It might be the all-time stoner metal classic. Not only was it judged as one of the five essential Man’s Ruin releases by this site, but StonerRock.com also rates it as one of the best albums of the last century. Acid King‘s Busse Woods — now 10 years old — is so potent that by the time you finish listening to opener “Electric Machine,” your eyes are bloodshot.

Busse Woods is that rare occasion where everything on an album works — the songwriting, the riffs, Billy Anderson‘s production, the vocals, the thickness of the bass, the art: all of it comes together to create a memorable, lasting, timeless impression. The obsession with killer Ricky Masso and the account of his ritualistic murders, Say You Love Satan, achieves a genuine aura of doom and ’70s biker horror chaos, and is the very essence of what this music is all about from start to finish.

At the time, San Francisco-based Acid King was comprised of guitarist/vocalist Lori S., bassist Brian Hill, who quit the band shortly after the record was done, and drummer Joey Osbourne (these days Mark Lamb and Black Cobra‘s Rafael Martinez share the bass slot), and the phrase “power trio” was perhaps never more appropriately applied. Every moment of Busse Woods is amped to the fullest and even the quiet intro to “Drive Fast, Take Chances” feels like it could explode at any moment. You can feel the air being pushed out by the speakers. It is thick and moist and dank. The Heavy.

Busse Woods takes its name from Lori‘s teenage hangout on the northwest side of Cook County, Illinois‘ forest preserve, and in crafting it, she managed to capture the recklessness of druggie youth. When Small Stone did their 2004 reissue with bonus Hawkwind and Bachman-Turner Overdrive covers, the record’s legacy was cemented. Simply put, it is among the highest points of its genre.

Lori took some time out to talk about Busse Woods, making the album, its legacy and when we might see Acid King issue the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s III. Interview is after the jump.

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First off, you’ll notice it doesn’t say “The 5 Man’s Ruin Albums No Home Should Be Without” and that’s because although these have been meticulously judged by a panel of no less than 17 home-bound experts (all of whom were me), this list could just as easily have included records from the likes of Nebula, Melvins, Fu Manchu, Suplecs, Desert Sessions, Beaver, earthlings?, Che, The Hellacopters, Sons of Otis, Operator Generator, Unida, High on Fire and more, or even just alternates from the bands listed. Let’s face it, until the label folded in 2001, artist Frank Kozik released a lot of good shit via Man’s Ruin, most of which costs a lot of money on eBay and Amazon these days.

Let it also be known that this list entirely excludes the vinyl output of the label. Why? Because that shit is even more expensive and that’s not a collection I dare start in these hard economic times. If you think the LPs, EPs and 7″s should be included, send them to me and I’ll put them right up, I promise.

Enough disclaiming. Click that little “read more” link right there and see which five CDs in your MR collection you should be proudest to own.

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