbiotic togetherness
brought about through hours of endless playing, and producer Chris
Goss (of Masters Of Reality semi-fame) captures the band’s
cavernous sound with a dirty yet spacious mix that is spot-on. The
end result is a juggernaut capable of blinding fury and delicately
intricate interplay, whose occasional songwriting lulls are part of
the process of building an unstoppable overall groove.
This is a unit that can do it all, but thankfully sticks to pure
power the majority of the time, since precious few bands around
today can match the fierce force of this virtuostic ensemble. More
expansive and progressive (and less song oriented) than its
predecessor, Josh Homme still concocts the coolest fuzzed out
guitar tone around, while Josh Reeder supplies deliciously deep
bass cranked up to 11, and drummer Brant Bjork adds some terrific
tribal stick work. The only proper response to being caught in the
midst of an awesome Kyuss surge is headshaking (and headbanging)
awe.
On the downside, though this is highly powerful stuff, it
sometimes leans a bit too heavily on the instrumental noodling side
for my liking, and the Spinal Tap-ish ending to part one is a bit
embarrassing. Still, the bands pretentious tendencies are easily
indulged, since when these guys get it going full throttle (which
is more often than not), they make exhilarating and compelling
heavy metal music that non-metalheads can also appreciate.
Special thanks to Dominic Giampaolo for letting us
use his scan of the album cover. Please help us return the favor –
visit
Dominic’s Kyuss home page!