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Sweet Leaf — the Rise of Stoner Metal
Part 5 of The Beginner’s Guide to Heavy Metal
Welcome to Part 5 in this series which aims to provide an insight into heavy metal, its origins, and the development of various sub-genres over the past 50 years or so.
In Part 1, I gave a basic introduction to the genre for, as the title suggests, the absolute beginner. I then welcomed my friend Charles in San Francisco to contribute Part 2, where he questioned assumptions about metal and examined some artists pushing the boundaries. In my absence, Charles also prepared Part 3 and Part 4. Thanks so much to Charles and other friends at The Riff for their kind words over the past couple of months.
Part 5 presents an overview of the origin of doom metal and, in particular, the development of the broad church that is stoner doom, stoner metal and stoner rock.
Remember, these pieces are not comprehensive; they have been prepared to give one a taste of the music styles. Treat each as a signposting exercise and follow your nose down the paths before you.
Black Sabbath, arguably the greatest heavy band of all time, created the doom metal prototype in their self-titled song from their self-titled album.
Ozzy Osbourne, in his book I Am Ozzy, recalls how the band decided to follow the ‘evil’ path:
There was a cinema called The Orient outside the community centre where we rehearsed in Six Ways, and whenever it showed a horror film the queue would go all the way down the street and around the corner.
“Isn’t it strange how people will pay money to frighten themselves?” I remember Tony [Iommi] saying one day. “Maybe we should stop doing blues and write scary music instead.”
And so songs like Black Sabbath and NIB came into being. Even the debut album’s cover is disconcerting. Many suspect or assume that there was just a hint of the industrial bleakness of the band’s hometown, Birmingham, that influenced their sound, too.
Doom metal was born, with multiple bands in the doom genre years later citing Black Sabbath as the pioneer and main influence. The bleak outlook, slow tempos, and down-tuned instruments all became signatures of doom metal. Bands like Candlemass, Pentagram, Cathedral, Saint Vitus…
