Along with San Jose, California's Sleep, Kyuss set down the blueprint forstoner rock, with a groovier, more alternative rock-influenced take onSabbath than their classically-obsessed brethren to the north. Formed inPalm Desert, California in 1990 by guitarist Josh Homme, bassist NickOliveri, drummer Brant Bjork and singer John Garcia, the band quickly gaineda following on the strength of their raging live performances and secondrecord, Blues For The Red Sun, which was produced by Chris Goss ofMasters Of Reality. Kyuss' magnum opus, Welcome To Sky Valleyfollowed, a record in which they took their once somewhat tightly structuredgroove-rock songs and smashed them together into extended, multipart,super-heavy psyche-metal jams. The guitar sound itself on the first threeminutes of that record sums up late '90s stoner rock -- a warm blanket ofdistortion with unheard of amounts, yet precisely controlled fuzz with aslightly muffled feel. Personal differences beset the band early on and bythe release of And The Circus leaves Town in 1995, Kyuss had calledit quits for good. Homme went on to form Queens Of The Stone Age withOliveri.
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