Yob and Kadavar

Another two stoner rock bands worthy of note and attention.  But before I reach them, I have a few comments.

First, as I noted before, notwithstanding the label, you don’t have to smoke marijuana to enjoy stoner rock.  Plenty of non-stoners enjoy Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and the Grateful Dead.  If you can enjoy those bands without weed, you can enjoy any combination thereof.

Second, Brazil – again.  To my knowledge there are several Brazilian stoner rock bands, but as yet I haven’t heard them and can’t tell which are the Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Sleep, Saint Vitus, etc. of that country.   “This merits further study.”  When I have completed my analysis, rest assured, my loyal readers, you will hear about it.

Third.  The Portuguese word for marijuana is maconha, pronounced “mah-COIN-ya”.  In English we generally refer to marijuana smokers as being “stoned” and, refer to them as “stoners”.  Brazilians turn maconha into an adjective, maconhado (stoned – male; a stoned woman would be “maconhada”) and a noun, maconheiro (female, maconheira).  So a stoner rocker would be a metaleiro maconheiro.  A Brazilian stoner rock fan?  Metaleiro maconheiro brasileiro.  Being VERY stoned?  Maconhadão (-ão = BIG).   

Anyhow.  After awhile all those bands tend to sound the same, so when I find one that doesn’t, it’s a nice surprise.  Here are two who are sufficiently different – and different from each other.

Kadavar.  From Berlin, Germany.  This band has Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann (guitar/vocals), Christophe "Tiger" Bartelt (drums), and Simon "Dragon" Bouteloup (bass).  I have their most recent album, oddly enough titled Berlin.  It’s damn good.  Good hard rock, not too drony, and nice, airy production.  Too many bands compress the hell out of their stuff and it winds up sounding like some putrid fruit cake.  [QOTSA, please get Chris Goss back as your producer.]

 

YOB. Shamelessly ripping off Wikipedia (thanks!), YOB is a doom metal band from Eugene, Oregon: Aaron Rieseberg, Travis Foster, and Mike Scheidt. While Kadavar have shorter, snappier songs, Yob go for more an Electric Wizard style drone.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that the drone has some articulate jamming in it, instead of merely being endlessly repetitive.  The best analogy I can make is being smothered by a very dark, elaborate oriental carpet.  The melody changes up enough to avoid boring you to sleep.  I have Clearing the Path to Ascend, their newest album, four tracks between 11 and 18 minutes. 

Both bands are available on Spotify, so you have NO excuse not to get listening.  Now.  Thank you.