These days, I no longer take LSD, but I used to do it all the time and unlike kids these day never listened to electronic music or hippy shit, when I did, as light and love is not really my thing. Here are the songs that were my soundtrack for those days. If you are celebrating Albert Hoffman's bicycle ride today, then here are some songs that set the mood for my many meetings with demons, Aliens, and keepers of cosmic planes. Give these tunes a shot to tape into a heftier vibrational frequency that is more aggressive than passive. Perhaps a little darker, but you gotta get in touch with your shadow side somehow, so here are the top 10 metal songs to trip to.
10- Marilyn Manson- "Cake and Sodomy"
There was an entire summer where I listened to this song at the onset of every trip, and dropped acid on an almost daily basis that summer.
9- Metallica- "Orion"
This was always a good one to transition from a lucid state into the onset of altered consciousness.
8-Sugartooth- "Black Queen"
Despite the double bass sections, this was a staple of my tripping sessions.
7- Morbid Angel- "Where the Slive Live"
One of the few death metal songs that sounds great tripping. If you want to scare hippies, crank this one while you are peaking.
6-Tiamat- "Whatever That Hurts"
An underrated band, I tripped to the "Wildhoney" album many a night. Almost like a metal version of Psychic TV.
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5-Voivod- "Astronomy Domine"
You can't have a list about tripping without one Pink Floyd cover on it, and it might as well be the best.
4-Type O Negative- "Green Man"
Pink Floyd covers aside, this song comes the closest to the kind of hippy vibes I am not normally about, but the dusky shadows underlying this forest stroll are what work.
3-Neurosis - "Souls at Zero"
I had some major altered experiences that the song "Locust Star' played heavily into; this song set an overall better mood.
2-Monster Magnet -"Ego the Living Planet"
Most of my friends know the story about my most intense trip that involved this song and my Ouija Board. I talk to planets, baby
1-Black Sabbath- "Megalomania"
Ozzy has stated that Black Sabbath were not a rock band that dabbled in drugs, but a drug band that dabbled in rock, and none of the other bands on this list would exist without them, so they take the top song.
I used to love their first two albums. I did a shit ton of drugs to both. They eventually got a little to middle of the road rock for me and by today's definition might not be metal. So I am giving their new one a shot. First off lyrically they have gone down the toilet. There is an element to "Soul" that is a little too peppy for. This punk thing they are is not letting up and finds them having more in common with the MC5 than Black Sabbath. While I don't mind a little kicking out of the jams on occasion I am not sure this plays to their strengths. The title track is the first song that really connects with me even though it might be a little more upbeat than I remember their old stuff being. "I'm God" also connects the dots to the band I used to listen to. It's not as upbeat and a little darker. These guys are such a guitar driven band that they need the level of playing on this song to compensate that Dave's voice is more attitude than pipes.
His voice takes a bluesier turn and almost sounds like Nick Cave on "Drowning". "Ejection" feels more like filler in it's proto-punk stomp. I don't think that this is what the band does best. "Want Some" seems like a better use of their talents. It still has some of the raw power of early Stooges punk, but with the cerebral space rock that defines their brand of hard rock. Their is a hint of Blue Cheer and Cream to the more garage rock shuffle of " Brainwashed". I think what I want more of is the trippy haze that used to menace their songs and I am not sure where this punk thing is coming from. Gone is the hooky sense of adventure that used to define them . It's been replaced by a 60s vibe that can be felt on the boogie of "All Day Midnight" which is a step in a better direction for them. There is nothing that really comes close to being metal here except for the more powerful they take on the last song. The effects on his voice is a wise move. This what I want from the band so I am sure why there was not more of this on this album.
I'll round this down to an 8.5. This album is good and if you are a fan that has hung with the band in more recent years than this won't phase you as much as it does me since I want them to sound like they did 20 years ago. On most occasions they are good at what they are doing it's not what I want them to be doing so this album might be better than my sense of nostalgia allows it to be, but I think even with that in consideration, a 8.5 is a very fair score.
Going into this all I knew was two of the members are in Monster Magnet. I loved Monster Magnet's first three albums. These guys might be stoner rock , but that is where the comparisons end. They race off into a cloud of bong smoke. It was when I got to "Alaskan Thunderfuck" that it hit me 'Damn, these songs are fast for stoner rock, these guys must be doing more cocaine than they are smoking pot". The songs are all very brief, so think more in terms of punk rock when it comes to something "Shocker". The vocal are really well produced. The lyrics are amusing. Even though it's pretty uptempo when they slow down a few bpms on"Crazy" the song excels as it feels less rushed.
