Customer Reviews

Sky Valley

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Perhaps no band mastered sludgy, desert-style rock like Kyuss, and "Welcome To Sky Valley" may well be the best evidence of that fact. Everything just came together for them on this album: epic songwriting, infectious grooves, and killer instrumental chops. While there are definite nods here to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Kyuss transcended their influences to create a unique sound that's just a sheer blast to listen to. While this album's predecessor "Blues For The Red Sun" has generated a bit more acclaim, if you want to get into Kyuss I suggest you start here.

With the exception of the brief (but funny) closer "Whitewater," "Welcome To Sky Valley" is composed of a mere three tracks, each topping fourteen minutes and subdivided into three sections. In other words, the beginnings and ends of the tracks are pretty much arbitrary. They do have one common denominator, though: they all rule. Each one is rich in experimentation and variety, encompassing hard-driving metal, trippy extended jams, and even some gentle acoustic passages.

What really elevated Kyuss to the top of the stoner/desert rock heap was the stunning virtuosity of the musicians, especially guitarist Josh Homme. I love Queens of the Stone Age, but I had no idea how good a guitarist Josh was until I started listening to Kyuss. His work with this band really is like nothing else I've ever heard. His riffs are often crushingly heavy, but they're also some of the most catchy and memorable in all of rock, and his leads are just as good. Brant Bjork's drumming is every bit as impressively technical as on "Blues For The Red Sun," and Scott Reeder's bass mirrors the guitars perfectly to add some extra heaviness. And John Garcia's wailed, gravelly vocals are the perfect complement to the band's sound. What's more, the production is absolutely perfect, allowing you to hear every nuance of the music without abandoning the fuzzy stoner vibe that's so essential in the genre.

So anyway, rock fans of all stripes can't go wrong with Kyuss. With boring, wimpy Seattle-lite and nu-metal bands clogging the airwaves, bands like this one are a useful reminder of what rock music is supposed to be. So if you don't already own it, pick up "Welcome To Sky Valley" today. And while you're at it, grab "Blues For The Red Sun." Oh, and their farewell "...And The Circus Leaves Town" is good too. So just get all three.

Boy oh boy did I make a good decision, I passed up the chance to buy Pantera's new one for Sky Valley by Kyuss. I'd never actually heard Kyuss's music, but I'd heard a great deal about them. So I gave it a try, and damn this one is right there with TooL(my fav band). Kyuss has a unique sound and they're music is like nothing you'll ever hear. From Gardenia to Whitewater this is a great musical journey. The music really touches your soul. Though it would be hard to pick a favorite song I'd have to say Space Cadet is the standout track of the entire album. It really takes you away, whenever I listen to it (or the album in general) it's like I'm in another world.It's said the best music is the music you can fall asleep to well here it is. I strongly recomend you listen to this album while reading Tolkien for that mystical journey feel and the not knowing what to expect sort of feeling, because this album is full of suprises. Once you've heard Gardenia(opening song) you'll be in awe. Kyuss had the talent and the balls to do something different and thought they never made it big, they will forever be remembered by those who have heard they're music. Once you've heard the music you'll be hooked and everything else (aside from TooL, soungarden and a few other metal bands)namely rapcore or numetal whatever you want to label that ..., will seem like well... Take my advice buy this album, you'll be doing yourself a favor.

O.K, so your looking for a hard rock album, one thats filled with groove-induced sonic rumblings, multi-layered textures and soaring melodys? well, you've just purchased the right record. From the intense opener of "Gardenia" right down to the none-less majestic conclusion of "Whitewater", this is an album that will be played for years to come. While the first tune is delivered with ferocious intensity, the ante is considerably upped with track number two "Asteroid". And boy oh boy, it just keeps getting better. Imagine yourself floating in space, admiring the view when WHAM!...your head explodes. Yep, thats "Asteroid" alright. And to think... the best is yet to come. Don't let the insane titling of "Supa scoopa and Mighty scoop" put you off, this is rock with an edge. Getting used to the fast paced desert groove? Well don't, as its about to transform into a brutal blues jam, taking no mercy. And this vein is very much continued throughout. 100 degrees is classic Kyuss, while the epic "Cosmic Rider" is Sergeant Pepper with a modern twist. "Demon cleaner" takes us all on a journey, and the albums classic track "Odyssey" packs a heavy punch. The hilariously dubbed "Conan Troutman" will rock you to your foundations,until you reach "N.O", A riff-tastic retro romp. "Whitewater" finally brings us full circle, and lets us all have a well deserved rest. Sound impressive? Sure is. You need this album. 'Nuff said.

Amazing. Let me start by saying I am NOT a heavy metal fan. My primary listening tastes lie in New Age, Jazz, and Classical. But I listen to a little bit of everything, and Sky Valley is that little bit that can satisfy the hungriest of Heavy Metal listeners.

Minus the gratuitous Whitewater track, the album is reminiscent of Black Sabbath in many ways, with a composition that also twangs of Jimmy Page (with a sweet-sounding distortion). No room for pleasantries on this album. Kyuss presses the accelerator to the floor and does not let up until the last track which detracts from the album, but will please most teenagers looking for a little toilet humor.

The guitar work is phenomenal on this album. I hear Ozzy Osborne and Randy Rhodes from Paranoid on Sky Valley, which is perhaps why I like Kyuss. The music is sentimental heavy metal. The vocals just your good ole' garage band style singing. Oldschool if you will. Pre-glamour rock. And that's just the way I like it ... pure heavy metal, without the hairspray and rhinestones.

Sky Valley, simply put, is the soundtrack of the Armageddon. Only when the final nukes are dropping and the infamous four horsemen are riding over the horizon line will the incapacitating power of this album ever be paralleled. On "Welcome to Sky Valley," Kyuss, California's premier stoner rock 4 piece, delivers yet another display of breathtaking might. While certainly not a better album than its painfully loud predecessor, the legendary "Blues for the Red Sun," Sky Valley does bear the obvious mark of evolution. Dividing itself into three distinct chapters, each grouping of songs has a radically different atmospheric aura than its surroundings, individually featuring everything from the fiercest of guitar, percussion, and vocal bouts to the gentlest of acoustic passages. When these three opposing chapters are all put together on a single disc however, they seamlessly proceed like a single extended jam session, containing the perfect balance of conflict and compliment to reach a metaphoric plateau of ideal musical harmony. Gradually shifting from the ultra sludgy riffing of Gardenia, to the quiet trance of Space Cadet, and finally ending with the psychedelic cacophony of Whitewater, every track on Sky Valley adds a new piece to the puzzle to construct something that doesn't simply feel like a CD, but fits together as a truly mammoth album. Trough deafening choruses and mellow interludes, Sky Valley manages to attain a distinctly tight unity that few albums can speak of while still maintaining an environment of variety once again certifying Kyuss' place as one of the heaviest and most intelligent bands in stoner rock's burgeoning history.

Review no.69.'Welcome...' is the band's third effort.Heard somewhere this disc had the guys taking extra time to perfect the making of this record.It shows.End result is an lp worth of ass-kicking stoner metal.Only thing that bugs me about this CD is the fact the first three tracks have three(3)tunes tracked together.I guess Kyuss doesn't want the listener(s)to skip around from song to song.Killer tunes include "Gardenia","Space Cadet","Demon Cleaner","Odyssey" and "Lick Doo".Good pick of music here.Line-up:Josh Homme-guitar&vocals,John Garcia-guitar,Nick Oliver-bass and Brant Bjork-drums.Should appeal to fans of Fu Manchu,Monster Magnet,Sons Of Otis,Fireball Ministry and Sleep.

Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley

Kyuss's legend often precedes it's name. The band that was plucked from the desert by Atlantic in the early 90s out of relative obscurity, thrown on tour with Metallica and dropped three years later after they failed to catch on with the mainstream, only to spawn an entire genre and become one of the most influential band of the 90s posthumously. An interesting story, but the fact of the matter remains that Kyuss made some great music. With Blues to the Red sun they established what would become known as "stoner rock": sludgy, sabbath influenced riffage and trippiness with enough desert punk groove to make them unique. The followup, Welcome to Sky Valley, improved upon that formula and more. Definitely one of the best albums from that era...

1. Gardenia - 10/10 - Opening with a pulsing, orgasmic intro, Gardenia throbs with an intense stoner vibe and serves as a fine primer for the monster that was Kyuss.... deep grooving bass, downtuned and spacey guitar lines, and death rattle from hell drumming, all set to a laid back desert vibe. Sky Valley sounds as if it were recorded in an open atmosphere as a jam session rather than in the studio. You can almost feel the arid air across your face... Gardenia is classic.

2. Asteroid - 9/10 - This a mescaline trip put in musical context. The image I have in my mind is of moonlit deserts and talking coyotes, etc. Monster riff, and tons of trippy effects thrown in for the stoners to appreciate. One of my favorite instrumentals ever.

3. Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop - 8/10 - This is where John Garcias vocals have a chance to shine. He's definitely one of the best rock singers around, check out Unida if you don't believe me... Supa Scoopa picks up the pace a little... Josh Homme's Stooges influence is all over this song. The false endings are a nice touch and have scared the s**t out of me many a time!

4. 100 Degrees - 10/10 - Track 2 (side 2, whatever) is the real classic on here, each song being better than the last. 100 Degrees is raw energy in the tradition of Green Machine (blues for the red sun), the kind of song you can drive fast too.

5. Space Cadet - 10/10 - This song amazes me every time. Totally a camp fire jam, though most campfire musicians lack the bass skills of one Scott Reeder.... the bassline is one of the best ever. You can't help but drift away during the solo, also one of my favorites.

6. Demon Cleaner - 10/10 - The first Kyuss song I ever heard, on Muchmusic's Loud show.. then I fell in love with the Tool cover. Opens with an amazing drum beat, then the sparse bassline, then in comes that trademark fuzzed out guitar line... perfection. I would say Demon Cleaner is Sky Valley's trademark song, and you can really hear the influence they had on the afforemention Tool and many other bands of a similar ilk.

7. Odyssey - 9/10 - Another slower Gardenia styled track, except maybe not as spacey.

8. Conan Troutman - 8/10 - Fast song with an AMAZING vocal performance by Mr. Garcia, you have to love how he hits those high notes that would kill a lesser throat.

9. N.O. - 7/10 - This one's total Sabbath worship and probably my least favorite on the album, which ain't much considering how much this cd rules.

10. Whitewater - 10/10 - Another incredible track to close things off. The bassline is incredible and the 4 minute closing jam is a perfect way to bookend a basically perfect record. This is where you put the bong back to it's respective holder and grab a bag full of cheetos. And need I mention the masterpiece bonus track "Lick My Doo"? Thought not.

So if you're still reading this, click the buy button on amazon or try to track it down at your local cd store. No hard rock or metal fan's collection is complete without this CD!

This album is the essence of simple hard, riff-heavy rock, call it stoner rock if you will - whatever genre - this will raise the hairs on the back of your neck, in a style only the rock gods in the olden days could. This was my first Kyuss album and remains my favourite after going through their discography (which, isn't really much of a feat, it is tragically small). The album's structure is of three pieces, each containing at least three songs, almost creating a medley. At first this structure frustrated me, it wasn't that accessible if I wanted to listen to a part of each long piece, but overall it creates a flow to the album, almost giving it three movements each representing different ideas and all musically diverse.

The first piece kicks of with "Gardenia" through a powerful muddy, down-tuned riff which progresses through different variations until Garcia's vocals kick in. His voice is brutally raw yet melodic at the same time. I've read some reviewers complaining about his lack of variation, but to me his voice is just perfect, complementing the heavy old-school guitars. "Gardenia" is a mighty opening blow, full of crunching riffs that engulf the listener in a thick haze of distortion. "Asteroid" is a superb instrumental, something Kyuss like to throw into the albums. It's somewhat progressive in style, built around a simple theme with some mighty crescendos thanks to Homme's advanced song structuring and mighty guitar tone.

"Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoopa" and "100 degrees" are typical Kyuss rockers, again combining great riffs and melodies. "Space Cadet" then follows halfway through piece two, and what a tremendous surprise it is, an utterly beautiful moving ballad. The guitar playing is amongst the finest on the album and Garcia's vocals are, I would argue, diverse to the usual delivery - soft and tender. The piece washes over in its seven-minute entirety almost too quickly, fortunately though it leads into my other favourite of the album, the driving "Demon Cleaner". On this one Garcia's vocals have a dreamy aspect to them, recalling the tripped out desert feel. Along with Homme's relentless riffing, this song is simply stunning.

Piece three is probably my least favourite out of the three, but is still a thundering tour-de-force of riffs and melodies. "Odyssey" is one of the most aggressive, confrontational pieces on the album, highlighted by Garcia's overwhelming delivery, launching himself into the lines `once you return from the belly of the beast/ you're never quite the same'. "Whitewater" is a fine way to close the album, a personal highlight for me. It slowly builds to a monumental riff.

This album is quite simply powerful, 'listen without distraction' it says in the liner notes, I wouldn't worry about that, this is truly engulfing stuff. For fans of old school rock and metal, and fans of metal in general, try this band immediately.

After purchasing "Blues for the Red Sun", Kyuss' second album, they have been without question my favorite band of all time. While Kyuss was never a very radio-friendly band, their work is simply unmatched. If you listen to a Kyuss album and are searching for that catchy hook that your typical radio band has, forget it. Kyuss' music is all about feeling and emotion. It's not music that you can just throw in your CD player while you are busy doing other things. Kyuss needs to be appreciated and taken in. If you wish to fully experience Kyuss, sit in a dark room with your headphones on, close your eyes, and be blown away. Although the music carries the stoner rock label and does have a psycadelic feel, you don't need any kind of a buzz to enjoy Kyuss. The MUSIC is the drug. "Welcome to Sky Valley" is an absolutely excellent piece of work. However, it's only a fraction of the Kyuss experience. I don't recommend buying "Welcome to Sky Valley." I recommend buying EVERY album this band has recorded. Although I enjoy their first record, "Wretch", it truthfully comes nowhere near their later work. It's really cool to see the band progress and mature musically with each record. I was crushed when this band broke up and my only hope is that someday they join forces again to create the best music ever made.

Sky Valley by Kyuss is quite simply the greatest rock album ever recorded. A flawless masterpiece. Genius.