Album Review: Lullabies To Paralyze by Queens of the Stone Age

Before heading into the studio in early 2004 to record the fourth Queens of the Stone Age album, Lullabies to Paralyze, the band's guitarist/vocalist/chief songwriter, Josh Homme, kicked out bassist Nick Oliveri for undisclosed reasons. Since Homme and Oliveri were longtime collaborators, dating back to the 1990 formation of their previous band, Kyuss, this could have been a cause for concern, but QOTSA is not an ordinary band, so ordinary rules do not apply. Throughout their history, from Kyuss through Queens of the Stone Age's 2002 breakthrough Songs for the Deaf, Homme and Oliveri have been in bands whose lineups were as steady as quicksand; their projects were designed to have a revolving lineup of musicians, so they can withstand the departure of key musicians, even one as seemingly integral to the grand scheme as Oliveri -- after all, he left Kyuss in 1994 and the band carried on without him.

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The blurb for Lullabies to Paralyse compares it to a pagan ritual involving woodland dancing around a campfire. If anything, the album is more disturbing. Full of unsettling undercurrents, it is something like Bowie's Diamond Dogs fused with Blair Witch Project. Ostensibly, this follow-up to 2002's fab Songs for the Deaf documents the bitter split between frontman Josh Homme and his childhood friend/creative foil Nick Olivieri, best known for performing naked; it's not difficult to guess who is the target of the chorus of Everybody Knows That You're Insane.

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