Well it’s official, today, February 26th, they legalized the personal possession of marijuana (up to 2 ounces and 6 plants) in Washington DC by anyone age 21 or over. It’s still not legal on federal land, which includes all parks (including the zoo and the National Mall), Smithsonian museums, Congress, and even some roads like the Rock Creek Parkway, and you still can’t smoke it in public on the street or in a bar/restaurant, hell you’re not even allowed to buy it (it is legal to give it away to someone 21 or over though). But still, it’s now no longer a crime to possess or use pot in your own home in Washington DC. I think that makes, in Washington DC at least, 2-26 the new 4-20. So grab some munchies and check out this stoneriffic playlist of pot related metal songs I’ve thrown together to mark the occasion.
Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf 1971 Master Of Reality
I’d be an idiot if I didn’t start this playlist off “Sweet Leaf,” the opening track from the original stoner metal album Master Of Reality. Pretty much every song on this list was influenced by this song in one way or another.
Cannabis Corpse – Skull Full Of Bong Hits 2009 The Weeding
Richmond’s Cannabis Corpse have made a career out of making pot themed parodies of famous death metal songs, mostly from Cannibal Corpse. I’m assuming they got real high and had some Weird Al Yankovic and death metal on shuffle together. This song parodies the Cannibal Corpse classic “A Skull Full Of Maggots.”
Electric Wizard – Satanic Rites Of Drugula 2007 Witchcult Today
Have you ever been so high you felt like Nosferatu waking from an ancient, undead slumber? Judging by this song I can tell you Electric Wizard sure as hell has.
Death – Cosmic Sea 1991 Human
Back in 1991 Death’s line up included Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal (both of Cynic fame) and the Human album had some instant classic songs like “Suicide Machine” and “Flattening Of Emotions.” I remember when I first heard this instrumental track and thinking to myself “oh so the Death guys have been getting high as shit.” This song isn’t an ode to Mary Jane like most of the tracks on this list but compared to the rest of Death’s catalog it’s apparent that this is definitely their weed song.
Bongripper – Reefer Sutherland 2007 Hippie Killer
The Chicago based instrumental band Bongripper sure brings the heavy. They blew me away at Maryland Deathfest XVII and this hilariously titled song, “Reefer Sutherland,” is a great 16 minute long example of the band’s stoner doom metal sound.
Cephalic Carnage – Kill For Weed 2005 Anamolies
Cephalic Carnage is from Colorado and while that state already legalized pot that wasn’t the case when they wrote this brutal song back in 2005 about the need for legalizing pot.
Bongzilla – Amerijuanican 2005 Amerijuanican
Madison, Wisconsin’s Bongzilla’s namesake is pretty apt, they bring some big, heavy riffs with their sound that is as fuzzy as a smoke filled room.
Acid Witch – Stoned To The Grave 2010 Stoned
Acid Witch is one hell of a trippy band, they sound like they crawled out from some dank cave that they haven’t left since the 70s. This song recants the tale of how the Acid Witch met her untimely death.
Down – Hail The Leaf 1995 NOLA
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what leaf Phil Anselmo (of Pantera fame) is hailing in this track off the band’s debut album.
Kyuss – Gardenia 1994 Kyuss (Welcome To Sky Valley)
Back before Josh Homme went on to form a bunch of pop rock bands like Queens Of The Stone Age and Eagles Of Death Metal he was in a killer stoner band called Kyuss. These guys brought the riffs every time and Gardenia is a great track to showcase one of the greatest stoner bands that will probably never fully reunite.
Sleep – Dopesmoker 2003 Dopesmoker
A stoner metal playlist just isn’t complete without the legendary Dopesmoker, made famous for being an album consisting of just one song that clocks in at over an hour. There simply isn’t a better metal song to zone out to.