By the time this six-song split between Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age split EP (previously discussed here) was released by Man’s Ruin Records in Dec. 1997, Kyuss weren’t a band anymore, and guitarist Josh Homme‘s subsequent project, Queens of the Stone Age, was beginning to take shape after starting out as Gamma Ray, releasing an initial single (also on Man’s Ruin) and being threatened with a lawsuit if they didn’t change the name by the German power metal band. Kyuss had released their fourth and final album, …And the Circus Leaves Town (discussed here), in 1995, and though nearly all of the material on the 33-minute posthumous foreshadow was previously released, the CD nonetheless serves as a convenient landmark to note the transition from one band to another. No narrative is actually so clean, of course, and to be honest, I don’t know the dates, when Kyuss was ‘done’ vs. when Queens first got together. I’m sure those stories are out there someplace.

Interestingly, Chris Goss is listed as producer, but only for the Queens of the Stone Age portion of the split, which is side B. Though Kyuss worked with the Masters of Reality mainman on three landmark LPs, two of which came out through a major label, Fred Drake — a co-owner of Rancho de la Luna and founding member of earthlings? who passed away in 2002 — is credited as producing the Kyuss tracks. That first of the two three-song sides is comprised of a Black Sabbath cover taking on “Into the Void,” which is both on-the-nose and brilliant, and two originals “Fatso Forgotso” and “Fatso Forgotso Phase II (Flip the Phase).” The first two had come out on a 7″ through Man’s Ruin already and the latter was a CD-single B-side for “One Inch Man” from the last album, and would show up on Kyuss‘ other posthumous outing, Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss, which came out in 2000.

The Queens of the Stone Age tracks, again, with Goss at the helm, were also mostly previously released. “If Only Everything,” which when the band put out their 1998 self-titled debut (discussed here) would see its title shortened to “If Only,” takes its chunky-style riff born at the Homme-hosted ‘Desert Sessions’ and uses it to preface an entire career of hooky songcraft. It and “Born to Hula” were released as the Gamma Ray single and both would show up re-recorded, while “Spiders and Vingaroons” would have to wait until the 2011 reissue of the first Queens record to see inclusion as a bonus track.

But wherever else one might find its source material scattered about in the short-releases or broader discography of its respective band, the Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age split gives the audience a rare opportunity to experience a moment of transition that generally happens behind the scenes. Think about it. When a band breaks up and a member goes on to form a new project, how many times in your life have you then run into those two bands doing a split with each other? Kyuss vocalist John Garcia, who’d already in 1997 fronted the Slo Burn EP, Amusing the Amazing, sits in on backing vocals for Queens of the Stone Age‘s “Born to Hula.” Homme had a hand in mixing both bands’ tracks. It’s about as close to a passing of the torch from one to the other as you could get without an actual ceremony.

What all of that information doesn’t tell you is that the Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age split is worth it for “Into the Void” alone. One should not blink at the opportunity to hear circa-Circus era Kyuss bring their tonal warmth to the Black Sabbath classic while Garcia adds his own twist vocally. The chugging riff remains unto itself, a holy thing, and for being the only chance I know of to hear Scott Reeder play a Geezer Butler bassline, it’s a palpable draw. And if it seems presumptuous, first, good, rock and roll should be arrogant and sacred cows are useless — music was meant to be played — and second, Kyuss at the time did not have the 30 years of legendmaking plaudits thrown their way that they’ve had since. Note that Monster Magnet did the same song on 2000’s Nativity in Black II tribute to Black Sabbath.

While engaging with …A Circus Leaves Town — which had the same lineup, with Garcia, Homme, Reeder and drummer Alfredo Hernández — it was difficult not to wonder what might’ve been had Kyuss kept going. The rawness of the sound on “Fatso Forgotso” and “Into the Void” gives something of a glimpse. The smooth production of the band’s final album is replaced by something ganglier, with flailing sounds and a volatility that comes through despite the rampant grooves they’re working with. “Fatso Forgotso Phase II (Flip the Phase),” otherwise known just as “Flip the Phase,” is a charged, two-minute heavy punker careen with the band clearly hitting for maximum impact. After the jammier stretch in “Fatso Forgotso” with its twisting lead guitar, the all-in drive of “Fatso Forgotso Phase II (Flip the Phase)” makes for a stirring contrast. It’s about as suitable a note for Kyuss to ‘go out’ on as one might ask.

And it’s easy to hear the attack in the strum of “If Only Everything” and think to yourself that a moment has arrived. The piece inherits grunge slackerdom and laissez-faire, but is too catchy and harmonized to actually be that half-assed. Homme is tentative on vocals compared even to where he’d be as a singer in 1998, and that only adds to the nascent feel. But the song is already there, and I rate “Born to Hula” among the finest hooks Homme has composed for any band. More than “If Only Everything,” “Born to Hula” benefits from the more barebones sound, while “Spiders and Vinegaroons” heralds a weirdo streak that would go on to make the first couple Queens records all the more essential. Again, rarely are endings and beginnings so conveniently paired.

That’s the story here, but for fans of either or both acts, the Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age split is more than just a landmarker. It brings into light and focus the appeal of each band, and in offsetting them one into the next, conveys something about what made each of them special. It’s not the last Kyuss release, but it was the one that let you know it was over and it was time for something else to happen.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I guess you saw the link in the first sentence, but I’ve written about this split before. The Friday Full-Length has been a thing around here since 2013, and before that I would just close out with a cool video or whatever, so yeah, I’ve had time to cover some of this stuff. If you look back, it’s a different discussion, and if you ever hear me say I’ve said everything about a record — ever — I’ve lost my mind, so yeah, I feel like this split can accommodate two posts. Maybe 10 years from now I’ll do another. I don’t know.

I’ve never written about Muchas Gracias though, so I’ll probably do that next week.

Next week, also look for a review of the All Them Witches / King Buffalo show on Saturday in Brooklyn, which is closing out my year of live activity (I have to note it was busier than 2024, if still pretty low key), and I have two album reviews I want to write before I drop everything else and dig into the year-end stuff for real.

One is a two-part review for the two LPs Kadavar released this year. I didn’t get either as a promo, so I need to chase them down.

The other is The Whims of the Great Magnet, who now have a two-part collection called Gronsveld Jams that I want to dig into.

If I can do both of those next week, then I’m ready to take on the task of the big year-end post. That’ll be a few days writing where nothing else happens. I’ll put a ‘under construction’ thing up or something cute, maybe, when the time comes, but that should be next weekend.

In the meantime, I continue to get better from last week’s covid excursion. My stamina is better and I’m still coughing a bit but not so much my throat is burning, so I’ll take that. I’ve continued most of this week to sleep like shit, but I think Monday into Tuesday was really good, so that was nice.

Zelda update: I haven’t had time to play, and I don’t think Majora’s Mask is fun anymore, so I’m not exactly dying to finish it. Last night I guided The Patient Mrs. through the Gerudo section. She got the hookshot, which I’m hoping makes the game more enjoyable generally, but it’s like they took Ocarina of Time and decided to bring everything that was a pain in the ass about it into focus as the center of the game. You can’t even collect items because every time you reset the clock so the moon doesn’t smash into Termina, it all disappears. Oh good, I get to go cut bushes to get 50 arrows again. Better put my rupees in the bank! I guess maybe if I was a more ‘serious gamer’ or had more investment in the lore, I’d be into it, but yeah.

The Pecan started a game of Wind Waker on the Switch 2 through Switch Online. I liked that game a lot, maybe best of the bunch pre-Breath of the Wild, though there’s (suitably enough) a piece of my heart that belongs always to Ocarina of Time. She had The Minish Cap on the other night until she got pissed at it, which definitely is a thing that happens. I started a game on my laptop of A Link to the Past using a mod called ‘redux’ that changes some of the dialogue — it also has the unfortunate effect of getting rid of Link’s pink hair in the game, but so it goes — and was thinking I’d play that again before I took on A Link Between Worlds, which uses the same map and is a sequel of sorts. But I’ve never played through Majora’s Mask before and I’m like halfway through with two dungeons done, so part of me feels compelled to finish, even though I’m enjoying it less. I probably wouldn’t want to start again, so it might be now or never. Screw mini-games, though. Really. All of them.

That’s gonna do it for me. I hope you have a great, safe weekend. Hydrate, have fun. If you’re going to KB/ATW, I’ll see you at Brooklyn Steel, and otherwise, I hope you and yours are happy and healthy as the year winds down. Also fuck fascism and its perpetrators. Forever.

FRM.

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Tags: California, Kyuss, Kyuss Queens of the Stone Age Split, Man's Ruin Records, Palm Desert, Queens of the Stone Age

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2025 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.