Stoner Metal - A Chronological Review

This morning we take a look at one last track from Black Sabbath's 1972 album "Vol. 4" in the lengthy closer "Under The Sun" which generally seems to be associated with doom metal & heavy metal but I'm gonna dispute that. Once again, I'm gonna have to suggest that this song sits much better under a stoner metal tag. Sure, it kicks off with a riff of pure doom but everything that transpires outside of that one riff must surely void any claims to a doom metal tag as that's the only doom component you'll find & it makes up a fairly minimal percentage of the overall duration. The verse riff certainly has claims to heavy metal but it has a clear swing to it that's more commonly found in stoner than it is in heavy metal. Things change up noticeably at the two-minute mark with a pop rock section that sounds more like The Beatles than metal before flying into a frantic Tony Iommi blues rock guitar solo, again not things you'd usually expect from heavy metal which by definition removes the blues component from hard rock. Then finally we have a lengthy psychedelic outro that takes up the last two minutes of the song with multiple layered guitar solos which is clearly more stoner than anything else.

You'll no doubt be picking up a common theme in these threads over the last couple of months. I've never seen anyone else make this claim but I have no hesitation in stating that stoner metal shared the limelight with heavy metal as the dominant genres in metal for the first few years of its existence. The people that vehemently deny stoner metal's existence before Kyuss in the early 1990's are basing their positions purely on historical labelling rather than the technical attributes of the music itself. It really doesn't matter whether anyone had penned the term "stoner metal" at the time. If it looks like a duck & it sounds like a duck then it is a duck as far as I'm concerned.

Pentagram's 1973 "Bias Studio Recordings" demo included this little stoner tune that tip toes along the line between stoner metal & stoner rock with its dark themes, blues rock influence, doomy feel & psychedelic lead guitar work:

Black Sabbath released their highly celebrated fifth album "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" on 28th December 1973 & it included this high-quality, multi-faceted stoner metal anthem:

US doom masters Pentagram would record this early stoner metal anthem some time in 1973. Just listen to those blues rock-inspired stoner riffs, psychedelic clean sections & Jimi Hendrix influenced lead solos! Filthy stuff!