Mark Lager’s Desert CDs: Kyuss – Blues for the Red Sun (1992)

Best listened to on CD in your car stereo with the volume cranked up while speeding down a desert highway, Blues for the Red Sun is the band’s best (alongside Welcome to Sky Valley) and not only one of the greatest heavy metal albums of the 1990s, arguably one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Kyuss crafted an album that is a perfect soundtrack for a road trip through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. (I recommend removing Josh Homme’s “Thong Song” about sandals and “Writhe” about a lover that anticipates his later, lesser, material in Queens of the Stone Age because they interrupt the dystopian, post-apocalyptic atmosphere. This takes the running time from 50 minutes to 42 minutes, from 13 tracks to 11 tracks, however, it is now a more streamlined trip.)

“Thumb“, the opening track, immediately establishes the Kyuss template – chugging guitar from Josh Homme, headbanging rhythm section by bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Brant Bjork, and gritty vocals by John Garcia. The hitchhiker raises his middle finger to a small town as he leaves it behind, cursing its inhabitants who he sees as “living in hell” on this “desert ground.” The hitchhiker burned his bridges with these people, perhaps literally as he shouts “you’ve been burned by my lighter.” This crossfades into “Green Machine”, the hitchhiker either indulges in militaristic reveries or he is having flashbacks of his scarred existence as a soldier (“I’ve got a war inside my head / I’m shutting down your greed for green / I am here to gun it down”). The crossfade continues into “Molten Universe” where the hitchhiker feels himself roasting and sweating under the scorching desert sun, he is dehydrated and dizzy, is he hallucinating or is the malpais moving? There seems to be fiery lava, volcanic sludge, bubbling and seething in this cauldron in the distance. The crossfade jolts suddenly into “50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up)” as he opens his knapsack on his back and cracks open the bottle of beer that has been jostling in his bag in the pile of ice that has now melted. He guzzles the golden, refreshing beverage and eats a peyote cactus button. He runs towards the ridge overlooking the malpais. The ridge seemed closer, however, he notices it is much further away than he realized. He runs faster and faster, gasping for breath. He stumbles to the edge of the malpais, it looks like an abyss, a black hole swirling like the spots on the surface of the sun. Time slows down, then suddenly stops. He falls into this pit. This 3 minute to 5 plus minute sequence of the song is perhaps the peak of the song, the album, and of Kyuss. Josh Homme’s guitars layer one over another into a cosmic groove that you do not want to end. The hitchhiker is lost in the darkest space.

“Apothecaries’ Weight” – the hitchhiker awakens from what seems the sleep of millions of years, not knowing where he is or who he is. He hears the call of a figure on the horizon. The figure looms above a caravan of travelers, they all wear strange clothes and costumes as they move rapidly beneath his tall shadow. They transport canisters and vials filled with various drugs, some on tottering carts or some on their bruised backs. These slaves are burdened by their cargo but they must keep on schedule. One of them falls behind and is flattened by the towering giant. The hitchhiker’s eyes deceive him. “Caterpillar March” – caterpillar here is not the insect that transforms into a butterfly, it is the caterpillar tractor, that is why the man appeared to be a giant, he rides atop the tractor, crushing his slaves like bugs if they do not maintain their relentless rhythm. The caravan arrives at a racetrack. They sell their drugs to the drivers who eat the substances, inject them into their veins, or snort them up their nostrils. “Freedom Run”, the voice chants from the loudspeaker, the hitchhiker realizes that these drivers are slaves, too, but now they will get a chance for their liberation, whoever wins the race. The cars contain weapons – assault rifles and flamethrowers clamped outside the windows on the doors. The cars cruise around the dangerous curves and scrape and slam into each other, bullets bouncing off the metal and steel exteriors, sometimes punching holes where there is a weakness, such as the windows. The cars’ tires are set on fire, wheels spinning wildly as some careen out of control and crash. “800” – a primitive, savage, tribal percussion as the audience chants, claps, and stamps their feet in the stands, waiting for a winner amidst the twisted wreckage. “Capsized” – the sand settles and one car is left where all the others have been overturned. The door opens and a man emerges. The man is crowned the champion.

The hitchhiker is told his name is Allen (“Allen’s Wrench”) and is shoved into a crowded, greasy mechanic’s shop, one among countless mechanics working on several vehicles. There is barely any ventilation in the warehouse. The man he thought was a giant is actually a dwarf. The dwarf gives him “magic mushroom potions.” Allen asks himself “Will I be trapped in this hell forever?” “Mondo Generator”- the chaotic, crazed climax – Allen feels the warehouse rattle, rumble, shake, tremble. The wind is so intense that the vehicles began to roll out of the building and the walls look like they are about to tumble. Allen escapes from the building before it collapses on the other mechanic slaves. Allen runs for refuge into a cave. The biggest dust devil he has ever seen – a tornado that resembles a gargantuan, gigantic subterranean dirt spirit destroys all objects in its path. It flings the apothecary’s caterpillar tractor far away like it is a child’s toy. The apothecary curses as he hurtles screaming into the vortex and is torn limb from limb. Everything disintegrates into the void.

by Mark Lager