ARTIST: Kyuss                   

TITLE: Wretch

YEAR RELEASED: 1991

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: None

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Well, Josh Homme fans MAYBE

LINEUP: John Garcia, Josh Homme, Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri. Chris Cockrell played bass on two cuts.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Debut album from stoner desert metal band has a few good riffs but a flat production.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: There’s some decent riffs here and there in this debut album from Kyuss. Coming out of the desert in California, the band was tight and had some power behind them, but a flat production did them in.

John Garcia’s vocals are distinctive and rise above the stoner sludge put down by Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri. Some of the tempos are faster than the normal stoner rock drones, yet the faster ones aren’t as effective as the down tempo ones. The drop tuning guitars sound better slower.

Better things would be in store for Kyuss, but this is a completist record for fans only.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Originally, the band was called Katzenjammer, then Sons of Kyuss.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No 

GRADE: C+: Eh.