Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
I agree there's a lot of crossover between those styles but I wouldn't describe High on Fire as playing any of them. To me one of the defining characteristics of all three is relatively slow tempos.
I don't know Kyuss all that well but what I remember of them doesn't sound much like High on Fire.
Hmm... that would be interesting. Let me give it a shot:
Doom—Probably the hardest to define of the three since it has a number of subgenres that are pretty different from each other, but basically I'd class it as metal with a fairly direct line of descent from Black Sabbath. Characteristics include fuzzy guitar riffing and much less emphasis on the drums than other varieties of metal.
Stoner—I would mostly consider this a subgenre of Doom. Of all styles of metal this is the one most likely to display some of the blues influence from metal's earliest years, though not always. Tempos are slow, guitars have that fuzzy doom riffing style, vocals are generally clean and songs are often quite long.
Sludge—I view sludge as sort of a 50/50 mix of doom and hardcore and as one of the noisiest types of metal. Guitars are distorted and abrasive, tempos are slow and vocals are screamed.
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Interesting take on the three, but there are a number of aspects I`d raise though.
Doom- I actually think this is the easiest to define, its the slowest of the three and draws its line of descent directly from Black Sabbath and its the least varied of the three. Typical bands are Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Candlemass and American bands Pentagram and Saint Vitus (both of these groups are not as heavy though, probably to do with the fact that they were formed in the 70`s).
Sludge- My fav of the three largely due to its influences from southern rock, blues etc and as said there is also a hardcore element typical in some of the bands like Crowbar. Typical bands are Corrosion of Conformity, Eyehategod, Down and of course the Melvins the best band, despite having a highly experimental edge.
Stoner- Again covers a wide field and along with blues influences, the psychedelic element is very evident, without doubt not as slow as the other two genres and bands in this genre can also be described as stoner rock such as Monster Magnet or desert rock, I`d also say that bands like Blue Cheer and Blue Oyster Cult were very early purveyors of this sound. Typical bands are Kyuss and Sleep.
As for High on Fire I`ll agree they are faster than I thought with a heavy Motorhead influence and touches of Slayer. But they do have a sluggish heavy Kyuss type sound as well which underpins everything. For that reason I`d still classify them as a stoner metal band with a faster sound. The drumming is about as intense as that of say Mastodon