90's-present Metal bands - Black Sabbath style

To name but four shining examples. There have definitely been some very good threads on this sort of topic over the last year or so, so searching the ILM archives on the words 'stoner rock' should yield lots more excellent groups.

dead meadow
oneida
acid mothers temple
bongzilla
mastodon

OTM about kyuss...

m.

And another big up for Sleep's Holy Dopesmoker ... it's the bong.

"Dopesmoker" is almost exactly like "Jerusalem," except with slightly rougher production. Like "Jerusalem," it gets old fast. The story about it is way more entertaining than listening to it. Vocalist chants brainlessly, a muezzin calling the flock to smoke marijuana. Two short guitar solos accompany the seventy minute repetitive dirge. There's a bonus cut tacked onto the end.

wheeeeeeee - i cant wait!

Neither band quite clones the Sabbath sound as much as Electric Wizard or Sleep, then again neither of those bands vocals are that great. MM and Nebula have a bit more psychedelic/acid rock in their sound...like the MC 5, Hawkwind or The Stooges, but the Sab influence is there.

High on Fire

This band is fronted by Matt Pike who was the guitarist in Sleep. I like their record "Surrounded by Theives" a whole lot more than "Holy Mountain". The vocals are ok, but don't expect Ozzy.

To be honest, of these bands that I have heard only Kyuss/QOTSA and Monster Magnet really have vocalists that are really good in the same melodic way as Ozzy. The rest of these bands have the riffs, sonic texture and music that is enjoyable, but it isn't nearly as good as Sabbath. They seem to be as much into the SOUND of it all more than the songs.

Mastodon takes the heavy up a couple of notches than most of these bands listed. Their vocals are harsh, but they have some wicked guitar parts.

If you want to take a left turn, check out The Melvins. That is a band that is build on the house of Sabbath but adds on a new wing. Best place to start with them would be about 10-12 years ago with their albums Houdini, Stoner Witch or Bullhead.

SLEEP - Jerusalem + Volume 1
Cathedral - In Memorium + FOrrest Of Equilibrium
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone, Let Us Prey etc.
Boris - Amplifier Worship
Warhorse - Priestess + As Heaven Turns To Ash
YOB - Elaborations Of Carbon
Earth - Extra-Capsular Extraction
Goatsnake/Burning Witch split
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer
Khanate - Khanate
Dragon Green - Emissions From Green Sessions
High On Fire - The Art Of Self Defense
Melvins - Bullhead + Gluey Porch Treatments
Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine - Rampton

Weedeater, Bongzilla + Goatsblood are all good too but you might think they were too death metal because of the vocals.

(I think so but I'll let more knowledgable metal folx refute this if necessary)....

Witchfinder General's "Death Penalty" is also top-rated. A couple of St. Vitus records might also please.

These beats many of the stoner bands -- a genre which rejoices in the marginal. They emphasize wretched singers and playing slow and tunelessly simply for the sake of it. Many are simply a disgrace when compared with even the worst Black Sabbath album.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0311/smith2.php

Electric Wizard

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0109/smith.php

I didn't care for this but others might --

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0419/smith.php

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0424/eddy1.php

oneida, kreisor:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0415/eddy.php

beaver, dozer, carnival in coal:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0113/eddy.php

and yeah, many of the bands mentioned above (though nebula and fu manchu and the melvins have never really cut it for me -- well, nebula have their moments, i guess). goatsnake and unida and natas (the south american band) and sea of green are pretty good, too.

here's one pretty consitent compilation of this stuff:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020405181212270411&sql=Ar98uak1kkm3v

and here's another one:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020405181212270411&sql=Akv6htr3rklmx

The labels that support these bands collapse like a house of cards when they get to the point where all the bands they're publishing constitute the entirety of fans for the genre.

Man's Ruin collapsed because it bet that you could throw everything at the wall and the audience would grow to absorb it. Eventually, I'd predict the same fate for Southern Lord. That label quickly went from publishing occasionally fine metal and art to indulging in fetishism with the occasional big project of worthless trash, like Probot.

The label put out a record by The Want that was excellent in its imitation of Led Zep/Terry Reid/Brit thud. It must've flopped. Now most of what I see is uninteresting and horrid -- a ridiculous competition to see who can play the longest, most-downtuned, slowest scraping noise. Some of the offerings work as jokes: Grief is just terrible trash but it's amusing that someone would write so effusively of it in the blurbs on the shrinkwrap. Sourvein I gave away to Scott because he knew someone in the band,
but -- really -- it's just a homeless man's Sleep. Now they're apparently the backing band for the lead guy from Electric Wizard which would be disappointing because that band once had a great drummer.

There's a Pennsylvania band -- Penance -- who claim to do the Sabbath thing. They're awful but I can stand listening to them occasionally when I want to reminisce on the beauty of the coal mines and slag heaps where I spent my childhood. That may not work for you if you didn't grow up near stripping holes and piles of burning mine tailings.

Ideally, since most of even the obscurest 70's hard rock is coming back into print in fine form, you're equally served by looking at reissues as well as combing the diminishing returns in the active genre. For example, Nektar's "A Tab in the Ocean" and "Remember the Future" are way better than any stoner or doom album in recent memory.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0412/smith.php

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0412/eddy.php

xpost

"Recycled" is a lot better if you listen to the original mix -- although the band still is purposely trudging toward being a clone of Genesis -- before it got tricked up for the US market. But they were apparently convinced they were going to get a single, which happened the next album with "Magic is a Child." And that stuff is no good, but it did get played on FM progressive radio a bit.

Noboby talks about THE Band with the most Sabbath influences ever. The band doesnt exist anymore, but there are rumours about a reunion. And indeed, there was a showcase at a german metal festival in 2003. This band lives from an awesome two guitar sound. Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin, both fans of Gibson Flying V guitars, created a sound even Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield tried to copy back in the early 80'ies when Metallica was opening act for Trouble! The voice of vocalist Eric Wagner is near by Ozzy's voice, but has a more painful and deeper character. Rick Rubin signed the band for his Def American label and produced two albums, a selftitled in 1990 and Manic Frustration in 1992.

This is was AMG writes: No band deserves as much credit for keeping the gospel of classic Black Sabbath-derived heavy metal (no to mention bell-bottoms) alive during the '80s as Chicago's Trouble. And while the group's legend never exceeded cult status, their work would serve as inspiration for an entire generation of '90s bands in the thriving underground doom/stoner metal scene. ....

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDCASS80311111402062276&sql=Bygge4j170wav

A self produced minialbum is missing in AMG list, the 1994 'One For The Road' EP.

Check out Trouble!