12 Most Brutally Heavy Metal Albums EVER

As metal made its way out of the 80's, bands were still focused on playing fast and loud. Aside from the more commercial hair metal of the era, the thrash metal of Megadeth and Anthrax were what many true metalheads would flock to. Once the 90's came in, something much bigger began erupting from the California desert.

Formed in the late 80's, Kyuss emerged on the scene with a sound that came to embody stoner metal. As opposed to earning their metal stripes by their speed, Josh Homme found his sound by tuning down his guitar to previously unheard-of levels. On Blues for the Red Sun, the band finally found their perfect blend of heaviness and tunefulness, with songs like "Green Machine" showing just how seasoned these guys were at creating pummeling grooves.

Even though the album didn't sell well right out of the gate, the right people were listening. The band had a huge champion in Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, who would always talk them up in interviews, as well as nabbing an opening slot on one of Metallica's stadium tours. Homme eventually took these stoner rock ideas and folded them into Queens of the Stone Age, but this record is where those meaty grooves gelled for the first time.