When Weed And Metal Goes Wrong Pt. II

Thanks to the feedback for the first post of 'When Weed And Metal Goes Wrong'! There were some good ideas, additional mentions of metal failing at the topic of weed, and other discussion. If you missed the inaugural post, check it out HERE.

Again, like mentioned in the first post, most of the time weed and metal is a great combo, however, when you fuck it up, you fuck it up so bad that it’s laughable and/or sad. I’ve also foregone the “traditional” metal/stoner bands cause that’s just like shooting fish in a barrel.

For the second installment of 'WWAMGW' I'm gonna expand the boundaries a bit further than just rattle off bad metal songs about marijuana. For starters, a few readers mentioned Pantera in the first post which piqued my curiosity because off the top of my head I couldn't think of an overtly "weed" song that Pantera had written. Where did this connection come from? I searched through lyrics and album art and couldn't find any solid leads. In fact, I was surprised that Far Beyond Driven only mentions 'dope' a couple times and the word 'smoke' three times throughout the whole album - WTF?! Where was the Pantera-Weed connection? Coming up empty handed, I think I’ve finally found the culprit connecting the band to weed, quite simply: their merchandise. Talk about great branding! Rarely mentioned in song at all, the band earned their weed-loving rep through various pot-leaf emblazoned (huge pun there, sorry, had to) merchandise items like these:

Seriously, you can do a socio-marketing study on this phenomenon. However, like mentioned in the first post when referencing Black Label Society's fanbase (ie. predominantly trashy, with redneck tendencies and a love for Hot Topic and headshops) I think their fanbase saw the merch and sunk their teeth in deep. In short, it's impressive to see a band never pen a song about weed, rarely mention it in song, and yet become synonymous with marijuana. I'm not sure if I should give kudos or sympathy?

Moving right along… For better or worse, I've always had a soft spot for Fear Factory, I’m sure much to the chagrin of many readers. Strangely enough it was their much-overlooked EP Fear Is The Mindkiller that I first heard from the band sometime in '93.

(The nu-metal-odometer was broke that day)

My interest in the band tapered off right around Obsolete, but the deathblow came right around that time when there was a "supergroup" of sorts that featured Christian (bass) and Raymond (drums) of Fear Factory along with Stef, the guitarist from the Deftones, and B-Real of Cypress Hill fame. The name of this group: Kush. Yep, named after a strain of marijuana. This is such a bad name it rivals the lame band Dope (who got a good reaming in the first WWAMGW post) - in fact, I'm curious to hear which name readers think is the worse of the two? Please comment below. Not quite as overt as Cannibis Corpse and their hilarious song titles, but still having song titles like "Light It Up" the group is clearly a force to be reckoned with amongst highschoolers dipping their toe into the rap-metal water. In retrospect, there WAS some foreshadowing when Fear Factory's remix album "Remanufacture" had a short instrumental song titled 'Bionic Chronic' which seemed so outta nowhere (and out of character for the band) that I'm sure I wasn't the only person thinking something wasn’t quite right in the FF camp. In any event, so far God has fortunately jumped on the grenade and Kush hasn't put out a record (their debut was supposed to surface in '03), but I still wait with fear and baited breath...

(Smoke 'em if ya got 'em...)

Mentioning the Deftones does bring up a more pressing offense by the band (and I LIKE the Deftones): they're playing this year's 2009 Smokeout Festival next month with Slipknot. Double ouch! This is a real life example of the critical moment where weed infects metal in a bad way. You see, other bands playing this festival are acts like Kottonmouth Kings, Sublime, etc. and it’s hosted by Cheech and Chong. You can imagine the legions of mall dirt that will be in attendance. They should get Jnco to sponsor this fest, have booths for henna tattoos and dirty do-it-yourself dread locks and just call it ‘Dirty Crusty Burn-Out Fest’.

