10 Essential Metal Albums to Get High To – Presented By G Pen: Down, NOLA
Everyone knows that metal and marijuana are two great tastes that go great together. That’s why we here at MetalSucks are stoked to be teaming up with G Pen to present “10 Essential Metal Albums to Get High To” — a list of ten metal albums that go great with weed (duhhhh)!
And as a bonus, if you use the password METALSUCKS at checkout on G Pen’s website, you’ll get a 20% discount!!! Who loves ya, baby?
Our countdown resumes with…
The Album:
Down
NOLA
Elektra
1995
Why it’s Vape-o-riffic:
NOLA, the debut album by the supergroup Down, is arguably the most obvious selection for inclusion on this list; after all, the album has songs with titles like “Hail the Leaf” and “Bury Me in Smoke,” fer Chrissakes. But can really you blame us for refusing to pass over NOLA in favor of a record that’s a little less on-the-nose? From Jimmy Bower’s opening cymbal count-off on “Temptation’s Wings” to “Smoke”‘s final fade out, this album is an absolute marvel that was, quite literally, designed by people who love weed for people who love weed. Not to include it here would be asinine.
Besides: the metal equivalent of comfort food, NOLA is undeniably timeless, something which can rarely be said about any album in any genre, let alone metal, let alone metal that just so happens to go perfectly with marijuana. The riffs from “Pillars of Eternity” and the soulful “Stone the Crow” may not have been abused by professional sports the way, say, “Enter Sandman” has, but they’re just as classic in construction and execution. The thick, fuzzy, warm guitar tones of Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein are truly the aural equivalent of a regional dialect; like the inhabitants of NOLA‘s namesake, the record is at once inviting and aggro. “Hey, man. Buck up. Ain’t nobody goin’ to sleep soon. We’re gonna have a good fuckin’ time.”
And it delivers on that promise, in spades: I’m not sure how anyone could hear NOLA and resist the urge to shake their moneymaker. Y’know those electronic flowers that dance when you play music near them? NOLA turns human beings into those electronic flowers.
I love everything Down have made to date, but I gotta be honest: I don’t think they’ve ever topped NOLA for sheer awesomeness. This is an album your grandchildren will get high to someday. Hail the leaf, indeed; HAIL DOWN!
