Bob Magaw
Footballguy
I was recently looking through an old Mojo or Uncut magazine from around 2000, and saw a review for Electric Wizard's Dopethrone. Something about the album title and cover (satanic figure taking a bong hit) made me laugh and mentally note to check it out later. After listening to the itunes album samples, my interest was piqued enough to download it. I have to admit to never having a lot of metal albums (at one time some Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and AC/DC, not much after that, was more into Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, etc.), but this was a whole different kind of sound I haven't heard before. The EXTREME heaviness to my ears makes some metal sound like ABBA in comparison. Actually, after some intensive listening to live Pink Floyd and discovering my favorite era was '70-'71 (roughly from Atom Heart Mother to Meddle - David Gilmour and Richard Wright built a massive electronic wall of sound with Binson Echorec effect boxes), there were some similarities in terms of creating that wall of sound effect. It was pretty enthralling and spellbinding, and one of the few times I ever listened to the entire album over again immediately after playing it for the first time.
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000, full abum)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMbKZPBruU
Background on the album from the site Metal Hammer
http://metalhammer.teamrock.com/features/2011-08-17/the-story-behind-electric-wizard-dopethrone
After searching the board, it had come up before, but not often as far as I could tell. Just to give credit where it is due, a board search yielded a mention in '08 by KarmaPolice from jdog's 10 Best Metal CDs thread (pg 4, post #161 - I forgot that I had even posted in the thread several times).
https://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?/topic/315717-10-best-metal-cds-post-your-lists/page-1
"Just picked up an album:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Some of the heaviest, slowest, stoner metal I have ever heard. Bad thing is that the bass/music drowns out the vocals a bit but would still suggest it to people to look into."
Jdog followed up with a Stoner Rock cite of Kyuss (and High on Fire)
KP later brought up Bongzilla (one title being Grim Reefer
). After I asked if Spine Of God by Monster Magnet fell under the Stoner Rock sub-genre, bicycle_seat_sniffer replied...
"... two bands are credited with starting the "new" stoner/doom metal sound - Monster Magnet and Kyuss. (not counting the old 70's act hawkwind)
Spine of God is more of a "spacey" feel then when these guys are doing.
Electric wizard is excellent and think of them as a slower, fuzzier sabbath"
along with a more in-depth post...
"... if you are really getting into this stuff check out the following:
Monster Magnet - Spine of God & Superjudge
Kyuss - welcome to sky valley & blues for the red sun
Queens of the Stone age - s/t, songs for the deaf
Fu Manchu - the action is go, & in search of
The Desert Sessions - any volume
Clutch - really anything but their new one - beale streeet oblivion is nice"
So, better late than never, back to Dopethrone by Electric Wizard. How to describe the (((SOUND)))?
Sounds like troglodytic, Phantasm dwarf zombie slaves were trained to play Black Sabbath? Check.
Heavier than being crushed by a Brontosaurus stampede or a falling Stonehenge monolith? Check.
Stacked layers of fuzz and distortion thicker than the resin in Cheech and Chong's pipe? Check.
Lower and slower than crawling on the ground after a Thorazine OD? Check.
A tsludge-nami of noise, like if the blood coming out of the elevator in The Shining was bongwater? Check.
Hypnotic repetition that makes Smoke On The Water florid, intricate and baroque in comparison? Check.
Some other emblematic sub-genre signatures (though not necessarily in all cases):
Downtuned guitars played through bass amps.
Simple but crunchingly powerful riffs, sometimes explored at length with few chord changes.
Guitar and bass extremely up front in the mix, sometimes at the expense of the drums and vocals.
Overdriven vintage tube amps played at equipment shrieking/melting levels.
Fuzz/distortion at times rendering tones barely distinguishable and bordering on noise.
Lovecraft inspired supernatural lyrics and iconography (as well as B horror movies, and of course weed).
Electric Wizard (at that time) and I think Sleep were power trios.
