10 Definitive Rock Albums Of The 2000s

From the ashes of Kyuss, Joshua Homme was looking to do something more with Queens of the Stone Age. While he was still working out of the stoner rock framework that he set up with his last band, the first few Queens projects were all about finding a certain groove, centered around sludgy riffs that will occasionally delve into some more melodic territory on songs like The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret. Somewhere in between the mountains of guitar fuzz though, Josh earned his real rock and roll stripes on Songs for the Deaf.

While Rated R already had the band ready to roll in the stoner rock realm, this is one of the ultimate rock and roll road trips you will ever go on, framed as a journey through the California desert before you get to Joshua Tree. Going through every pirate radio station on the road, you get another facet of what Queens can do in each detour, from the harsh rock and roll singles like No One Knows to the primal scream of Six Shooter to the almost Radiohead sounding pieces like on The Sky is Falling.

As Dave Grohl provides the driving engine behind the drumkit, most of these songs seem to spring to life from the word go, with the ballads like Mosquito Song having just as much power as a song like Go With the Flow. You might not make it out of this album in one piece, but it's a ride that you'll want to take again and again once you've taken the plunge.