There's only one band around that are really doing it for me right now. Queens of the Stone Age have ripped through the genre mess of post-punk rock (and pop) to create a sound that is pure addic-tion. Once you're hooked you can't get enough.
They've been that way though ever since they incarnated themselves from the ashes of Kyuss, mixing power rock with slower blues-based churn that gets right inside your skull, forcing a hold that is mesmeric in its influence.
I read somewhere (where oh where on the web was it?) that they come on like a combination of Can and Canned Heat and I'd have to agree that that is pretty close but you'd have to throw a nod to the Sabbath as well, the band that undoubtedly influenced much of their desired "robot rock".
And they've grown in stages through the very fine Rated R (the second album) to the tightly-wound, unrelenting (and some say commercial) Songs for The Deaf while arriving at their new departure point Lullabies to Paralyse.
This is one engrossing album. Like the others before it, not perfect, but with the Queens you gotta take the rough with the smooth. It seems to represent a real maturing of their sound and ideas, as it spins between muddy blues feels, taut riff-a-rama and sheer QOTSA grooves.
Many have bagged it, but the ones that like it, (this NME review is a good summation) you have to trust because they know what it is to hear a band on top of their game and leaving everyone in their wake.
Watch out - QOTSA fans are everywhere and in the form of genuine music lovers as this titbit at the unlikely source of Wine Journal shows ...
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