Interestingly, what was for KP a negative (the vocals being submerged well back in the mix of the wall of guitar and bass fuzz/distortion), and it should be added, for others in some reviews, I found to be a plus. It didn't detract from the stupefyingly ridiculous over-the-top wall of sound created by the guitar/bass, and became almost like another instrumental layer in the already "core of a neutron star-dense" mix. The "vocalist's" sound captured on this album has been described as putting your ear next to the wall and trying to hear him in the next room. Or like a man drowning and beyond rescue in a sea of electronic noise.
Doom metal seems to be a frequently associated sub-genre, though not necessarily identical (some doom metal is played at a much faster tempo - than again, a sloth on barbituates moves at a faster tempo than some stoner rock). Electric Wizard's Dopethrone begins (and uses for a "hidden" ending after a lengthy silence) with the following sample from a Barbara Walters 20/20 report on impressionable youth and cults...
"When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple ways you can get out. One is death. The other is mental institutions."
This thread is partly intended to recommend the sub-genre to the attention of those on the board unfamiliar with it, to see if others that are aware of it still have it in their listening rotation, and to explore other examples (for instance, what is the difference between Stoner and Sludge Rock - if there is a distinction)? After some cursory research listening to samples in the past day or so (and reminded by the hints/suggestions from the previous thread cited above), some other bands/albums from this sub-genre:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone, Come My Fanatics
Sleep - Holy Mountain, Dopesmoker (disbanded after just two albums, due to label creative differences)
Kyuss - Blues For A Red Sun, Welcome To Sky Valley
Monster Magnet - Spine Of God
Others (besides those already mentioned above, in some cases spin off groups from Sleep and Kyuss) - The Melvins?
* Dopethrone has placed very high, even topping in some cases, some Post-Millenial best album of the decade polls (presumably metal-based). Many critics have called it both Electric Wizard's apex and a genre-defining landmark. Sleep and Kyuss both were from CA, so the moniker Desert Rock seems to be used almost interchangeably with Stoner Rock at times. As bicycle_seat_sniffer noted, Hawkwind is sometimes cited as a Stoner Rock precursor and influence (as some bands appropriated their space rock elements). I have even heard Blue Cheer and proto-punkers MC5 of Detroit mentioned for their garage/psychedelia elements.
Electric Wizard is reportedly doing a rare US tour, "nationwide", starting in March. Their current lineup is augmented by a second guitar, who is also the wife of co-founder, only remaining original member, producer/engineer, lead guitarist, lyricist and singer Jus Oborn.
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000, full abum)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMbKZPBruU
Background on the album from the site Metal Hammer
http://metalhammer.teamrock.com/features/2011-08-17/the-story-behind-electric-wizard-dopethrone
After searching the board, it had come up before, but not often as far as I could tell. Just to give credit where it is due, a board search yielded a mention in '08 by KarmaPolice from jdog's 10 Best Metal CDs thread (pg 4, post #161 - I forgot that I had even posted in the thread several times).
https://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?/topic/315717-10-best-metal-cds-post-your-lists/page-1
"Just picked up an album:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Some of the heaviest, slowest, stoner metal I have ever heard. Bad thing is that the bass/music drowns out the vocals a bit but would still suggest it to people to look into."
Jdog followed up with a Stoner Rock cite of Kyuss (and High on Fire)
KP later brought up Bongzilla (one title being Grim Reefer
). After I asked if Spine Of God by Monster Magnet fell under the Stoner Rock sub-genre, bicycle_seat_sniffer replied..."... two bands are credited with starting the "new" stoner/doom metal sound - Monster Magnet and Kyuss. (not counting the old 70's act hawkwind)
Spine of God is more of a "spacey" feel then when these guys are doing.
Electric wizard is excellent and think of them as a slower, fuzzier sabbath"
along with a more in-depth post...
