We Set the Bong on Fire: Landmark Albums from the New Age of Downers, Stoner Rock and Doom

Annotation :

1990

"Nothing disrupts the empty..."

So much starts with singer/guitarist and founder, Wino. Maybe the second most influential guitarist in this realm behind Iommi, he's crafted a genre-defining guitar sound and tempo. We're not talking slow-crawling doom here, but more of a laid back dark groove. Although this album maybe isn't quite as strong as 1991's follow-up Lunar Womb, there is no better place to start your pilgrimage. For me, listening to The Obsessed for the first time was the aural equivalent of smoking good creeper weed. By "Forever Midnight," its potency was undeniable.

One hitter: "Tombstone Highway"

Annotation :

1991

"Angels have no pity, their wings have turned to stone."

From the opening, beauty quickly turns to sloooooow fucking despair!!! Lee Dorrian is another legend worthy of praise, and this is perhaps his finest work. On every track, he sounds as if he has a most desperate message to get through to you... urgent, grim news of biblical proportions! Your action is needed! Crushing riffs carry the weight of 1,000 dead stars. Bow down.

One hitter: "Serpent Eve"

Annotation :

1992

"I sold a hundred hits to hundred heads that will never come back..."

Combining acid-laced lyrics with fuzzed out riffs, Monster Magnet's debut full length album picked up where the 70's left off. This is a brilliant blend of The Stooges and Hawkwind. Truth be told, I could write this entire list using nothing but Dave Wyndorf's lyrics as metaphors. It's obvious that this dude can throw on a leather vest in any bong water-soaked jam room anywhere and think he's in another fucking galaxy!! Actually, not just IN another galaxy, but the RULER of this galaxy!! Spine of God is spaced-out stoner rock at its finest, providing the perfect soundtrack to all illegal ingestions.

One hitter: "Nod Scene"

Annotation :

1993

"...found it difficult to think of the things that disturb me..." [from jacket]

Dylan Carlson's version of doom is still the industry standard for guitar drone after all these years. Over an hour of blissfully minimal fuzzed out riffs are found here on the band's mind-numbing, gargantuan full length album debut. Don't be waitin' on no drums, son. They ain't comin'. Nor variation in leaps. If you need those two elements to rock, skip this one completely. If you're ready to open up your mind to the concept that noise can in fact replace the role of silence, that layers of distorted guitar can be beautiful, and to see a planet turn in real time is compelling, play on, play on.

One hitter: "Seven Angels"

Annotation :

1994

"But the world, it never comes"

Driving at night, by yourself. A stretch of desolate highway - no lights, no other cars around. 100 miles to the next gas station and the air is thick and hot. Total isolation means total freedom. You can smell the gas burning off your engine. You roll down all the windows, driving faster now, but you're not moving at all in relation to the bright stars above. And it doesn't fucking matter because you don't have to be anywhere.

One hitter: "Demon Cleaner"

Annotation :

1995

"Where rock is criminal, criminals rock!"

Okay, so this album fucking jams. It rawks. It's so damn catchy, you may find your nana tapping her toes. The gang delivers equal parts jam and groove and heavy deavy. But what sets this album apart from other offerings - what sets Clutch apart from its peers - is the remarkably inventive lyrics of frontman Neil Fallon. He sings about finding the body of a notorious assassin whilst fishing and says shit like "rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham." After listening to this album on a somewhat regular basis for almost 15 years, I still get wound up when he screams "Jesus on the dashboard!" Oh yeah.

One hitter: "Escape From the Prison Planet"

Annotation :

1996

"And the barrel at my temple smokes its last cigar"

Nothing beautiful can live in this place. This album is hatred, violence, and sickness personified. The soundtrack to painful, relentless withdrawal. Screeching, tormented feedback bookends every track, with Michael Williams' venomous vocals and Jim Bower's sledgehammer guitars bludgeoning you at every turn. The difference between a heavy and evil band like Slayer and Eyehategod is that there is no fiction to be found in the latter. The demons are not from hell, rather they're inside you and clawing to take over... to have you drop out, abandon society, kill your boss. Goddamn, if your parents ever catch you with this garbage...

One hitter: "Masters of Legalized Confusion"