Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
(Interscope, 2002)

"I need a saga, what's the saga...it's Songs For The Deaf...you can't even hear it!"

The Queens Of The Stone Age score again with another rockin' sludge metal album, similar in many aspects to earlier releases, but this time the stoners from hell are pushing their own sanity (or insanity, you pick). The band has concocted an album that is awash with evil and depression and yet it doesn't depress; it draws you into its sonic madness. This is an excellent road record, replete with angry Sabbathian grooves and dark, menacing power chords. The musicians themselves aren't bad, the guitar work is no-frills, seventies doom metal, but the near-legendary Dave Grohl spills his percussion talent all over each track, really giving this band a great backbone. And, Josh Homme's eerie vocals send a chill down my spine, as he has faithfully done since his first band, Kyuss.

The stand out tracks here include the dischordant lead single No One Knows, and my favorite, the stumbling but still cruising First It Giveth. Songs For The Dead breaks forth with some classic evil swagger groove before climaxing in a psychotic guitar-fueled drag race. Go With The Flow has a brilliant chord structure and keeps the pace with a nice melody, and Another Love Song has a similar vibe, albeit slightly more ireful. And, I'll be damned if they shouldn't change the U.S. national anthem to the militaristic and dramatic interlude in the strangely beautiful final track, Mosquito Song, another of my favorites here.

Every album has faults, and this one is no exception. First, some of the music here is just psychedelic slop, especially the idiotic and thoroughly irritating Six Shooter. What happened here? It's a cheap way to stir up controversy by deliberately attempting to write a song for people to kill themselves to, especially when it is this obvious. Secondly, the production is very tinny and mixed oddly, supposedly to accentuate the old-school AM radio motif. Basically, it works on some tracks and not on others. All in all, this is one sinister, bone-crunching album, not one of the revolutionaries (as some critics label it now), but it'll keep the genre afloat for a little while longer. Take this one with you on your next cross-country trip, you won't regret it.

Rating: 4/5