There are some interesting guitar tone. Normally its very compressed and not a fuzzy as you normally associate with this kind of thing. On the instrumental "Fried , Dyed and Laying to the Side" you can tell that these guys would be fun live. The first song that I really hear a touch of metal is "Shell of a Man". The thing that keeps this from being metal more often than not is how it's fun, but it's not dark, in fact it's very bright sometimes reminding me of the Foo-fighters. I like these guys better than the Foo-fighters because they are devoid of the radio cheesiness. In my book everything after the Foo-fighters second album sucks. I will say their formula gets a little stale by the time we get to "Houndstooth" as this sounds like all the other songs.
I like the title "Tits and Bones". The song itself runs at a hyper shuffle. The vocals are very deliberate. The way the vocals fall remind me more of Queens of the Stoneage. "Humble Brag" kinda raced by it blurred in with the other songs. The vocals to "Super Highway" have a little more to hook you in and the guitar more punch so these two factors work for me. "Liv A little" has a Gary Glitter kind of stomp to it's 70s rock aspirations until it gets into it's boogie. This is the first time I notice the bass player. I'll give this album a 8.5 and see how it grows on me. Some of the racing paces to these songs make them blur a little , but I like the kind of smart ass cocky vibe of the lyrics as this is a ton of fun.
Here is another installment, you know what we are doing... winding our way down not the albums that sold the most or were even the most critcally acclaimed at the time but what has held up over the years.
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80- Godflesh- "Selfless"
Justin reached a balance of industrial pound and musicality with enough room to experiment with more electronic elements. More daring and heavier than Helmet.
79- Elliot Smith-x/o
If you were depressed and driven to drink in 1998 why would you have wanted to listen to anything else. This morose singer songwriter created the perfect soundtrack for the lowest of swings, was pretty good hangover music , if memory serves me. I got to catch him in concert before he died in 2003. I can't really imagine him doing anything else but dying of a self inflicted stab wound samurai style, take that Bright Eyes. >
&n
78-the Faint-"Blank Wave Arcade"
They got darker and heavier and more grandiose, but this album has something sleazy about it that I like and was a sign things were changing in 1999. Brilliant lyrics they predicted the rise of the hipster. Many of today's new wave revival bands could take notes from this album.
77-Monster Magnet -"Dopes to Infinity"
At one point in my life all my stories began with "Once when I was tripping..." My weirdest memory was the song below was playing while I was tripping and playing with a ouija board by myself in the hallway of an old apartment. My room mate's door was open and his fan was blowing out into the hall way. Not knowing this I assumed it was evil spirits blowing into my mind and turning me into the re-incarnation of a 14th century French Prince. Sure if had a radio hit on it, but that happened on their own terms. Literally mind blowing.
76-Life of Agony-"The River Runs Red"
Their singer's river does run red now, but this album was gritty and desperate . Like if Stone Temple Piolots had been a hard core band before being influenced Pearl Jam influence, since any band influenced by Pearl Jam would suck, they had elements of Biohazard and Type O mixed, with a brilliant story woven into the album.
75-Tears for Fears- "Raoul and the Kings of Spain"
If you weren't ready to let go of the 80s by 1995 , these guys released their 5th album, which holds a slight Latin undercurrent, but proved that they were not just a new flux and could make serious music when they weren't shouting to let it all out.
74-Primus- "Sailing the Seas of Cheese"
The rubber bass of Claypool, slapped this album that was heavy due to the thick angular groove, but also managed to weave some hooks in with his nasal voice.
73-Lenny Kravitz- "Mama Said"
Sure you would eventually go to get tired of hearing this guy all over the radio on the albums that followed, this one was diverse and soulful, pulling from every one from Prince to Lennon to Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone. Slash showed up on the album and it rocked in many different ways.
72-White Zombie-"Astro Creep 2000"
When I first heard these guys it was during the 80s off an album called "Make Them Die Slowly" it sounded like a deranged horror version of Iggy Pop, so when "la Sexorcisto" came out I thought how the hell did they turn into Metallica. This album was a breath of fresh air and sounded pretty good when lots of drugs were ingested, the industrial turn worked better than their stab at thrash.
71-Pixies- "Trompe Le Monde"
Their final album rocked harder than perhaps even "Doolittle" . It was a fitting swan song with it's incredible guitar tones and the band hitting the perfect balance between poppy and weirdness that flips onto an almost punk craze on a dime. They also cover the Jesus and Mary Chain.
