97. Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops (1994)
Kind of hard to describe this bitch. I guess it's kind of like the Ride the Lightning of stoner metal: certainly part of its genre, but with such an eclectic collection of songs that just calling it stoner metal doesn't quite do it justice. You've got stoner doom in "The Blue", the pure Sabbath-meets-hardcore-punk stoner of "Tranquilized", flirtations with death metal and death/doom on "Jezebel" and "Dr. Seuss Is Dead", and one of the most nihilistically beautiful ballads in existence with "Scream of the Butterfly". Their singer is also an integral part of their sound. His tortured screams are present and correct, but he has a clean singing voice somehow even more horrific, mocking in its morbid delight at the disturbing tales it reveals.
This record is a towering monument of stoner metal that completely eclipses all but the very finest of its competitors; a masterpiece with unique songs that are catchy as sin, creepy as ****, and that will make your head bang right off its neck with or without your consent. If you have any love for stoner or just metal in general then you owe it to yourself to listen to this albums five times in a row ... now ... right now. Go away and blast this **** already, *******!
Unfortunately, there are like no Youtube videos of either any single songs or the entire album on Youtube, so here's a Grooveshark link. Enjoy.
Grooveshark: Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops