Ecstatic Ephemera: For Doom the Bell Tolls
The winding path of lumbering riffage and perpetual gloom.
Master of Reality, the third studio album by English heavy metal daddies and doom progenitors Black Sabbath, turns 50 this week. It’s the type of astounding milestone—one already crossed by earlier landmark records in their esteemed back catalogue, such as 1970’s Paranoid and the group’s self-titled debut—that makes me, even in my early thirties, feel old as shit.
So, to celebrate the eternal gift that is heavy metal and the glorious legacy of guitarist Tony Iommi’s quaking tritone, also known as the mystical “Devil’s Interval,” I’ve pulled together a list of stoner rock and doom metal monsters to carry us down a winding path of lumbering riffage and perpetual gloom.
Here are ten mammoth tracks to consume 80 minutes of your day. Enjoy.
Black Sabbath – “Sweet Leaf”
There’s a line in Almost Famous (2000), where aspiring journalist William Miller is given an assignment by famed rock critic Lester Bangs (played by the late and legendary Philip Seymour Hoffman—RIP) to review a Black Sabbath gig, uttering the immortal line: “Give me 500 words on Black Sabbath.”
It’s weird how I can effectively trace my burgeoning love for metal and music journalism to this precise moment. Well, that and playing a shitload of Dave Mirra Pro BMX 2 in high school, which featured “Paranoid” on a near-infinite soundtrack playback loop. Anyway, my point is that Black Sabbath still rocks and Master of Reality opener “Sweet Leaf” is about, you guessed it, w e e d. So, it’s essentially ‘Doom Metal 101’ condensed into five rollicking minutes.
Reverend Bizarre – “The Devil Rides Out”
Pallbearer – “Foreigner”
Sorrow and Extinction isn’t my favourite Pallbearer record but the Little Rock, Arkansas quartet are easily my favourite doom band of all time. There’s just something about their sheer, uncompromising heaviness, coupled with the gravitas of vocalist Brett Campbell’s wavering register that just floors me.
Album opener “Foreigner” starts with delicate acoustic picking that lulls the listener into a false sense of safety, guided by an eerie undercurrent that’s difficult to place. So, when the lead riff drops in like a fucking anvil and Campbell’s wail reaches distant, ethereal heights, it’s a moment of revelatory somatic release. Just listen, let go, and drain your mind into the sky.
Cathedral – “Grim Luxuria”
Red Desert – “Lust Queen”
In my humble opinion, Kyuss disciples Red Desert are one of the most underrated stoner rock bands of the last decade. Their 2012 record Damned By Fate got a complete thrashing from me when it came out and I’ve since added “Lust Queen” to at least twenty different playlists by now, for all different moods and purposes.
I adore how forward the bass is in the mix here, where each crunch and rumble precedes a riff transition and hypnotic vocal refrain. It’s an all-out rhythmic spliff fest and the hooks rock super hard. Great stuff.
Elder – “Dead Roots Stirring”
Candlemass – “Dark Are the Veils of Death”
Look, the obvious play here would be to go for something off Candlemass’ classic debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986), but for my unique sensibilities, the band’s follow-up Nightfall has all of the superior cuts.
The mid-section of “Dark Are the Veils of Death” feels like paddling through a lake of molasses—shit, even the solo lick here feels sticky and impossibly weighed down. It’s epic, it’s doom, and it’s metal. And that’s all you need, alright?
Sleep – “From Beyond”
Electric Wizard – “Priestess of Mars”
Dorset doom purveyors Electric Wizard perfected the stoner-sludge synthesis decades ago, with their third album Dopethrone rising to near-mythic status among the coveted doom cvlt. But, like Candlemass above, I’ve gone with a left-of-centre pick from their 2002 follow-up, Let Us Prey, which was the last record to feature the band’s original line-up.
Not only is “Priestess of Mars” a total space-wandering jam but Jus Oborn’s lyrics on this cut are clearly influenced by the works of author Edgar Rice Burroughs and his sci-fi/fantasy Barsoom series epics. So, the inner nerd in me is always here for tales of cosmic import and lunar worship.
Black Sabbath – “Into the Void”
Stream the full playlist on Spotify below: