Friday Full-Length: Kyuss, Wretch
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 14th, 2025 by JJ KoczanThey’re almost there. It’s close. The 1991 debut album, Wretch, from desert rock pioneers Kyuss, isn’t nearly so realized as the three long-players they’d answer it with during their tenure from about 1989-1997, but as with the prior demo, 1990’s Sons of Kyuss (discussed here) — released as a self-titled since that’s what the band called themselves before shortening the moniker to Kyuss — there are hints of who this band was about to become. That would seem to be all the more the case as bassist Nick Oliveri came aboard sometime between Sons of Kyuss and the recording for Wretch, taking the place of Chris Cockrell, who still plays on “Black Widow” and “Deadly Kiss” here as they were held over from the demo’s session.
At least I’m pretty sure they were. It was 35 years ago in the lost annals of desert rock narrative and frankly I’ve never been that good at research, so if I’m wrong, it won’t be the last time. The band themselves — vocalist John Garcia, guitarist Josh Homme, Brant Bjork on drums and the aforementioned Oliveri on bass — are credited as producers for Wretch, alongside the returning Catherine Enny and Ron Krown, and recording engineer J.B. Lawrence, Chris Fuhrman, who mixed, and Carol Hibbs, who mastered, and with a fuller sound resulting from a kitchen that could apparently accommodate many cooks, Kyuss are that much closer to the blossoming their second album would represent for the forward steps that Wretch takes coming off the demo. That is to say, their sound isn’t all the way locked in yet, but it’s close.
In the brawny rush of “(Beginning of What’s About to Happen) Hwy 74” and the hooky “Love Has Passed Me By” and “Son of a Bitch” that follow, Kyuss lay out a template for who they were about to be. It’s not as raw or as aggressive as they were on Sons of Kyuss, but what they get in trade for teenaged-sounding punker thrust is a meatier groove. The turn into the chorus of “Love Has Passed Me By” and they way they align around the chug emerging therefrom is characteristic of what would desert rock would become largely in Kyuss‘ wake, a blink-and-it’s-gone heavy twist that would be flourish if it didn’t do so much to smooth out otherwise stark transitions. Wretch isn’t always so fluid, as even at 2:44, the repurposed “Black Widow” seems to be unsure where it’s heading — a contrast to the subsequent “Katzenjammer,” which is sure of itself to a point of genre-creation.
But if “Black Widow” is a more awkward fit, the same doesn’t necessarily apply to “Deadly Kiss” or “Isolation,” which comes out of “Isolation Desolation” from the
demo. “Deadly Kiss” is rawer, but well placed ahead of “The Law,” which is the longest inclusion at nearly eight minutes and the most complex songwriting at work across Wretch. There’s a lot to hear in “The Law” in terms of atmosphere, despite the fact that it’s still pretty barebones production-wise, and in the character of the guitar and bass tones finding a kind of largesse distinct from the heavy metal and underground rock of the day, Kyuss are coming into their own in this material and defining the course they’d follow over the next half-decade plus.
That in itself makes Wretch a pivotal moment for a pivotal band. It’s a landmark because it exists, in other words. But it’s not the source of their influence, and by and large, when people talk about Kyuss having had an impact on the shape of heavy rock and roll — the songwriting of Bjork and Homme continues to resonate in acts from, let’s say, six out of the seven continents — they’re probably not talking about the 11 songs/48 minutes of Wretch.
But part of what this record tells listeners these decades after the fact is about how Kyuss got to where they got. They were not immediate, out of the gate, innovating heavy for a new generation. Separate in sound and geography from the soon-to-explode grunge, they were similarly deeply rooted in the place they came from and the experiential aspects of growing up in a landscape, the Ronald Reagan neocon hell of the 1980s and all suitable disaffection resulting. As it gets past “The Law” and what feels like a clean-sweep of the palette in “Isolation,” Wretch shifts into a movement of its three final songs, “I’m Not,” “Big Bikes” and “Stage III,” which grow progressively looser one into the next.
