Here's a band I know nothing about, but they have a sorta cool name. Also their debut album has a very kitschy 70s-esque cover. The opening track "Regular John" is a crunchy, distorted, high-energy mix of grunge and a bit of 80s hair metal. I'm not blown away, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
"Avon" follows a similar sound and riff pattern consisting mostly of pounding out eighth notes. "If Only" contains a bit of keyboards, but so far I feel like all three songs have been in exactly the same key. That might just be because every song so far uses the same crunchy guitar sound and the riffs, beats, and melodies aren't terribly complex. A few songs in and I feel like Queens Of The Stone Age really don't want to be Nirvana, but I can't help but compare them to Nirvana anyway. Or at least compare them to the little I know about Nirvana. Queens Of The Stone Age clearly want to be a hard rock band, maybe with a bit of thrash in their sound. I just can't get past how grungy they sound, and not even in an interesting way. About the only thing Queens Of The Stone Age does that is special is the closing theramin freakout. Even that doesn't get much more exciting that random noise.
Sigh, I don't know. I didn't hate it. Might have liked it for a while. I really don't know. I think of all the crap albums I've heard and don't think Queens Of The Stone Age belongs with them. But I also think of albums that I genuinely had some enthusiasm for and Queens Of The Stone Age certainly doesn't belong with them. So... 2 stars.
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