QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Queens Of The Stone Age: Alain Johannes (vocals, guitar, flute, bass guitar); Joshua Homme (vocals, guitar); Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, lap steel guitar, bass guitar); Joey Castillo (piano, drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Chris Goss, Mark Lanegan, Shirley Manson (vocals); Billy Gibbons (guitar); Brody Dalle (background vocals).

On SONGS FOR THE DEAF, Queens of the Stone Age became a rock supergroup, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Joshua Homme (Kyuss), vocalist/bassist Nick Oliveri (Dwarves), vocalist Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), and drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters). This lineup effectively blew other heavy-rock acts out of the water, and seriously raised the band's profile. By the time of 2005's LULLABIES TO PARALYZE, however, Oliveri had acrimoniously departed the group, while Grohl and Lanegan had returned to their own projects, leaving Homme as the sole member.

Admirably, Homme plows ahead on LULLABIES TO PARALYZE with the assistance of multi-instrumentalists Troy Van Leeuwen and Alain Johannes and drummer Joey Castillo. Lanegan returns as a guest on the haunting opener, "This Lullaby," and his gravelly vocals provide a fitting link between the old and new QOTSA incarnations. Homme wastes no time getting to his intense brand of riff-heavy rock with the amped-up one-two punch of "Medication" and "Everybody Knows That You Are Insane." Elsewhere Homme conjures up moody, mid-tempo songs, most notably "Burn the Witch," a lumbering tune that features Lanegan and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. While it would be nearly impossible to top SONGS FOR THE DEAF, Homme sticks to his strengths on LULLABIES, and the result is another fierce rock record.

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