Stoner Metal - A Chronological Review

We all know the story of metal, don’t we? Black Sabbath appeared with their 1970 self-titled debut album & single-handedly invented heavy metal music for all time with their opening title track representing the accepted beginning of metal music in general. That’s what happened, right? Well, it’s certainly what we’ve been taught to believe, isn’t it? But is it technically correct? After all my years of being a metal fan & historian I’ve become skeptical of many of the accepted truths of metal’s past & my thoughts often differ from the common consensus. I also possess a lot of hate for those armchair critics who consistently criticize fans that use modern genre-tags to describe historical releases, generally pushing the same old shit about that genre not existing at the time. Well, I would argue that EVERY subgenre originated at a time when it didn’t previously exist & that the real intent of a genre-tag is to draw the attention of people that are most likely to find appeal in what they hear. It’s got nothing to do with what the public were labelling a particular band or record as back at the time of release. So, for that reason, I generally like to ponder on what a release would be tagged as if it was released today when labelling an historical release & it often results in some very different outcomes to what the masses have traditionally resorted to. If you use this methodology then the metal music of the 1970’s brings into question a lot of the positions we’ve all accepted as facts for most of our lives. With this in mind, I’d like to challenge a few age-old “facts” here:

1. That “Black Sabbath” was the first metal song ever released,

2. That heavy metal was the first metal genre, &

3. That stoner metal was invented by Kyuss in the early 1990’s.

So, what exactly IS stoner metal anyway? Well, that term is regularly misused & misunderstood so it’s worth identifying what differentiates it from the closely associated traditional doom metal subgenre before we move forwards as, contrary to popular opinion, both sounds were around very early on in the metal story. If we examine the descriptions of the two subgenres that are listed on RateYourMusic they would seem to be ridiculously similar so it’s easy to see why people would confuse the two:

Traditional Doom Metal

Monotonous and heavy playing style; repetitive, rough, and sometimes atonal guitar riffs; a "rocking to sleep" bass; and influences from both Blues Rock and Psychedelic Rock.

Stoner Metal

Combines elements of Doom Metal with elements of Psychedelic Rock and Blues Rock to create a melodic yet heavy sound.

So, they’re both doomy & draw influence from both blues rock & psychedelic rock but what’s the difference between the two? Well, from my experience I’d suggest that these are the main characteristics of stoner metal:

1. A thick, down-tuned, bass-heavy guitar tone.

2. Heavily riff-based song structures with a significantly groovy component to the riffs that is based on the blues rock model.

3. A doomy aesthetic.

4. The inclusion of a psychedelic component.

Sounds a lot like traditional doom metal, doesn’t it? But the major differences are that stoner metal is a) not consistently slow & doomy enough to qualify as doom metal, b) generally groovier than doom metal which is more consistently dark & depressive & c) often more heavily psychedelic than traditional doom metal which draws upon psychedelics more as a supporting tool rather than as a major focal point. Interestingly, the stoner metal model is broad enough to cope with a less prominent use of either psychedelics or groovy riffs (never both) as long as all of the other boxes are ticked. You’ll often find bands that crossover between stoner metal & doom metal by adding the groovy riffs &/or heavier use of psychedelics of stoner metal to the more consistently slow & generally more melancholic doom metal model too of course (e.g. Electric Wizard, Sleep, Cathedral, etc.) which has certainly added to the confusion but if you use those guidelines then you’ll generally find that you can navigate most releases.

Over the coming weeks I’m going to challenge the theory that stoner metal originated with Kyuss (who I don’t actually consider to be metal at all just quietly) by taking a look at the earliest examples of the genre with some being extremely underground & others that were sitting right under our noses the whole time. We'll examine what it is that's drawn me to conclude that each track is best suited to the stoner metal tag too which should be interesting & promote some healthy discussion.

Enjoy the ride guys & feel free to challenge me on my statements as, at the end of the day, they’re just my personal opinion.

OK, considering that the lines can in fact be blurred by essential bands like Electric Wizard and Sleep for the two best examples, I'm just going to throw my two cents in here via the most simple and childish definition of each possible:

1. Doom to me must be longer and drawn out than standard metal genres, and doesn't necessarily need psychedelia attacked.  The overlap with heavy metal is where the "traditional" variant comes in, separating albums like Turn Loose the Swans (pay more attention to the less death-influenced songs) from pretty much anything from Tales of Creation or Saint Vitus's debut.  The further evidence of the necessity for long, creepy atmospheres is evidenced by its subgenres funeral and death, and if you'd count it: gothic.  The "traditional" label for metal genres says to me that it's a closer variant of the genre to heavy metal before these genres' own standards were fleshed out: traditional doom, traditional black, etc.

