First things first: Yes, I know it’s not actually 4/20 today. That was yesterday. But like a true stoner, I totally forgot to write and post this list then. Second things second: While there are, of course, “stoner rock” and “stoner metal,” the Sabbath-worshipping subgenres, this is a list of metal songs, of any subgenre, that are actually dedicated to the wacky tobacky. Not surprisingly, most of the songs compiled here do happen to be stoner metal/rock in sound, but there’s also a death-metal head-nodder and a death-metal/dance track. So break out the bong, crank up the volume, and let’s get hydro-phonic.
Black Sabbath, “Sweet Leaf”
You know Geezer was really stoned when he wrote these lyrics, because he thought it necessary to point out that, as a plant, marijuana does not have the ability to perceive sound.
Sample lyric: “My life was empty, forever on a down/Until you took me, showed me around/My life is free now, my life is clear/I love you, sweet leaf, though you can’t hear.”
Bongzilla, “Grim Reefer”
With album titles like Amerijuanican and Stash and songs like “666lb. Bongsession” and “Melovespot,” you could really pick any tune by these Madison, Wisconsin, weedeaters. I picked this one ‘cause the title makes me grin.
Sample lyric: “Smell, death in the air/Ahh, super crystals everywhere.”
Sleep, “Dopesmoker”
This epic tune’s 60-minutes-plus of heavy-(bong)hitting riffage and cotton-mouthed ruminations on Christianity and the Chronic make it pretty clear what guitarist Matt Pike was high on before he was High on Fire.
Sample lyric: “Lungsmen unearth the creed of Hasheeshian/Procession of the weed-priests to cross the sands/Desert legion smoke-covenant is complete/Herb bails retied on to backs of beasts.”
Electric Wizard, “Dopethrone”
The album, also called Dopethrone, from whence this song comes features an illustration of Satan clutching a smoking bong on the cover. ‘Nuff said.
Sample lyric: “Dopethrone, in this land of sorcery/Dopethrone, vision through THC/Dopethrone, feedback will free/Dopethrone, three wizards crowned with weed, yeah.”
Down, “Bury Me in Smoke”
Phil Anselmo may have forsaken the hard drugs and alcohol, but as he told me when I interviewed him for our November 2007 issue, “I still enjoy a little…herbal influence. I see no problem with that.” Now that’s a definition of “clean and sober” that I can buy in to.
Sample lyric: “I have an escape/Alone it keeps me safe within my home/I have a reason/To keep me satisfied until I’m gone/Don’t regret the rules I broke/When I die bury me in smoke.”
Clutch, “Spacegrass”
A light-it-up anthem if there ever was one. No surprise, then, that these doobie-sucking boogie rockers have been known to play a ganja-legalization rally or two.
Sample lyric: “Hey kid, are you going my way?/Hop in, we’ll have ourselves a field day/We’ll find us some spacegrass/Lay low, watch the universe expand.”
Six Feet Under, “4:20”
That it inspired the same dude who wrote the lyrics to “Stripped, Raped, and Strangled” and “Fucked with a Knife” to pen a ballad of sorts, including the phrase “the touch of velvet against my soul,” just goes to prove that marijuana is the very opposite of a dangerous drug.
Sample lyric: “Sit back and hold your breath, just let nature take effect/A warm glow inside my bones/The touch of velvet rubbed against my soul/Thoughts of things you’ve always known.”
Brujeria, “Marijuana”
Only the blunted-at-birth retardo-geniuses in Brujeria, surely blazing at the time, could have thought this up—to cover the “Macarena” with death-metal vocals, make up Spanish weed-worshipping lyrics, and change the chorus to, well, you know. Is it a great song? Of course not, but after a few hits, it should give you a stomach-aching case of the giggles.
Sample lyric: “Heeeeeeeee, marijuana, hai!”
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