I suppose you could include “Isolation” in that movement too, regrounding as it does after “The Law,” but the succession of Wretch‘s last three tracks feels like a narrative unto itself of getting stoned and wandering musically. “Stage III” is as jammy as Kyuss get here, and including it gives key insight into how the rest of the songs were made. “Big Bikes,” grooves sleazier than “I’m Not” and feels like a send-up of biker-type masculinity that’s very early ’90s in its subversion — there was a time when men were allowed to do more than own bigboy trucks and be angry at phantoms; maybe you’re too young to remember — but is somewhat lumbering in its energy as compared to “Katzenjammer” or “Son of a Bitch” earlier on.
Those songs, more hammered-out and refined-feeling, do much to represent where Kyuss were at at this still-early stage in their tenure, but the real gift of the record is to be able to hear them figuring it out in real-time, as they go. They’d clearly learned from Sons of Kyuss and sound intent on pursuing the something they has discovered in that writing/recording process in this material. What they would end up discovering would of course be their own sound, and their next full-length, 1992’s Blues for the Red Sun, in uniting them with producer Chris Goss, helped set them on the path to becoming one of the most essential heavy rock acts of their generation, arguably desert rock’s most important band, and the root of a family tree that continues to grow as new are born out of old ones. Wretch isn’t where that happened, but it remains a crucial step on the way there.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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Yeah, don’t tell anybody but I guess I’m doing a series of Kyuss closeouts. I’ve been doing Friday Full-Lengths since like 2013, so it’s probably about time if I’m ever going to do it.
These weeks are a lot. This week was a lot. The days just kind of run together with things into things into things. This week The Pecan had five full school days, so that was something, but I was pretty busy regardless, between Hungarian class, running her back and forth, and whatever other errands etc. for the house. Even today we’re running around. The Patient Mrs. and I are at Wegmans right now. We went to Costco after dropoff. In a little bit, we need to get cash from an ATM for the woman at our house doing a pre-Thanksgiving pro-shop clean, and then I need to take lunch to school, then home, rest a bit, pickup, Girl Scouts, and into the evening whatever that may bring. Weekends these days don’t offer much respite or rest. Nem tud pihenni, you might say in magyarul.
Zelda update? Zelda update: I beat Twilight Princess. Did I tell you that? I really liked it. The graphics mod I used got rid of a lot of the bloom effect on the visuals — the vanilla game looks like it’s been smudged; the one I played is clearer-looking, which I liked — and the gameplay felt similar to Wind Waker without being too repetitive. It was very Ocarina of Time, if you want to keep it to in-franchise comparisons, so after beating it, I started a game of Ocarina of Time 3D on an emulator, also with a graphics mod. I’ve been having a blast with it. I played the original in high school in 1998. I remember being stoned in my mom’s basement on the N64 — if I say “those were the days,” understand I’m half-joking — and it being the first game I ever played (timed) for 100 hours. Final Fantasy VII hadn’t taken me that long, and I think I’m not sure if Final Fantasy VIII had come out yet, so yeah. I loved it then and I’m loving it now on the 3DS version (I have a use-a-traditional-controller mod and can do some of the extra buttons with my trackpad; it’s not perfect but it works). The game is just a masterpiece. And after Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker and even a bit of Skyward Sword (speaking of awful controls), that Ocarina of Time is a little smaller in scale is kind of refreshing. I’ve been playing for a week, had to start over once because I softlocked the game accidentally in Dodongo’s Cavern, and just last night pulled the Master Sword and got to be Adult Link for the first time. I made this picture my laptop background.
Next week is a Quarterly Review. Don’t expect much else beyond those five posts with 10 releases each. There’s always one or two news stories I don’t want to let slip, but as of right now I don’t have anything else slated. Just gonna dig in and keep my head down until it’s done.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Don’t let the world drag you down, which is easier said than done, I know. I hope you’ve got some comfort and warmth and you can focus on that instead of the persistent horrors. Hydrate and rest up as best you can. Monday we’re back for more kicking against the pricks.
Thanks again for reading. FRM.
FRM.
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