Albums by this artist

Songs For The Deaf (Recommended) (2000)

Queens Of The Stone Age

Songs For The Deaf

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

NATN Recommended Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf Interscope, 2000 RiYL: Nirvana, Kyuss, Black Sabbath

Queens Of The Stone Age's third album, Songs For The Deaf is not only its best but quite possibly one of heavy metal's all-time masterpieces. Not a note/riff is wasted. While their 1998 debut was at times too homogeneous and monolithic, the combo went in the opposite direction on 2000's Rated R, which found it differentiating in too many styles.

Here, the group returns to the super-heavy sound of the debut but with a much improved melodic edge. This may or may not be due to the addition of Foo Fighters drummer Dave Grohl and Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan to the lineup of founding members Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri. Lanegan also sings a handful of songs, providing the third prong amid Homme and Oliveri's already potent vocal attack.

The Queens take advantage of Nirvana's patented gentle vocal melody and crushing guitar-driven explosion to great effect on "No One Knows" and "Go With The Flow." They pay to homage their headbanger roots with "Millionaire," and live up to their (unwanted) stoner rock credentials on "Do It Again" and "Song For The Deaf."

They rock and roll ("Song For The Dead," "Gonna Leave You") and they collapse ("The Sky Is Fallin'"). They feel the blues ("God Is In The Radio") and they get up again ("First It Giveth" -- check Grohl's sickening kick drum part). Mostly, they hypnotize with primal, catchy refrains, as on "Do It Again" and "Another Love Song." Stupendous.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.