Kyuss: Blues From The Red Sun

Blues for the Red Sun is the second studio album by American rock band Kyuss, released in 1992.

While the album received mainly favorable reviews, it fared poorly commercially, selling only 39,000 units. It has since become a very influential album within the stoner rock genre. It was the last Kyuss album to feature bassist Nick Oliveri, who was replaced by Scott Reeder shortly after recording had been completed.

Blues for the Red Sun incorporates stoner rock and desert rock, and has been compared to such acts as Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, Blue Cheer, and Alice in Chains.

Daniel Bukszpan, the author of The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, has written that the album has influenced “countless” bands. Many consider Blues for the Red Sun “the template for 21st-century bands that have followed in the pioneering wake of Kyuss”. Martin Popoff similarly credits the band with the creation of a “certain core sample” of stoner rock, in part due to an “uncompromising bassquake” that was composed of more than “tar-pitted Sabbath riffs”.Exclaim! credited the album for opening “the way for bands like Monster Magnet and a whole host of other desert grunge practitioners”. Melissa Auf der Maur has said that she attempted to “knock-off” Blues for the Red Sun for her single “Followed the Waves“, to the point that she recruited the band’s rhythm section to play on the track and Chris Goss to produce. Other fans of the album include Dave Grohl and Metallica.