It's Weed Week, so we're lighting up a monster joint and celebrating all things marijuana. In honor of the occasion, we had a metalhead who doesn't smoke weed rank stoner metal albums. We also had a stoner who doesn't listen to metal rank stoner metal albums. Read on for the latter.
In high school, I was a wannabe DJ Clue. Not for trying to be an actual DJ, but because I was making mixtapes on a weekly basis. Every week I would fish around on Limewire, Myspace, Imeem, and anywhere else for a combination of hot new rap or deep cuts from essential artists. Then I would throw the tracks in Windows Media Player and burn 10 copies of each, all to push onto my friends and people I thought would appreciate them. It would be any combination of Mike Jones freestyles, Three 6 Mafia mixtape material, something from Cam'ron's Roc-A-Fella period, and whatever else I was feeling at the time.
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One of the tapes I remember clearest is the one I made my last year of high school. It was a mixtape for being high. I don't think I was even hip to what 420 was at that point but I simply named it, Smoke Joints (smh). It had "So Hi" from Project Pat, "Budsmokers Only" from Bone Thugs, a couple psychedelic-sounding N.E.R.D. songs, and more weed-centric rap songs of the 90s and 2000s. The crazy thing is, I never even got high to it. I just liked the idea of making a tape for that purpose.I'm too high for this. This is not stoner metal enough—like I'm some reliable authority on that. It's too harsh. Everything else had a little soul to it and I'm not feeling that here.
This week is obviously 420. I'm not making another high music mixtape in the near future but I've been challenged to open myself up to a new type of weed music, stoner metal. Before this, I had no idea what that was. I barely know what metal is really, but I imagine that stoner metal is just a much slower version of it. Like chopped & screwed metal which sounds like a horror movie in my mind. My colleague and metal god, Kim Kelly, blessed me with a list of essential stoner metal albums and it's funny because she doesn't even get stoned. But I do. And on the strength of her putting me down with Zeal & Ardor at the end of 2016, she's got my trust when it comes to suggesting which metal I should smoke and listen to. I ranked the 10 best albums she sent my way.
10. Weedeater, God Luck and Good Speed
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9. High On Fire, Blessed Black Wings
8. Sleep, Holy Mountain
7. Graveyard, Hisingen Blues
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6. Black Sabbath, Master of Reality
5. DOWN, Nola
4. Goatsnake, Flower of Disease
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3. Belzebong, Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves
2. Orange Goblin,Time Traveling Blues
1. Acid King, Busse Woods
I love this lead singer's voice. She adds a smoothness that's a perfect contrast to the instrumentation backing her. I'm not sure if it's a result of Youtube messing up the original quality of the music, but there's a nice haziness to it. The first track, "Electric Machine," pulled me right in. "Drive Fast, Take Chances" and "Motorhead" are great too. I'll definitely listen to this again.Check out the rest of Noisey's Weed Week coverage here.Follow Lawrence Burney on Twitter