Your way in
Desert rock 1991
The hypnotic, jam-based side of stoner rock, with lots of space between the notes and a warm bass tone.
- Heaviness
- 5
- Speed
- 4
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- California, USA
- Tempo
- 90-130 bpm
- Song length
- 4-8 min
- Written about
- The desert itself, Heat and space, Drugs, Very little narrative
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Desert rock | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singing When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 100% | ×3 |
| There, but not the point How much weight do you want behind it? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Slow. Let it take its time. What pace? | 4 out of 10 | 70% | ×2 |
| The seventies and eighties Does it matter when it was made? | 1991 | 92% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 92% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 4 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1 out of 8. Desert rock leads the next by 2 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Kyuss, Blues for the Red Sun 1992
Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun. That guitar tone has been copied for thirty years.
- 2The one to put on first
Kyuss, Welcome to Sky Valley 1994
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley. It plays as one block rather than as tracks.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Stoner rock, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Desert rock's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Shoegaze 90%
Walls of cascading guitar effects with the vocals buried in the mix. Named after the habit of staring at the pedalboard on stage.
6 steps from Desert rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Shoegaze -
Gothic rock 90%
Post-punk with reverb, chorused guitar and a baritone voice. Its aesthetic passes straight into gothic metal and doom.
7 steps from Desert rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Gothic rock
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Singing put 54 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Post-hardcore. Worth 3 of 8.
- Slow. Let it take its time. put 22 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Hardcore punk, Black metal, Death metal. Worth 2 of 8.
- The seventies and eighties put 4 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Kawaii metal, New nu metal, Progressive metalcore. Worth 1 of 8.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.