Choice Is Yours Vol. 53: Welcome to Sky Valley vs. Dopethrone
Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
Vs.
Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (2000)
The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…
November 17th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
While I normally wouldn’t do two weeks of Doom/Stoner CIY, but I just wanted to add more fuel to the fire of last week’s Choice Is Yours throw down
90’s Classic vs. 00’s Classic… Or are we going to get a bunch of “Kyuss, John Garcia and Josh Homme suck” comments?
November 17th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
KYUSS !!!!!! “Sky Valley” was a F’in masterpiece! Now I gotta put it on…which is never a bad thing!
November 17th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Dopethrone. When it comes to the slow & heavy genre, classic doom beats out stoner style every time.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
VERY TOUGH. Man. Dopethrone is my second favorite EW album, We Live being the first.
Kyuss was from a different time in my life though. The age of TOOL, NIN and Melvins. Trying to put myself back into my teenage years and Houdini / Stoner Witch / Undertow’s influence on my current taste.
Jus Oborn’s vocals (British with distortion) / riffs along with Mark Greening’s bass create a fucking chilling setting especially in “Funeralopolis” and “We Hate You” is one of their best songs. EW continues to influence artists in the genre but in no way influenced as many as Kyuss.
John Garcia and Joshua Homme form an entirely different sound that’s more akin to desert rock and has influenced bands like Mozergush (awesome band). Kyuss’ music isn’t as occult-themed (even though they are still heavily influenced) and is a little more psychedelic / less droney. Very much California at the time. Demon Cleaner and Conan Troutman are great pieces…
People complain all of EW’s albums sound the same, which isn’t true. Dopethrone continues where Supercoven left off and the albums after Dopethrone are entirely different sounding (mostly due to member changes).
I dunno.. It’s a tough one and no matter what I say, Mike Jones and MPTC will disagree… But Dopethrone is more doomish and Welcome To Sky Valley is clearly stoner psych.
Sorry guys, Dopethrone. Just a better album from start to finish. Sound is consistent and it delivers. Put “I, The Witchfinder” against any song off Welcome To Sky Valley and it’s a no-brainer.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
John you’re just so wrong yet again.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Well duh. You’ve only said 100000 times how you dislike EW. We all know you’re stuck in the 90’s man!
November 17th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I’ve NEVER said I dislike Electric Wizard. You have me confused with someone else. I like Electric Wizard very much, I just don’t think their the greatest thing since sliced bread the way you do.
And saying I’m stuck in the 90’s is ridiculous.. It’d be like me saying that by your picks you only know and care about music from this past decade. Welcome to Sky Valley is just the better album.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Ah I feel like you did this for me Mike!
It’s super hard to choose, but Sky Valley is brilliant, EW is pretty great too, but this album doesn’t have the same energy for me… KYUSS wins
November 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
hahaha, yes “dislike” was the wrong word. You’ve totally said to me on numerous occasions “they’re not that good, all their albums sound the same”.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Kyuss without even a second thought
November 17th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Electric Wizard’s albums all do sound somewhat the same and I’ve never said “they’re not that good”. I have said “they’re not as amazing as you keep making them out to be”
November 17th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
What’s wrong with being stuck in the 90’s?
November 17th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
nothing, but it will influence your decision in a time like this…
November 17th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Hard, but I gotta go with Welcome to Sky Valley.
It pretty much defined my sixteenth year, and began my foray into doom/stoner shit…just as Kyuss are often credited with creating the latter. Plus, I just never really got into Dopethrone, or even Electric Wizard, as much as Kyuss. I guess I just more tend toward the psychedelic…Sleep’s Dopesmoker is one of my favorite albums.
But this is all personal stuff. No real arguments here.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Kyuss for sure. actually great for the party, and for racing your motorcycle across the desert tundra at 90 MPH.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Dopethrone.
November 17th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
We’re not getting a Jack Crank appearance in here?
November 17th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Dopethrone (hands down)
November 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Dopethrone is a doom masterpiece!!!
November 18th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Chris Cornell. Oh wait…
November 18th, 2009 at 10:12 am
You rang? Dopethrone by a mile. Never could get in to Kyuss for some reason. Always feel like I’m missing something with them. Then I remember that the thing I’m missing is John Garcia shutting the fuck up and just letting the riffs do the work.
Also, the whole title of “Heaviest Band in the Universe” is there for a reason. I still have intestinal track problems from seeing them in May.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Just to clarify though, I’ve always been more of a straight doom than a psyche/desert doom kinda guy so I’m pretty biased.