Kuss - And The Circus Leaves Town (1995)

A big cult band, this being the bands final journey into stoner rock. For me this spaced out type of retro-riff heavy rock signalled the arrival of what became known, rather irritatingly, as 'stoner'. An almost cosmic step on from 'doom', but far less atmospheric and certainly less gifted than say the mighty Trouble. The likes of Sheavy, Orange Goblin, Monster Magnet, all dabbled in the sounds of space rock, touches of Mudhoney, The Stooges and of course Sabbath, but never once getting close to the monolithic haze created by the Brummie masters. 'Hurricane' and 'One Inch Man' are blessed with concrete buzz riffs, which for me seem to drown the vocals and the whole hazy high the band creates leaves me rushing for the toilet to be honest. I get nothing from Kyuss whatsoever, in the same way I get nothing from doom mongers Electric Wizard, it just all seems predictable and faceless. I don't even want to bore myself by extending the review even more except to say that this type of stuff, which ran alongside the rise of nu-metal, was another sign that metal in the mid '90s was dead.

4/10