Blues For The Red Sun - Kyuss
This just has to be one of my personal favorite albums of all time. It passes any test I put it to. I can listen to it all the way through without being bored or a song at a time randomly and out of context (like when my ipods on shuffle). I've been listening to it for about a year and a half now and it hasn't worn out, and any part of any song I listen to (be it instruments or even moments) I find something memorable or new to enjoy. It is not, however, something I would go around handing out to people on the street. It's not that its the heaviest thing I've ever heard (or that the band produced) or the weirdest or least accessible, it's just takes a certain taste. I'd say if you liked some of the heavier Queens of the Stone Age, or aggressive bass heavy hard rock, give it a try. On to the review.
This music is absolutely mad for starters. Whether its in the slowed down form of
Molten Universe (reminds me of
Electric Funeral) or the hyped up
50 Million Year Trip, which in addition to being two great drugged out song names also form one of the greatest one two punches an album can offer. As I mentioned in my review of 50 Million Year Trip a while ago, it could be at any moment my favorite song of all time, the last two or three minutes are just amazing. That song is also a good example of some of the range the band has in sound, soft and light to dark and heavy while still being a little "mad" and out there. This album is just so unique; it almost sounds like the blues (
Thong Song), it has bass lines (
Freedom Run go to about 1:29 for actual song start), drums (
Apothecaries Weight), a two minute song that isn't just filler (
Caterpiller March), another two minute song that isn't just filler (
800) a less than one minute song that still doesn't sound like just filler (
Capsized), and dirty guitars (
Green Machine). Any of those songs have the qualities of the others listed (For the time ones, lets just say its the quality of "not filler"), all have interesting drum, bass, guitar, and serve a purpose in the album. The small songs for example, aren't put next to one another in the album, because they act as transition pieces, instrumentals that can give context and flavor to the songs before them and after them. These small songs are done so well though, that I don't mind hearing them on their own. This album simply does it all, and its all mad. Freedom Run? Its intro and jam quality makes it mad standard. Apothocaries weight? Swirling guitars and non stop drumrolls: mad. Green Machine -> Angry -> Mad.
In the above review there were only two songs off that album and one bonus track that didnt get above. 1.
Writhe Its not even a bad song. It's just one that didnt stand out as much as the others did. 2.
Mondo Generator The clunker song of the album written by the bassist (Classic!). That one actually gets interesting once the vocals drop out at 3:25. Oh and the bonus...
YEAH!