(Standard issue Smokeout Fest attendee - Thanks to yourscenesucks.com)

However, this edition of WWAMGW would be remiss without SOME mention of metal“fumbling the pass” when it comes to weed. So, without further ado, here are this post's contenders:

Cephalic Carnage - 'Kill For Weed' (From the Anomalies album)

I have to qualify this by saying: I love Cephalic Carnage. I think they're great, they're cool dudes and they all shred at their instruments. It pains me to write them up like this (much like Brujeria in the first post) but I have to mention this song cause it seriously made me laugh out loud. Truth be told, I think this song is awesome. I love the brazen, ridiculous concept of "killing for weed" cause that shit is just so plain extreme you have to - whether you like it or not - begrudgingly respect it cause they go there. The music is sweet, and the lyrics ain't too bad either UNTIL you get to the last few lines vocalist Lenzig bursts out and the song’s coolness is almost undone. In short, the song talks about how cops are fucked up, they'll tear your house apart looking for weed, the system is fucked up, weed should be legalized and how he kills to stop the cop mistreatment... sounds all good right? That is, until the last few lines where he says:

"This is a song about a schizophrenic,

I met on the street,

Told me how he killed for weed"

I thought my head spun around like in the exorcist in a true WTF moment? Did he just answer an interview question within the context of a song? Let me explain, those lyrics are actually IN the song ABOUT the song they are in and not just a liner note explanation. Talk about utter hilarity in some weird twist of circular logic. He might as well have said, "By the way, this song is based on a true story of my encounter with a mentally handicapped derelict, the names have been changed to protect..." except SUNG in the song as part of the song (in death metal vocals no less). Wait, maybe I should give them a pass for originality and good use of narrative dialog?

Vanillia Ice - 'Zig Zag Stories' (From the Hard To Swallow album) I know this might seem like I'm throwing a ringer out there from the get-go since this is Vanilla Ice, but hear me out. From a musical perspective, I really enjoy this record. Yes, I can hear you in the back decry how Ross Robinson (aka nu-metal producer extraordinaire) recorded this record - guess what: it's a musically inventive album (especially amongst the nu-metal glut when in came out in '98) with effects, layers and loops providing interesting textures and sounds (and you'll probably give silly nu-metal experimenter Tom Morello a pass for street cred and the status quo - lame). Rather than sit here and write a book about how Vanilla Ice's stylistic shift is already in its 12th incarnation of morbid self-impersonating sarcasm, let's just say I think it's a good record, BUT not without it's butchering of the topic of marijuana. Check out this lyrical except:

"...To blaze up a sac of that green bombay

And when I reach my peak, I explode like Dante

Tha ganjay has got my mind wide open, I'm soakin'

In the music, I use it, and don't abuse it

And true, it gets me high like the sky

I will buy 'till the day that I die

You ain't gotta ask me why

I take tokes from the smoke, I can't deny

Got a lifetime supply

And I wanna get you high"

I rest my case.

Before wrapping up, though, I also wanted to give a couple of honorable mentions. Firstly, thanks to SaveTheCirclePit for pointing out Sacred Reich's song ‘Ask Ed’ for the great lyrics:

“Sometime I like to kick back

Hit the fridge have a little snack

Grab the paper see whats on the tube

Stretch out and smoke a fat dube”

I thought the term dube went out in about '76, but the ‘Reich is reppin' it hard twenty years later! Also, an honorable mention shout-out to Decrepit Birth's Diminishing Between Worlds album. I stumbled across their lyrical delivery recently with great interest. They've somehow managed to write an album where the lyrics read like singer Bill Robinson is stoned to the bejeebus (say that like Bill Murray in Caddyshack). We're talking meta-physics, astral projection, multi-dimensions, etc. He accomplishes ALL of this without any mention of 'weed', 'smoke', 'marijuana' or any other drug-related connotations - good work and tip of the cap to you sir!

If you have ideas for future “WWAMGW” songs to discuss, let me know. The next edition may flip the script for a bizzaro post of ‘When Weed And Metal Goes RIGHT’! So stay tuned.

When Weed And Metal Goes Wrong

I originally approached this post about weed in metal like “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong” from the Chappelle Show. By that I mean, most of the time weed and metal is a great combo, however, when you fuck it up, you fuck it up so bad that it’s laughable and/or sad.

Truth be told I didn’t even consider the legions of stoner/sludge bands out there for this piece because, in honesty, I think it takes a true fan of the genre to separate the good from the bad and I’m no expert. What I did want to talk about is the everyday, run of the mill metal band and how they tried to tackle the topic of good ‘ol Mary Jane and failed big time.