2. Stoner metal doesn't need to be drawn out, but it MUST rely on fuzz with a touch of psychedelia, like the original equivalent.  The slower sounds can be called doom by other people and I wouldn't blame anyone who did.  But I won't call a fuzzy metal album stoner without that touch of psychedelia a la Kyuss, Spiritual Beggars, Orange Goblin etc.  Because of this, stoner metal also has a slightly more "jammer" approach to me via the first stoner metal bands I checked out.  Yes, the atmospheric stuff is possible, but that's usually where I handle other genre tags.  Due to stoner's history and similarities to standard heavy metal, it doesn't need a "traditional" variant.  To be honest, I've heard plenty of stoner metal that wasn't very "doomy" and completely "jammy," so I think the specific "doom elements" on RYM need way more clarification.  If they're talking about low guitar tones and fuzz, that's one thing, but tempo and personality play huge roles in the difference as far as I'm concerned.

Basically, one is more atmospheric and slow, and the other is more rhythm and lacking in strict pacing restrictions.

When the two are paired together, which is at least FAIRLY common, I just call this "stoner doom metal" for the sake of ease, which again is where bands like Electric Wizard and Sleep come in.

I have to disagree with a few of those comments Rex:

The length of a track has no impact on whether you're listening to a doom metal song or not as far as I'm concerned. You can easily have a three-minute doom track as the genre is all about tempo & atmosphere rather than length. The same goes for any other metal subgenre too actually, even progressive metal. Music is about sound & atmosphere. Not duration.

Traditional doom metal is a form of doom metal that's diluted with late 60's & 1970's hard rock, blues rock, heavy psych &/or heavy metal influence & sometimes the use of faster tempos during parts of a given track. This is because the doom metal sound first appeared during a time when metal was still very much in its development so there was more of an anything goes approach. I wouldn't say that it's exclusively about a heavy metal component (despite what RYM may tell you) although many of the early trad doom albums have genuine heavy metal tracks included which muddies the waters further.

Stoner metal doesn't have to be "fuzzy". It does generally have to have a thick, bass-heavy tone similar to doom metal though which is where the links to doom come in as stoner bands often sound like a doom band from an aesthetic point of view, even if the riffs aren't always slow. One of the things that a lot of metalheads miss with stoner metal is that it's just as much about the groovy riffs as it is the psychedelia too. There is definitely a trademark curvy stoner riff style that is immediately identifiable & dictates that a track is stoner metal even if there's no fuzz or psychedelia whatsoever. If you want an example then play Ben a stoner metal track & wait for him to cringe. That's simply his reaction to stoner metal riffs as he has very little tolerance for them.

Anyway... a lot of this will become much clearer as this thread progresses (as well as another couple that I'm planning to start for some other genres/subgenres).

Alright maybe this is my fault since I was tired at the time of posting, but I should mention that I never said the length of the track.  The length pertained to the pacing, which should've been obvious.  So pacing is the better word.

And I've yet to find a stoner band that didn't feel like their sound was grounded in noise.  Even if you have the clearest production, if it's not noisy and a little druggy, it's not stoner.  Maybe aural examples would suffice.

My idea of standard doom metal:

My idea of standard stoner metal:

Notice how the distortion is more effective as an aural tool in the latter, and the solo is clearly rooted in Jimi Hendrix influence.

This is the best way I can describe it.

And now for some subgenres: to compare stoner to traditional doom, traditional doom is a genre built for bands like Candlemass, and there's clearly a stronger level of psychedelia in bands like Orange Goblin and Ad Astra.  And yes, stoner metal can be a slower-paced genre with the right influences, but depending on how you attribute that, it can steer closer into doom territory or even heavy psych.  If it's built in space-like or drug like moods, then I'll keep it as a stoner song.  But if the tone and composition are less psychedelic and more on the horror or drama side, then I'll call it doom.

