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EDIT INFOKyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley
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Album Details
- Artist: Kyuss
- Album: Welcome To Sky Valley
- Label: Elektra
- Year of Release: 1994
- ME Rating: Indie Classic
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-03-20
RecommendThere is no denying that Kyuss were pretty much the inventors of stoner rock the way we know of it today but some fans may argue whether Welcome To Sky Valley was their best album, or if it was indeed Blues For The Red Sun. Although I find both albums totally enjoyable, Welcome To Sky Valley seems to take the listen to another level. In a crazy effort to pull off three 3-part songs, the third of which actually entails 4 parts, was something that was totally unheard of in this style of metal. Sure, Rush pulled it off but they couldn't hold a candle to Kyuss' bottom heavy sound. Some of the pieces start off slow and trotting and break into a thunderous climax. They incorporated many of the classic metal tricks into their fold but came out sounding completely fresh and new. So fresh, in fact, that they pretty much started a whole new branch of the metal/hard rock tree that would become known as stoner rock. Many people that were at one point involved in Kyuss would go on to play in and form other stoner rock bands like Fu Manchu and Queens Of The Stone Age. People may argue that Queens Of The Stone Age's Nick Oliveri wasn't involved with this album, and that's why the previous album was superior. Tit for tat. This album fucking rocks! Tell me that you can't stop nodding your head to "100 Degrees". It is really a mandatory album in any metal collection.
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on 2011-10-02 CharlesMartel Said:
In all honesty, having listened to this on many occasion and in many different circumstances, I have to say that I just don't understand why this gets the plaudits it does. Then again, the idea that a certain brand of music can only really be appreciated if you are stoned is not something which has appealed to me. Music is music and it stands or falls by its own merits.
On "Welcome to Sky Valley" Kyuss seem to have taken a leaf out of the book of Rush, circa mid- to late-seventies, in terms of its concept. The three, three part songs are an exercise in concept albums the like of which used to be the preserve of prog rock bands like Rush. But the difference is that this is some heavy heavy shit. And I mean heavy. This music seeps out of the bottom of your speakers like mud and then lays, in clumps, on the floor.
Now there are some good riffs on this, particularly in the wonderfully named "Super Scoopa and Mighty Scoopa ", but in the end it is the density of the sound that overwhelms everything else. Have you ever been in one of those dreams where you are running away from something terrible, and then your legs wont carry you - it's not fatigue or lack of will, it's like when you try running through knee-high water. Well, listening to this album is the aural equivalent of that nightmare/dream.
Yet that bass-heavy and relentlessly crushing sound has drawn its influences from the rockers of old - Cream, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath - and thrown it forward to the metallists of present generations - Tool even Opeth (then again maybe not). In that sense it may be described as pivotal. And yet, the feeling I am left with is one of being less than impressed. I fail to see what it is that people find so enthralling, so captivating in this. It has taken what has been great, dissected and reassembled it, and then passed it on to a new generation, almost without adding anything new. And that surely cannot be good. To me, this is like being the only one in a group not to be in on the joke - and then you find out the joke isn't even funny. Suddenly, that earlier feeling of being on the outside looking in has changed and now you are on the inside and the rest don't even know.
Perhaps you really do need to be stoned to get this.
Rating: 4/10
Review:
on 2007-08-19 SolitaryMan Said:
No doubt this was Kyuss' best record. No doubt at all. Not a bad track among the bunch, "Welcome To Sky Valley" not only defined and re-defined stoner rock for another generation, but it also laid some of the foundation for one of today's biggest rock acts, Queens of the Stone Age, amongst many others. Influential, masterfully written, produced and performed; yep, this one deserves it's classic status in full.
Rating: 10/10