Six Feet Under – ‘4:20’ (from the Warpath album) Where to begin with this song? First of all there should be a big red flag when a band predominantly does one style (here, it’s boring generic death metal of the horror/gore variety) and then throws a creative/artistic curveball. We can play that childhood game of “One of these things does not belong” to establish this point quite easily here with songs from the Warpath album:

• Revenge of the Zombie
• Burning Blood
• War Is Coming
• 4:20
• Death Or Glory
• Caged and Disgraced

I mean, '4:20' sticks out like a sore thumb amongst that line-up. But I’ll play the conservative role and elaborate further: look at the lyrics for God’s sake! “Let go of perception - enter true reality, A sea of green will set us free, Dank, Expand my inner being, Through what the Earth provides, I hear her voice calling, The hour has arrived...” Yeesh! This is coming from the man who penned lyrics to the song ‘Entrails Ripped From A Virgins Cunt’ so you do the math. I know what you’re thinking, “Chill out, it’s death metal anyway, so you can’t ever tell what he’s saying with those cookie monster vocals!” WRONG! He actually, uses some clean vocals in ‘4:20’. Ahem, Chris Barnes singing with clean vocals (how often do you see that in the same sentence…? Oh yea, and it actually being true?!?! That’s what I thought). Needless to say, the writing is pretty much on the wall with this one, Mr. Frontman got a little carried away with his weed habit and it seeped into Six Feet Under’s music. Since then, it’s been pretty much back to the death metal basics since then (about nine albums worth of it, yawn…) but what cemented this as a major weed and metal DON’T, is the fact that the song happens to be four minutes and twenty seconds long and was recorded on April 20^th. I’m not even kidding. FAIL!

Black Label Society – ‘Stoned and Drunk’ (from the album The Blessed Hellride) This one I will admit I’m a little biased about, but I think it’s a valid reason. To again repeat myself, I think weed and metal can be a very winning combination, however, here it’s done ultra cheesy and white trashy. This band, and specifically this song is like the metalhead’s gateway drug to meth. Years ago, I was on a tour and Black Label Society was on the bill for the whole tour and I never saw so many white trash, missing teeth, redneck, ignorant fans. Full on there were so many of those terrible novelty shirts with a 1950’s era guy on it saying like ‘Marijuana! Hey, at least it’s not crack’ (ironically, most people wearing those kinds of shirts are the ones down to smoke some crack), or just blazing pot leafs, etc. It was like the dregs of society secretly had a subconscious war on weed and were trying to re-appropriate it as the idiot-class drug or something. Anyway, again, the lyrics are bad, but I think it’s the blatant Ozzy/Sabbath worship, particularly in the vocals, which drives me a little crazy. This is compounded by the fact that Sabbath wrote ‘Sweet Leaf’ – THE definitive weed and metal song of all time (speaking of which, check out Thou’s cover of ‘Sweet Leaf’, it’s so heavy it’s like, “Ouch!”), so BLS please distance yourselves a bit.

Brujeria – ‘Marijuana’ (from the Marijuana EP) This one kind of pains me to mention cause I love Brujeria. Musically, their satanic druglord shtick, I dig it all. However in 2000 they released an EP at the height of the ‘Macarena’ craze with their own reinterpretation. A few things wrong here: you CAN’T make that song NOT bad, so to give Brujeria some credit, the chips were stacked against them from the get-go. However, rather than give the song their typical death metal/grindcore delivery with Spanish lyrics, they actually incorporate some of the techno-salsa music of the original song. It’s a bad combo, very bad. Also, like the Six Feet Under selection earlier, lead vocalist Juan Brujo attempts a stylistic shift to using some of the more clean vocals, most notably when we sings the chorus “Heeeeeey Marijuana!”

(Stick to the satanic druglord death-grind please)

Dope – (Anything and everything they’ve ever done) Let’s make this a quick one, after all it’s easy like shooting fish in a barrel. First their name is Dope, and while I can respect the fact that, as their Wikipedia notes, they sold drugs to survive and purchase instruments, once you pigeon hole yourself to such a highly specialized niche, you’re instantly relegated to ONLY that small demographic (Bongzilla, is somewhat in a similar position, but they’re so tongue in cheek about it and I like their music better they get a pass). If they’re going for the mainstream thing on rock radio or whatever, they have their cheesy name and drug connection as a huge liability for success, but apparently they like it and are sticking to their guns (just like hordes of fantasy based power metal bands, never gonna get wide recognition, but are content to rock with the D&D lifestyle).

Beyond trying to piggy back the shock value of their drug referencing name, they also covered “You Spin Me ‘Round (Like A Record)” on their first album, one of their minor claims to fame, which also landed on the American Psycho soundtrack.

And finally, look at their early 90s pseudo-industrial dreads (almost ten years after pioneering bands like Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy et al were just getting DONE with that style)… sigh.

Stay tuned! There could be other editions of ‘When Weed And Metal Goes Wrong’ in the future…