Now to connect it with traditional doom: since the earliest examples (the first three Black Sabbath albums) blur the lines, it's no surprise the genre-tagging is wild.  Here's how I would tag the album on RYM:

Heavy Metal, Hard Rock

Traditional Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock

So I'm not really going to count Black Sabbath as the clear definition as the point of music genres is to mold into their own sound.  So what is really the difference?  Well, take an album like Psalm 9, and its opener, The Tempter.  It starts out with guitar and sound effects that create a dungeon-like approach, one that even treats its own guitar riffs as ghostly wails.  45 seconds in, we get to our lead riff, which carries a tone that can easily be compared to Sabbath, but can it be compared to Kyuss or Down?  About another 45 seconds later, we get into a much faster pace, which is where the "traditional" part comes in, but despite the change in pace, the guitar tone doesn't change.  Then we get back to the slowness pacing again, and back to the speed, and so on.  In other words, this song is essentially switching between being "doom metal" and "heavy metal."  We do, however, come across a fairly bluesy guitar solo after the second round, but despite it's 3/4 timing it barely rings of Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn beyond that.

Now for the almost thrash-powered follow-up, Assassin.  There's a noticeable level of blues influence in the riffs, but not so much psychedelia.  And immediately after that, in Victim of the Insane, we're drawn right back into the dramatic tribal drumming and another slow, horror-rooted, demon choir Neil Gaiman on adderall piece of epica.  And another thing that separates this song from "purer" doom is the singer.  Eric Wagner is a fucking underrated monster who's higher pitch and metallic distortion are everything Axl Rose wants to keep for himself.  The most psychedelic thing about this song is the existence of an organ in the background.

The real classification of traditional doom to me is the bridge between both doom and heavy, whereas stoner has little to do with that.  This combination of genres allows for the darker side of the fantasy themes of Judas Priest to fully emerge, whereas stoner is more interested in the "Sweet Leaf" stuff and capitalizes on the blues and psychedelia that ruled the 60's rock scene, like everyone wants to make their own variation on "Born to Be Wild."

Lss: the difference between traditional doom metal and stoner metal is that traditional doom focuses more on the typical darker fantasy themes of heavy metal while maintain a darker dramatic presence, and stoner metal is reviving and amplifiying the classic genres that helped to invent metal in the first place for y'all stoners and leather-spouting cueballs.

Thanks for clarifying Rex but you're kinda hijacking the intended direction of the thread here so I'm just gonna move on.

The almost unanimous consensus in the world of metal is that Black Sabbath's title song was the first genuine metal song ever written & there's no reason to dispute that but whether it was the first genuine metal song ever RELEASED is another thing altogether. You see, Black Sabbath's self-titled album was originally released on 13th February 1970 but most people probably aren't aware that there was a 7" single released prior to the album's release date in "Evil Woman" which hit the shelves more than a month earlier on 9th January 1970. The A side features a hard rock cover version of Crow's "Evil Woman, Don't Play Your Games With Me" which could never be mistaken for a metal tune & would appear on the English version of the "Black Sabbath" album. The B side "Wicked World" (an original track which would appear in place of "Evil Woman" on the US version of "Black Sabbath") was another story altogether though & represents the true beginning of metal music in my opinion (at least from a proper recorded release perspective).

When taken holistically "Wicked World" is still more rock than it is metal but the main verse riff has clear ties to metal & is significant enough in how the song plays out to justify a dual tagging in my opinion. I mean, it's the clear centrepiece & focal point & is the element that generally springs to mind when you think about "Wicked World", isn't it? Let's take a look at the track in more detail:

"Wicked World" begins in pure blues rock territory for most of the first minute with pentatonic blues licks & a jazzy swing beat.

Things change significantly at 1:05 though when the doomy verse riff arrives which is still built on blues rock concepts borrowed from tracks like Cream's "Sunshine Of My Love". The thing that differentiates this riff from the blues rock crowd though is the introduction of palm-muted, bottom-string chugging at 1:05 which immediately put things into metal territory. I'm guessing that the inspiration for that came from Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" although Sabbath's version is much heavier given the darker tone & the doomier feel.

Then at 2:15 we see the introduction of a psychedelic arpeggio section.

At 2:56 Tony Iommi launches into an unaccompanied hard rock solo which is highly reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".

The eerie feedback of the outro once again feels like psychedelic rock.

So, we have blues rock, metal & psychedelic rock all thrown in together which immediately points to the two genres discussed earlier in the thread. The song is far too bluesy to be tagged as heavy metal & it's not consistently doomy enough to be classed as doom metal either with the heavy metal chugging in the main riff giving it a more up-tempo rhythmic feel. That leaves a stoner rock/metal tag as the best fit given that it covers all of the elements on display & the verse riff possesses that druggy sway that's so commonly associated with stoner. This makes "Wicked World" not only the earliest example of the stoner metal genre but also the earliest metal song to receive a proper release.

Thanks for clarifying Rex but I've already defined the differences above & you're kinda hijacking the intended direction of the thread here so I'm just gonna move on.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?  You posted it, I'm gonna discuss it.  Bottom line.  If you don't want me here just say so.

I apologize if I was a bit blunt there Rex. What I meant was that the thread is not intended to discuss the differences between stoner metal & traditional doom metal at length. I only raised that topic as people have a bad habit of mistagging a lot of the early stoner metal material as traditional doom metal or heavy metal simply because the stoner metal genre wasn't yet defined so I wanted to clarify any misunderstandings around the meaning of those terms from the offset. The real intention of this thread (& several others to come) is to showcase the results of many months of research from myself on the earliest roots of metal & I wanted us to get stuck into that instead of dwelling on the traditional doom metal vs stoner metal argument. Ben & I have always intended Metal Academy to be educational & to challenge the accepted consensus on metal-related topics so this is a part of trying to expand on that idea while giving us a greater point of difference.

Alright.  Thanks.  Then I hope both our definitions will come in handy when comparing notes over the songs and albums gone over on the thread.

The second example of stoner metal to hit the streets also came from the "Black Sabbath" album in the very popular "N.I.B.".

It's absolutely baffling that people continue to tag this song as heavy metal because it sounds absolutely nothing like it to me. The wah-wah bass intro from Geezer Butler leads us into a song that's built on a groovy stoner stomp of a main riff with Butler continuing to utilize his wah-wah throughout the song. There's an obvious psychedelic feel to this song which is clearly heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix. This is particularly evident in Iommi's trills, phrasing & ab lib as well as his doubled guitar solos which are layered over some lovely, warm progressive work from the rhythm section. It all sounds so late 60's to me which makes it a stellar weed-smoking track (trust me on this, I know from a wealth of first-hand experience). This is certainly not doom metal or heavy metal. With its bass-heavy production job, "N.I.B." feels so comfortable with a stoner tag but it was actually a pretty close call as to whether I went with stoner metal or stoner rock. At the end of the day it was really only the pronounced rhythmic component to the main riff that gives it the additional head-banging potential required to get it over the line for metal qualification.

On 18th September 1970 Black Sabbath changed the world forever through the release of their classic sophomore album "Paranoid" which has gone on to become one of the most infuential records in metal history. The opening track from that album is arguably my favourite Sabbath tune & is generally tagged as heavy metal but when given closer scrutiny you'll find very little that resembles the classic heavy metal sound of bands like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. It's very much a mish-mash of different sounds that, when combined, amounts to something that's fairly difficult to categorize. Let's break the song down a bit:

* The intro to "War Pigs" is pure doom metal with the inclusion of the siren signaling the impending doom of humanity.

* The verse is centered in blues rock territory with jazzy high-hats & bluesy lead guitar licks. Once the full riff appears with its descending run of power chords we see it building into something that resembles heavy metal though.

* The riff that follows the verse possesses the bottom-string chugging & power chords of heavy metal although there's a lot more swagger here you'd usually expect from that genre as it really gets your hips moving so it feels more like hard rock. The restrained guitar tone certainly contributes to this.

* The doubled guitar solo section sits within the realms of heavy psych with Geezer Butler's basslines moving around beautifully beneath Iommi's capable, Jimi Hendrix-inspired shredding.

* The closing movement sees things taking a turn in a progressive rock direction with Iommi again adding doubled guitar solos in an ad lib fashion with Butler once again exerting himself in a more melodic fashion.

So, as you can see, we have a highly complex & varied array of sounds & styles here with doom metal, blues rock, heavy metal, heavy psych & progressive rock all playing important roles in the holistic outcome. Is this a metal song? Yeah, definitely. But what genre tag can draw together all of those different sounds? Traditional doom metal? No, this certainly isn't consistently doomy enough to justify that tag. Heavy metal? I don't think so as "War Pigs" simply doesn't sound anything like our modern understanding of what the heavy metal genre is intended to be. It's far too organic, bluesy & psychedelic for that, perhaps even too heavily influenced by the late 1960's. It does make for amazing stoner material though with all of the different sounds listed being encompassed by the stoner metal tag, even if it may not be your most traditional example of the stoner metal genre. The blues rock, heavy psych & early progressive rock components are simply too significant to be tagging a track like "War Pigs" as heavy metal, despite the presence of that genre at times. To do that would be to over-simplify what is a much more complex & cerebral song than that.

Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" from 1970's classic "Paranoid" album is an interesting one because it kinda crosses over between stoner metal & doom metal. On the one hand you have the slow tempos & imposing atmosphere of traditional doom metal & on the other one you have the extensive use of wah pedal which adds a thick layer of psychedelics & makes it hard to pick just the one genre tag. As a result, I'm gonna say that this was the first true stoner doom track.

December 1970 would signal the arrival of Brooklyn's Sir Lord Baltimore & their debut album "Kingdom Come". While their general linkage to metal is unjustified with their sound generally sitting much closer to heavy psych, the title track is pure, Black Sabbath-inspired stoner metal & stands out from the rest of the tracklisting very obviously:

Japan's Flower Travellin' Band would release arguably their finest work on 25 April 1971 in their widely praised sophomore album "Satori". It opens with this highly psychedelic yet inherently metallic piece entitled "Satori Part I". Heavy metal, heavy psych & traditional doom metal are all subgenres that inevitably get tossed around when analyzing this song. I'd argue that it's too metallic for heavy psych. It's certainly doomy in parts & no doubt contains the occasional chuggy heavy metal riff but it's also seriously druggy, so much so that I feel that it should qualify as stoner metal. See what you think.

The mighty Black Sabbath would release another promotional single just prior to the release of their third album "Master of Reality" in the classic "Sweet Leaf" which was released in July 1971. It very much represents the prototype for the stoner metal genre overall with its obviously drug-fueled lyrics, thick, fuzzy guitar riffs & groovy, mid-tempo rhythms. The majority of people claiming it as a heavy metal tune are off the mark by miles.

The "Master of Reality" album would eventually see the light of day on 21st July 1971 & it would include this doomy groover which was clearly an inspiration for many of the stoner metal bands we know today.

There will no doubt be a lot of people who will claim Black Sabbath's "Into The Void" as doom metal or heavy metal but I think it's better suited to the stoner metal tag personally. Just listen to the doomy groover of a riff that opens this classic song for example. The main verse riff is no doubt a heavy metal chugger but what about the psychedelic doubled guitar solos technique that's utilized during the outro or the heavily down-tuned guitar tone? How about the curvy blues rock-inspired riffs that come in at the three-minute & five-minute marks? Much more stoner than they are heavy metal in my opinion & this song isn't consistently slow enough for a doom metal tag either.

This morning we take on a track that I feel kinda sits right in the midpoint where heavy metal & stoner metal meet in Flower Travellin' Band's "Kamikaze" which was included on their 1972 third album "Made in Japan" but first saw the light of day on a 7" single that was released a lot earlier in January 1971. There's a truckload of psychedelia here along with a doomy atmosphere but the riff structures err towards the chuggier heavy metal variety. See what you think.

This morning we're going to take a look at the true roots of the Australian metal scene. Short-lived Melbourne act The Ash began their recording career with a psychedelic pop rock single called "Avignon" in 1970 but strangely transformed into something entirely different for their second & final single "Midnight Witch" in 1971 under the shortened moniker of Ash. The title track makes up the A side & I'd suggest that it's metallic enough for inclusion under a stoner metal tag with a doomy Black Sabbath influence infiltrating its heavy psych backbone.

This morning we take a look at the B side from the above-mentioned 1971 "Midnight Witch" single from Australia's Ash, a song entitled "Warrant" which is built on a heavy psych backbone but has also been heavily influenced by Black Sabbath. So much so, in fact, that the verse riff has been completely ripped off from Sabbath's classic "War Pigs".

This morning we take a look at another highly underground early stoner metal track in the one-off 1971 "Slave of Fear" single from Texas four-piece Stone Axe which once again sports a significant amount of Black Sabbath influence along with a fair whack of Jimi Hendrix style psychedelia. 

Black Sabbath reign continued when they returned with their fourth studio album "Vol. 4" on 25th September 1972, a record that included "Tomorrow's Dream" which is a track that most people seem to claim as heavy metal but that I'm gonna suggest is much closer to stoner metal:

Black Sabbath's most stoner-oriented record continues with the cocaine-fueled stoner metal anthem "Snowblind" which possesses a doomy atmosphere, psychedelic references & a classic groovy stoner bridge riff:

Another one of the metal tracks from "Vol. 4" is "Cornucopia" which is built on some stomping groover stoner metal riffs & possesses a well-orchestrated psychedelic section through the middle. This is certainly not the heavy/doom metal track that most people seem to claim it as & is a clear candidate for stoner metal in my opinion.