Stoner/doom metal anyone?

I enjoy the melody, vibe, and overall feel the sound of music presents. Lyrics are disregarded unless I absolutely love the song.
 
^ Well, like all songs uploaded to Youtube, there is a substantial loss of sound quality, especially with bands like Electric Wizard who use ridiculous amounts of bass. Still though, the mixing of the album is a bit rough and amateurish, but I think it really adds to the visceral sound of the music. Their more recent albums have some slicker production but don't sound nearly as evil.

Other songs of note:

Bongzilla - "666 lb. Bongsession" (this song made me lose my mind when I first heard it stoned)

Bongzilla - "Amerijuanican"

Sleep - "Dragonaut"

Sleep - "Dopesmoker"/"Jerusalem" (Listening to this whole song should be a stoner right-of-passage)

Weedeater - "Monkey Junction"

Weedeater - "Jason...The Dragon"

Black Cobra - "Sugar Water" (These guys make an unholy amount of noise for a two person band)
 
Yeah, I definitely dig the raw kind of sound but it feels like the vocals need to be louder, and the cymbals quieter. But I'll wait until later and them another listen after I blaze. ;)
 
Electric Wizard are a really good band; I really like Come My Fantatics, Witchcult Today and Dopethrone, though all their albums are pretty good. Not a huge fan of Black Masses, their last LP, but its still relatively enjoyable.

In terms of other stoner bands, I love Uffomammut- so heavy and ponderous, one of the only genuine psychedelic doom bands. Also enjoy Sleep, though I prefer Om and High On Fire. Goatsnake, Saturnalia Temple, Bong and Orange Goblin are other good stoner doom bands.

As to other doom, I love Sunn 0))), utterly crazy, intense and very strange music, Yob, Acid Bath, Bongripper, Crowbar (more sludge then doom, but definietly connected..)

Its a great style of music, I can't listen to it very often, but I go through periods where its all I here...

shady said:
This one's pretty fucking crunchy, just wish it was mixed better.
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Its mixed perfectly, given that the band are going for that overdriven, warm, analog, organic sound. Their first album is mixed really cleanly and while its still good, it just sounds odd. The aesthetic of much doom metal requires a dirty production.

Then again, I'm of the view that rock music mixed to be clean and shiny is really actually dull and lifeless.

glitter_kiss said:
is "brutal truth" considered stoner metal?
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Ha, not at all. Brutal Truth are kinda death metal mixed with some grindcore. Druggy lyrics don't make a band stoner. They have some connection to sludge metal, but its not their style... Stoner doom metal is more slow, bluesy riffs, loud bass with lyrics about drugs, horror (lovecraft in EW's case).
 
I don't accept the argument that poorly mixed music was "supposed to sound like that"... There's a big difference between a bands "own" or "raw" sound and bad mixing/mastering. It's a given that they obviously don't have the money required to get it sounding perfect but a few tweaks in pro-tools can make all the difference. At least bring up the vocals, how could that possibly change the song in a negative way? You can barely hear anything he's saying.

I'm not saying it's bad though, definitely not. I do like the style.
 
shady4091 said:
I don't accept the argument that poorly mixed music was "supposed to sound like that"... There's a big difference between a bands "own" or "raw" sound and bad mixing/mastering. It's a given that they obviously don't have the money required to get it sounding perfect but a few tweaks in pro-tools can make all the difference. At least bring up the vocals, how could that possibly change the song in a negative way? You can barely hear anything he's saying.

I'm not saying it's bad though, definitely not. I do like the style.
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I think it would definitely impact the song negatively. The vocals sound like they're screamed through a veil of potsmoke from the bottom of a Lovecraftian abyss. The way the album is mixed gives so much character to the music that things like lyrics are unimportant next to the raw, vicious atmosphere the tunes. The incomprehensible nature of the lyrics is pretty much de rigueur for most extreme metal styles anyway, so its never really bothered me (although, after having listened to the album some several million times I know all the words by heart anyway). Jus Oborn's vocals are intentionally low in the mix and had the shit manipulated out of them (he's not a very good singer, but he does know how to strangle the life out of each word he sings). If they were placed above the fuzzed-out super-bassy guitar and bass tracks it would throw off the entire vibe of the music.
 
I think it would definitely impact the song negatively. The vocals sound like they're screamed through a veil of potsmoke from the bottom of a Lovecraftian abyss.
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Hahahaha alright, you got me there. Chalk it up to me not knowing enough about the "stoner metal" genre then.
 
shady4091 said:
I don't accept the argument that poorly mixed music was "supposed to sound like that"... There's a big difference between a bands "own" or "raw" sound and bad mixing/mastering. It's a given that they obviously don't have the money required to get it sounding perfect but a few tweaks in pro-tools can make all the difference. At least bring up the vocals, how could that possibly change the song in a negative way? You can barely hear anything he's saying.
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I'm not saying that all music with lo-fi production is 'supposed to sound like that'. Just that, in the case of Electric Wizard (and especially the album Dopethrone) it is. They are going for a grimey, dark, hypnotic and overall murky atmosphere, which will not be achieved using clean, digital sound. I do agree in part about the vocals; I've always thought they sounded a bit too compressed and overdriven, but the lyrics are pretty throwaway; its not like your missing out on a meaningful exploration of life. But if the vocals were made smoother and given more clarity, I can see them (hear them) clashing with the music too much. Theres a lot of poor quality recording that sounds really shit though. Its quite a hard thing to pull off, raw production that sounds good. But, beyond electronic music, I've no interest in clean production and much prefer lo-fi sound, as long as its not cheaply lo-fi. Rock music sounds odd to me if its perfectly balanced and quantised.

Look back onto early 70's psychedelic rock (borderline metal) by bands like Black Sabbath, Night Sun, Ash Ra Tempel, even Hendrix- whilst well recorded and almost hi-fi for the times, the general sound is quite dirty compared to todays modern rock music. But it sounds perfect, as it sounds organic. Electric Wizard seem to be going for that type of organic recording, though pushing it towards an almost primitive extreme, to enhance the generally simple, bluesy riffs. Its atmospheric music.

shady4091 said:
Hahahaha alright, you got me there. Chalk it up to me not knowing enough about the "stoner metal" genre then.
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I don't think its that so much, as not all stoner doom is roughly produced. Electric Wizard are an almost stereotypical doom band in terms of aesthetic; lyrics about the occult, drug addiction, Lovecraft- slow, bluesy riffs- massive distortion- slow, simply drumming- clean and simple vocals. Other bands of a similar general style sound pretty different. Electric Wizard just have a trademark sound.
 
^Down aren't really stoner metal (to my ears at least). More like groove/southern metal...

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