"... if you are really getting into this stuff check out the following:
Monster Magnet - Spine of God & Superjudge
Kyuss - welcome to sky valley & blues for the red sun
Queens of the Stone age - s/t, songs for the deaf
Fu Manchu - the action is go, & in search of
The Desert Sessions - any volume
Clutch - really anything but their new one - beale streeet oblivion is nice"
So, better late than never, back to Dopethrone by Electric Wizard. How to describe the (((SOUND)))?
Sounds like troglodytic, Phantasm dwarf zombie slaves were trained to play Black Sabbath? Check.
Heavier than being crushed by a Brontosaurus stampede or a falling Stonehenge monolith? Check.
Stacked layers of fuzz and distortion thicker than the resin in Cheech and Chong's pipe? Check.
Lower and slower than crawling on the ground after a Thorazine OD? Check.
A tsludge-nami of noise, like if the blood coming out of the elevator in The Shining was bongwater? Check.
Hypnotic repetition that makes Smoke On The Water florid, intricate and baroque in comparison? Check.
Some other emblematic sub-genre signatures (though not necessarily in all cases):
Downtuned guitars played through bass amps.
Simple but crunchingly powerful riffs, sometimes explored at length with few chord changes.
Guitar and bass extremely up front in the mix, sometimes at the expense of the drums and vocals.
Overdriven vintage tube amps played at equipment shrieking/melting levels.
Fuzz/distortion at times rendering tones barely distinguishable and bordering on noise.
Lovecraft inspired supernatural lyrics and iconography (as well as B horror movies, and of course weed).
Electric Wizard (at that time) and I think Sleep were power trios.
Interestingly, what was for KP a negative (the vocals being submerged well back in the mix of the wall of guitar and bass fuzz/distortion), and it should be added, for others in some reviews, I found to be a plus. It didn't detract from the stupefyingly ridiculous over-the-top wall of sound created by the guitar/bass, and became almost like another instrumental layer in the already "core of a neutron star-dense" mix. The "vocalist's" sound captured on this album has been described as putting your ear next to the wall and trying to hear him in the next room. Or like a man drowning and beyond rescue in a sea of electronic noise.
Doom metal seems to be a frequently associated sub-genre, though not necessarily identical (some doom metal is played at a much faster tempo - than again, a sloth on barbituates moves at a faster tempo than some stoner rock). Electric Wizard's Dopethrone begins (and uses for a "hidden" ending after a lengthy silence) with the following sample from a Barbara Walters 20/20 report on impressionable youth and cults...
"When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple ways you can get out. One is death. The other is mental institutions."
This thread is partly intended to recommend the sub-genre to the attention of those on the board unfamiliar with it, to see if others that are aware of it still have it in their listening rotation, and to explore other examples (for instance, what is the difference between Stoner and Sludge Rock - if there is a distinction)? After some cursory research listening to samples in the past day or so (and reminded by the hints/suggestions from the previous thread cited above), some other bands/albums from this sub-genre:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone, Come My Fanatics
Sleep - Holy Mountain, Dopesmoker (disbanded after just two albums, due to label creative differences)
Kyuss - Blues For A Red Sun, Welcome To Sky Valley
Monster Magnet - Spine Of God
Others (besides those already mentioned above, in some cases spin off groups from Sleep and Kyuss) - The Melvins?
* Dopethrone has placed very high, even topping in some cases, some Post-Millenial best album of the decade polls (presumably metal-based). Many critics have called it both Electric Wizard's apex and a genre-defining landmark. Sleep and Kyuss both were from CA, so the moniker Desert Rock seems to be used almost interchangeably with Stoner Rock at times. As bicycle_seat_sniffer noted, Hawkwind is sometimes cited as a Stoner Rock precursor and influence (as some bands appropriated their space rock elements). I have even heard Blue Cheer and proto-punkers MC5 of Detroit mentioned for their garage/psychedelia elements.
Electric Wizard is reportedly doing a rare US tour, "nationwide", starting in March. Their current lineup is augmented by a second guitar, who is also the wife of co-founder, only remaining original member, producer/engineer, lead guitarist, lyricist and singer Jus Oborn.
Last edited by a moderator:
