Finally, here’s a lighter topic: music. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while but just took the time to start now. I want to talk about songs by lesser-known bands that still really hit for me. That’s the idea behind “mid-level big hitters”: a mid-level band (both in popularity and appeal of their music) who produces a song that’s way better than it has any right to be.
I get that this framing is kind of condescending, but I’m using it because this is how I think about a lot of these. It’s not that it’s a backhanded compliment (remember, the only thing you can really do with the back of your hand is slap someone with it), it’s that I think the fact that these songs are examples of a band kind of pushing past their normal limits. It’s not just that these are the bands’ best song; as I say in the write-ups (which I did before writing this intro portion), these songs are better than the best songs of a lot of more talented bands.
If you listen to these songs, you’ll probably hear what I’m talking about. There’s something always missing to where you can’t say that this is on the level of one of the true greats, but it just goes hard enough, hits the right notes enough, it just does enough to grab you and keep hold.
For instance, every single song on this list is better than every Motorhead song. That was how I determined the order, actually: I listened to “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead, which is not only their best song but the prototype of their other songs, and then placed all other songs either above or below it. Because “Ace of Spades” is the best Motorhead song and all of Motorhead’s songs are the same, that means that every song ranked higher is better than every song by Motorhead. But even having said that, Motorhead is definitely more talented than these bands; their songs are put together better, they’re generally better produced, they tend to be more exciting. Because while I’d put these particular songs above all Motorhead songs, I’d probably put the other songs of these bands below the Motorhead collection. That’s kind of the essence of this list.
Also, the headline of this article is extremely misleading. This is a “top ten” list but it isn’t the best ten period, and also, it isn’t necessarily about the stoner rock genre. I will list the top ten songs in the list I made (which I’ll provide at the end), but these are just the top of the list I made, not of all time.
As far as the genre goes, I put together this list based on a specific nostalgia vibe: the mid-level stoner rock I was listening to in high school. But it’s not all stoner rock. The idea was more to pick both from bands that I had started listening to in that period (and in college) and to take other songs that fit in neatly with that vibe.
So let’s start the list.
#10. “All Redheads Are Crazy” by Axehandle
Album: Axehandle (2003, n/a)
Virginia
When I did the original ordering of the list, “Manali Summer” by Gonga came out ahead of this one, but I switched them around because this song is closer to me. Why it is, I don’t really know, I’ve just always liked it. The song is effectively a horror story told over a rolling and sparking riff. I came across this song when I was first really exploring, kind of finding the limits of the metal/rock that I was into. It’s more intriguing that good in a way; that’s not a great way to describe it, but if you’ve seen a movie that you would describe as “more intriguing than good”, it might give you a hint about how I feel listening to the song. I like being here and experiencing this even if it’s truly pushing my buttons. It’s a fun listen, slowly building up until it reaches the finale which is both very tense and full of release. It seems like they really tried to use everything to drive forward this story they’re telling and it’s an admirable attempt even though I don’t think it really works.
#9. “Ambrosius” by Gnome
Album: King (2022, Polderrecords)
Belgium
Earlier I described this on BlueSky as a one-riff song but I was wrong, it’s a two-riff song. While I came across most of these songs when I was in high school, I only discovered this song and band like three years ago, but it’s the kind of thing that I would definitely have gotten obsessed over if they’d been around when I was in high school. How do I know about that? Because I didn’t even think twice about putting “Ambrosius” on this list. If I had to guess, I’d say a lot of people would rank this song above many of the ones higher on the list, but that’s because the production on “Ambrosius” is GREAT. It’s not a terribly interesting song after a while but it hits really fucking hard and I’ll always listen. I haven’t given a full album a chance yet but I have listened to some of their other singles and just haven’t been grabbed.
#8. “Drowned My Life in Fear” by Leaf Hound
Album: Growers of Mushroom (1971, Decca)
England
Whoooooooo man. This one is also from a bit later in my life, I think I stumbled across this song in college and I am not sure about where at all. As an aside, I wish I had the kind of memory that would let me tell a whole bunch of stories about this stuff, but I do not. I’m a big fan of this heavy blues type of band, a sort of proto-stoner-rock. This feels like the kind of thing that Pentagram was building off of directly. This is the first of the “cut-out” songs on this list, and actually the only one that got into this top 10, so I guess I’ll just explain that now. My current song library is what I’d call version 3. I don’t remember what happened to version 1 but I do remember having to rebuild my collection sometime in high school. Then, at some point in college I believe, I just got possessed by something and deleted a bunch of music that I wasn’t listening to. It’s not that I needed space, I was just kind of tired of scrolling past a bunch of irrelevant stuff. In that process, there were several songs where I realized I liked that song (or a couple others, like I saved three Truckfighters songs) but nothing else from the band, so I just deleted all those other albums. The thing is that I pretty much only listen to albums straight through these days (and this was already the case when I did this hatchet job) so now I just have all these weird odds-and-ends. “Ambrosius” I suppose could be considered a cut-out in that it’s the only song that I ever listen to by Gnome, but I don’t have any files (I don’t use Spotify or anything like that). Anyway, if you’re a fan of like “Slow Ride” by Foghat, Led Zeppelin, Pentagram, Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, etc., you might dig this.
#7. “Trepidation” by Castle
Album: Electric Wolves (2006, Init)
Who are Castle? I have no idea. I’ve never been able to find information about this band. I’m not going to look them up again right now (maybe I’ll edit this blog later) but when I used to look them up, I would always get information about a different Castle. As far as I know, this Castle has only ever released one three-song EP and it’s pretty fuckin good, man. I think if you’re into Isis (the band), Cult of Luna, Pelican, that kinda stuff, you’ll probably get into “Trepidation”. For my money, this song is the best of the three, but the others aren’t really too far behind. I think this song could definitely have been tightened up in places so that it would really pop, and I truly thought this is would get higher on the list before I listened to it again. Still a great song and well worth your time.
#6. “Secrets of the Mind” by Valkyrie
Album: Valkyrie (2006, Twin Earth)
Virginia
This is one of my comfort songs. It’s right up there along with the album Sun Meditation by NAEVUS as something I just love to throw on and jam out to. “Secrets of the Mind” is a really chill song that has a really strangely fantastical feel, almost ethereal. That might have a lot to do with the production. On the other hand, though, I feel like the production really lets this song down. When I hear how this song goes it strikes me as a better tune than songs higher than this on the list, but the production makes everything sound so faded; there’s no punch. And I don’t think this is necessarily a given if you want to have that kind of ethereal quality to the sound; I think you can get a bit more punch in there despite doing that. Instead, at least from the album version, it sounds almost like someone is listening to the song in the next room over. More than any other song on this list, I think this one requires you to kind of “fill in the blanks” with your imagination; you can imagine what this might be if they re-recorded it.
#5. “Orgy of the Rats” by Blood Farmers
Album: Blood Farmers (1995, Hellhound)
New York
Now this is a song that just hits you right in the face. There’s a bit of an intro, like ratcheting up to the top of the roller coaster, and then BANG, horror movie doom metal. One of the ways I’ve always described the album Witchcult Today by Electric Wizard is as haunted jalopy music, and “Orgy of the Rats” is right there: it’s bouncy but spooky, it hits you hard, it lets you know that danger is about, but somehow you still feel good about it. The main riff of the song is fan-fucking-tastic, it amps me up to 1000% immediately. There is a clip on YouTube of two brothers playing about a minute and a half of the intro in a garage with an inflatable turtle. I love it. The song meanders a bit towards the middle, but the final minute picks up into another really sublime climbing riff.
#4. “World of Suffering” by It Is I
Album: Evolve (1994, Dwell)
California
If “Orgy of the Rats” is haunted jalopy music, “World of Suffering” is like Hellraiser music. It starts out with a portal made of razor blades and then abruptly you’re dumped right into the world of suffering: a grinding, churning hellscape with towers spewing oil, smoke, and fire. Pinhead is an android, the Chatterer’s mouth is the woodchipper from Fargo, and you’re going to be put to work on the Conan wheel turning a huge Borg queen statue. It’s a total transportation. Now, there is a reason that people remember Sleep and not It Is I (the guitarist Thomas Choi was in Sleep just before this band), but you can stack “World of Suffering” up against “Dragonaut” any day of the week.
#3. “In Other Wor(l)ds” by Acrimony
Album: Bong On – Live Long! (2007, Leaf Hound)
Wales
While I have put this song pretty high on this list, the fact that I’m putting it here at all hurts me. It’s forcing me to admit to myself that Acrimony really isn’t all that good. I hate doing that because I always felt that Acrimony was like an unsung band, a band that more people really needed to hear. But while I was doing this I realized that I don’t really like many of their other songs. They’re fine but very replaceable. And now I have to accept this. (If you’re in Acrimony and reading this: I’m sorry, I love you.) The flip side of saying that, though, is that this song is really fucking good. The verse is not much to write home about, for sure, but it does its job. It carries you forward, it keeps you interested, and it’s much different than the chorus. Because it’s the chorus where everything just comes together so well. It’s a great example of a bit of music that is not “musically interesting”, it’s not rhythmically complex or remarkable, it’s just utterly compelling. Almost any stoner rock/metal band that I listen to could have written this riff. But Acrimony did write it, and they did the riff justice. And the singer, not a great singer, fairly weak voice, but he’s just GOING for it, and I LOVE that. 9 times out of 10 I would rather have someone who can’t really sing but in the band just go for broke over getting a “trained singer”. At the same time, I think you can tell their weaknesses from this song, too. The main one is that they end the song twice which was a bad call. The first time they end it it’s just perfect, but then you get another verse and chorus. And I mean, they’re great, but you still did ruin what felt like the natural arc of the song. But like I’m gonna say with the top song, this is a band who isn’t top-flight who are at the peak of their powers.
#2. “Diamond” by Scott Reeder
Album: TunnelVision Brilliance (2006, Liquor and Poker)
California
The off-cut man and his album of off-cuts. Scott Reeder is a stoner rock journeyman, playing in Kyuss, the Obsessed, and Fireball Ministry, and even appearing in the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster. He’s done a lot of production as well; Wikipedia says he produced Karma to Burn’s Appalachian Incantation as well as my favorite Orange Goblin album Coup de Grace. He’s done a lot but I don’t think he’s in any band’s “definitive lineup”. So in the mid-2000s, he put together an album of songs he wrote but that didn’t go with the bands he was in at the time, and it’s… it’s pretty alright. Listening through, there’s definitely the feeling that there might be a level beyond most of these songs that isn’t being reached. “Diamond” is a huge exception. I believe it’s the first song I heard off of this album and I was convinced to buy it immediately. This is one where while I can see why it didn’t hit for another group he was with, it really jumps off the page. If the entire album was on this level it would be a major classic, but you probably haven’t heard of the album, which kind of makes my point. Check this one out, though. This is not a metal song or even a heavy rock song; it’s more like a strange singer-songwriter tune, like the song sung in a movie cameo by an alternate universe David Bowie.
#1. “Fear Death by Water” by Sixty Watt Shaman
Album: Seed of Decades (2000, Spitfire)
Maryland
This song is a triumph. If there were like stoner metal standards this should be one. Every time I listen to this song it blows me away with just its sheer power. The first riff is like a daytripper up and down the necks of the guitars in a way that you can imagine a very specific stomping dance going along. And THEN their vocalist Danny Maryland/Kerzwick/Soren/Ocean just BELTS out those first lines. He’s got a middle deep voice but he can stretch it and he does. Then as he gets through the verse, the bridge shocks its way into life and keeps pulling you along, and Dan’s right there screaming at you. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard.
I first came across the album in high school, and I’m not sure exactly how I found it or decided to buy it. I know I saw it on stonerrock.com (RIP) and got it from there. I’m guessing that I bought it intentionally just because I remember two freebies that I got from them and this isn’t one (if you’re wondering, it was a Thrones LP which I never listen to and a Golden Pig Electric Blues Band CD which I listen to maybe once every two years. Since that time it’s just entranced me. There aren’t too many other songs from this band that I do listen to and it’s been a long ass time since I’ve sat down with it, but I’ve never forgotten this cut. This is a band which generally has pretty middling output but who, on this track, had everything working their way. It feels like they just give it everything on this one.
Full List
- “Fear Death by Water” by Sixty Watt Shaman
- “Diamond” by Scott Reeder
- “In Other Wor(l)ds” by Acrimony
- “World of Suffering” by It Is I
- “Orgy of Rats” by Blood Farmers
- “Secrets of the Mind” by Valkyrie
- “Trepidation” by Castle
- “Drowned My Life in Fear” by Leaf Hound
- “Ambrosius” by Gnome
- “Manali Summer” by Gonga (switched with All Redheads Are Crazy)
- “All Redheads Are Crazy” by Axehandle (switched with Manali Summer)
- “Black Forest Hamm” by Lesbian
- “Stay Away” by Lucky Funeral
- “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead
- “Gay Rodeo” by Houston Swing Engine
- “This Time It’s For Real” by Lord Sterling
- “They Sent You” by Mare
- “The Supreme Moment” by Centurions Ghost