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Retro rock can mean a lot of different things. When I was younger I was more of a stickler for "originality." I still appreciate that quality, but as boundaries are continually pushed, for a lot of people, originality in new music can mean "difficult listening." A few years ago I started craving stuff that sounds like it was recorded in 1972, particularly heavy stuff like Black Sabbath and followers.
I found that a lot of Swedish bands are great at getting that sound. It must be that meticulous Scandinavian quality, hunting down the right effects pedals and recording on vintage analog gear. Bands that share the proto-metal and heavy blues rock influences are often called stoner rock. I thought maybe some of you might appreciate this sort of thing.
Stoner Rock Primer
When Dungen made a big critical impact in 2004 with their third album, Ta Det Lungt, it seemed remarkable that an album recorded explicitly to sound like it was made in 1972 would be so popular, not to mention all the lyrics being sung in Swedish. Multi-instrumentalist Gustav Estjes of Vastergotland, Sweden grew up on folk and hip-hop, and discovered a wealth of Swedish underground psychedelic rock from 1968-74 while cratedigging for beats. I loved that sound, and knew there had to be a lot of other bands doing similar stuff, including ones with heavier influences. It seemed that they did not receive as much critical attention as Dungen for the same reasons that Black Sabbath was derided back in the day. Their music seemed primitive next to groups who incorporated bits of folk, prog, classical and avant garde jazz.
However, there were plenty of other groups who understood what made Black Sabbath sound beautiful. Their fat, bulbous, throbbing bass, fuzzy guitar tones, and rhythmic groove turned out to be the pinnacle of proto-metal, and the seeds of stoner rock. This mix of qualities could be found in Pentagram, Sweden's own November, Atomic Rooster, Blue Cheer, Budgie, Buffalo, Groundhogs, Uriah Heep, Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang, Stray and others. Metal evolved through great bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, and in the 90s exploded into dozens of sub-genres like death metal, black metal, doom, grindcore, etc. The music became more impressive in many ways, and usually more extreme, in turn splintering the fanbase. To an average music fan, this in a way signals a death of a genre, just like many stopped listening to new classical after 1950, and jazz after 1970. It's not that the music stopped progressing, it's that it evolved so far into avant garde territory that it became virtually unlistenable to anyone who wasn't an expert connoisseur. That's another advantage of stoner rock, your girlfriend or wife are far more likely to at least tolerate it over the new black metal album. Continued...
I found that a lot of Swedish bands are great at getting that sound. It must be that meticulous Scandinavian quality, hunting down the right effects pedals and recording on vintage analog gear. Bands that share the proto-metal and heavy blues rock influences are often called stoner rock. I thought maybe some of you might appreciate this sort of thing.
Stoner Rock Primer
When Dungen made a big critical impact in 2004 with their third album, Ta Det Lungt, it seemed remarkable that an album recorded explicitly to sound like it was made in 1972 would be so popular, not to mention all the lyrics being sung in Swedish. Multi-instrumentalist Gustav Estjes of Vastergotland, Sweden grew up on folk and hip-hop, and discovered a wealth of Swedish underground psychedelic rock from 1968-74 while cratedigging for beats. I loved that sound, and knew there had to be a lot of other bands doing similar stuff, including ones with heavier influences. It seemed that they did not receive as much critical attention as Dungen for the same reasons that Black Sabbath was derided back in the day. Their music seemed primitive next to groups who incorporated bits of folk, prog, classical and avant garde jazz.
However, there were plenty of other groups who understood what made Black Sabbath sound beautiful. Their fat, bulbous, throbbing bass, fuzzy guitar tones, and rhythmic groove turned out to be the pinnacle of proto-metal, and the seeds of stoner rock. This mix of qualities could be found in Pentagram, Sweden's own November, Atomic Rooster, Blue Cheer, Budgie, Buffalo, Groundhogs, Uriah Heep, Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang, Stray and others. Metal evolved through great bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, and in the 90s exploded into dozens of sub-genres like death metal, black metal, doom, grindcore, etc. The music became more impressive in many ways, and usually more extreme, in turn splintering the fanbase. To an average music fan, this in a way signals a death of a genre, just like many stopped listening to new classical after 1950, and jazz after 1970. It's not that the music stopped progressing, it's that it evolved so far into avant garde territory that it became virtually unlistenable to anyone who wasn't an expert connoisseur. That's another advantage of stoner rock, your girlfriend or wife are far more likely to at least tolerate it over the new black metal album. Continued...
