ALBUMS
Stöner
Ex-Kyuss duo reunite to try to rekindle old glories on this debut, with varying results.
Stoners Rule HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS
Like the Velvet Underground and Big Star before them, Kyuss’s influence vastly outstrips the number of people who gave a shit about them at the time. The four albums Kyuss recorded before their abrupt split in 1996 have become the holy tablets of modern stoner rock, inspiring a generation of red-eyed longhairs in greasy T-shirts to attempt to replicate their desert-mystic enigma and steamroller-heavy low end.
Stöner are the latest in this endless procession, although they have more right than most, given that they’re centred around two living, breathing ex-Kyuss members: drummer-turned-guitarist Brant Bjork and semi-feral bassist Nick Oliveri both played on 1992’s touchstone Blues For The Red Sun album, and both were involved in early-2010s near-reunion Kyuss Lives! (the absence of refusenik guitarist Josh Homme crucially prevented it from being the full deck of cards).
So far, so legitimate. The umlauted band name and album title might be winkingly ironic, but Stöner make no attempt to hide their lineage. Stoners Rule does exactly what it says on the Rizla packet. Its seven sunbaked tracks sound like they’ve blown in from the heart of the Californian desert, centred on grooves so thick and lazy they could be junior members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
Kyuss acolytes will instantly clock the fuzzy guitar and inimitable rolling bass that ushers in opener Rad Stays Rad, simultaneously a direct connection to the duo’s past and a tease of what’s to come here. But the old magic never quite materialises. That’s largely down to Bjork’s voice – he’s wisely avoided trying to replicate ex-Kyuss frontman John Garcia’s wolverine howl, but his inert singing style lacks the sense of drama needed to kick this stuff to the next level. It’s a pattern replicated across much of the album: great groove let down by a soggy joint of a vocal.