Playlist: A guide to Kyuss, by Louise Lemón

A press shot of Kyuss in the 90s
(Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

As weeks of lockdown begin to stretch into months, we're persevering on our quest to bring you fantastic music to keep you entertained. The best part? We've enlisted a whole host of musical friends to help. 

We've already heard from Trivium's Paolo Gregoletto, who shared his Ultimate Quarantine Jams, from Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger, who provided his favourite throwback tunes, from Jamie Lenman who took us all to the movies, from Sepultura's Andreas Kisser, who put together a list of the world's most badass guitar solos for us and from Celtic Frost mastermind Tom G Warrior who supplied us with his quarantine soundtrack, among others.

Today, we're joined by death gospel singer songwriter Louise Lemón, who is waxing lyrical about the influence stoner pioneers Kyuss had on her career.

"I am captured by the way Kyuss made something heavy evolve into something else," she tells us. "The softness in their music and the way they let the instruments talk. 

"I think what really got to me at first was the depth in the sound and the thing that makes me keep on listening is the psychedelic part, the acoustic parts."

Her playlist is below, along with a list of commentary to guide you through the tracks. 

One Inch Man: The repetitiveness is what gets me going with this track. When I write, I usually write just one or two sentences and I could be fine with that. I love everything that is repetitive, like a mantra, it soothes.

Freedom Run: A metamorphosis in a song. The intro makes me go into another dimension. It is explosive and experimental at once. 

Gardenia: I love this kind of meditative groove. When I listen to music I listen to the feeling and the sound of the song more than the actual words and this track really makes me get into that meditative state.

Mondo Generator: Raw and in your face. Like listening to a conversation with the devil inside.

Space Cadet: Mellow and beautiful. A track that is one of my absolute favourite ones. Like with my music there is this depth and heaviness to it without it being too heavy. Full of integrity, acoustic guitar. I love it.

Green Machine: Short and punchy. This is one of the first tracks that I listened to by Kyuss, I think someone showed it to me a very late evening in the rehearsal space and it really made me want to hear more.

Demon Cleaner: This song has got it all, you're spellbound from the first second. The vocals on this track are amazing.

Asteroid: A never ending hypnotic riff so good that you can't stop listening. It reminds me a lot of my band, Johan Kvastegård has really introduced me to Kyuss and listening to this song reminds me of the way he plays guitar. I always love listening to instrumental tracks, this is why I added an instrumental track on my last album, an homage to my band, I love listening to them, they are so talented and just as experimental as this track.

Caterpillar March: You can't admire Kyuss enough for their groove. This is one of the tracks I’ve listened to the most by Kyuss and it has such an effective riff that gets under your skin.

Whitewater: The intensity and build up in this song never stop to amaze me, it really is a catharsis and that is what I always try to achieve in my live shows.

Louise Lemon's new EP, Devil, will be released on May 29 via Icons Creating Evil Art

Briony Edwards

Briony is the Editor in Chief of Louder and is in charge of sorting out who and what you see covered on the site. She started working with Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog magazines back in 2015 and has been writing about music and entertainment in many guises since 2009. She is a big fan of cats, Husker Du and pizza.