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Wretch

Kyuss - Wretch Audio CD

A fair review of the Kyuss "Wretch" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Kyuss reviews here, or go back to the Kyuss tabs.

Band: Kyuss
Title: Wretch
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-10-13
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: (Beginning of What's About to Happen) Hwy 74 2: Love Has Passed Me By 3: Son of a Bitch 4: Black Widow 5: Katzenjammer 6: Deadly Kiss 7: Law 8: Isolation 9: I'm Not 10: Big Bikes 11: Stage III

For Die-Hard Fans Only....
This is a great Kyuss album but if you look for thier other studio albums you could find other ones to better introduce you to them. . Right off the bat you'll notice the kind-of glam metal/rock vibe in the music. . . . But that shouldn't deter you from just listening to all their songs. . . But songs like Stage III, Son Of A Bitch, The Law, and Black Widow will lock you in for a listening experience. . . Definitely a album for really die-hard Kyuss fans (like me). . . . . But you should check it out. . . I gave it four stars because Their future albmus just blow this out of the water like this one And The Circus Leaves Town So does Blues For The Red Sun. . . . and Definitely The Welcome To Sky Valley EP but this is the first. . . If you Don't Count Sons of Kyuss.

perfect dose of musical warfare
The guitar and bass sounds are flawlessly recorded. how can anyone give this album anything less than a 5? from start to finish it gives the listener a completely unrelentless onslaught of dirty desert rock. They fuse together to form a wall of sludgy down tuned mayhem. A must buy for ANY rock and roll fans. To hell with genre classifications. People that feel the need to group everything into a category can suck it. Good music is good music. And Wretch is beyond good.

This is where it all began. Stoner Rock's Roots...
. okay, maybe not Stoner Rock's roots. However, it is the roots of Southern California stoner rock. This is Kyuss' first album. It's not quite on the same level as Sky Valley or Blues For The Red Sun, but it's a damn good album that rocks start to finish. I must say, the two forementioned albums are the only reason I gave this four stars and not five. Kyuss bloomed right after this album. They were still in the growing process, during this one.

It gets 4 stars only because its Kyuss - a truly great band
These comparisons are not fair, but if you are familiar with anything else that Kyuss has done, this album is a sore thumb, a peculiar anomaly, a pair of red socks in dress shoes. You can hear an odd mixture of Metallica, Megadeth, Sabbath, maybe some Motley Crue in here somewhere.

Josh Homme has some wailing solos in this one, which seems way out of character. The change in his style between "Welcome to Sky Valley" and "Wretch" is incredible, as drastic as his change between QOTSA's "Lullabies to Paralyze" and Kyuss' ". . . And the Circus Leaves Town". No one would have ever guessed that he might have tried to solo like Dave Mustaine, but what other influences might he have if he started playing guitar in the late 1980s/early 1990s? "Son of a B*tch" is about as heavy riffing metal as you can get. Heavy and low, but not necessarily fast.

Brant Bjork's drums have an echo to them like so many metal albums of that era, as if the studio was set up in a great hall. Perhaps if the album was mixed differently, recorded in a live studio, it might sound more like the Kyuss with which everyone is familiar. John Garcia has a lot of work to do until he polishes his vocals. And Nick Olivieri is so quiet its like he isn't there. . . not nearly the crazy and flamboyant person that he is (was) in Queens of the Stoneage.

Songs like "Deadly Kiss" show the influence of Sabbath, most definitely. In some ways this song is like some of Nirvana's work on "Bleach", or the hidden track on "Nevermind". I hear some "Negative Creep" in here somewhere. Tuned way low, way way low. You can just tell that Homme had a copy of "Paranoid" sitting somewhere with "And Justice For All" and "Rust in Peace", right next to a new copy of "Bleach" and maybe some Soundgarden? "Loud Love" perhaps?

In the "The Law", Homme has discovered fret tapping, though the songs breaks midway into a low bass grind. A lot like "Creep" from Nirvana's "Bleach".

My comparisons are not justified. It's certainly not fair, because Kyuss grew to become something completely original, something unlike any other band before them. But they had to start somewhere, "Wretch" is a snapshot of their beginnings. In the appropriate context, this album is original and unique. It was a quiet diversion from the typical rock of 1990-1991. As the hot pink and green started to fade away, and it was no longer cool to wear leather a$$-less pants, there was a small subgroup of musicians searching for new meaning in music. Kyuss carried elements of metal with them and turned it into something different, something with substance that wasn't necessarily dark or angry, but definitely meaningful. It didn't fit with anything else, and it would almost seem like Kyuss was either 10 years too early or 10 years too late. Music too good to be wasted on fans of Creed or Duran Duran. I have a copy of "Wretch". I rarely listen to it, but when I do, I like it, because it is a piece of history, a collectors item to add to my collection of Kyuss-QOTSA-Slo Burn-Unida CDs that I rate on par with many timeless classics. .

Desert Paradise!
This music is not for the soft hearted. 1.
2. The tracks elicit wanton desires.
3. This music is pre-QOTSA and is not trendy.
4. The band line up is no where as important as the music.
5. The band line up is very, very cool indeed.

What's going on here is groove metal at it's finest. This music is stylistic in all it's glory, giving you some solid sounds from the wayward desert side.

The guitar drawls and the rhythym is like a steady rip tide of slash & thrash. Snug angry music, the sort of inspiration a young soul needs to DTB (DTB apply's to both genders). I believe this album is best enjoyed pool side with the carn� grilln and the ladies serving up the margaritas.

*Band Line up:
Brant Bjork!! on drums.
Josh Homme!! on guitar.
Nick Oliveri!! on bass.
John Garcia!! on vocals.
Chris Cockrell!! on bass.
Mixed by Kris Fuhrman.
Mixed by Michael Mikulka.
Mastered by Carol Hibbs.
Produced by Catherine Enny, Ron Krown & Kyuss. .

You can see a complete list of all Kyuss discography, or go back to the Kyuss tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.