Era Vulgaris (Advisory)

Very interesting album, qotsa fans wont be disapointed and i also think it will gain them a few new fans too. The thing what i have always loved about this band is the progression and change in sound and vibe. The production team up of Chris Goss and Josh Homme (The Fififteeners) is a welcome return and something i felt was missing from Lullabies to Paralyze. I would say this album doesnt sound like any other queens album but if i had a gun to my head i would say the closet comparision would have to be "R". This album has more groove and more texture than the last album and also adds more synth style sounds to the album which gives it alot of depth and a overall creepy/chaotic feel. Stand out tracks for me are the crazy "Misfit Love" with a bassline and drum beat which just hits you in the bones and shakes them till they shatter, "I'm Designer" reminds me a little of Ween and has some very cool and interesting production, Suture up my future is a beautiful acid-trip with some vibes that remind me of "Better living through Chemistry" from "R".

I Would say overall this album is up there with the rest of the qotsa discs, it is a very addictive listen and the more you listen the more you notice how detailed and layered the songs are.

A must buy for fans of the band and just in general fans of music.

Lets hope the bands keeps revolving and evolving.

For the Queens fans who are familiar with all of their work, this album should really make some sense. Just for the record this is album no:5 so that makes for plenty of music to compare it with! I agree with the reviewer who compared this most to the rated 'R' realease - it's one of those records you put on and don't want to stop in case you miss anything! So, buy it - you'll love it! - unless you're one of those 'fans' who think that Q.O.T.S.A. began and ended with Dave Grohl and Nick Oliveri in which case you should go away quietly.

In my opinion, Rated R is Queens best album and they have not been able to touch on that genius in any album since. If you're a fan of the early stuff and have been listening since Kyuss like I have, then it's hard to get excited about this watered-down, droning and downright dull selection of songs. Download it, but don't buy it.

Like other QOTSA albums, guest musicians are paraded in and out, but here it's impossible to tell if Mark Lanegan contributed anything or if that indeed is the Strokes' Julian Casablancas singing lead on the lethal "Sick, Sick, Sick," because Homme has honed Era Vulgaris so scrupulously that it's impossible to hear anybody else's imprint on the overall sound. QOTSA retain some of the spookiness of Lullabies -- there's a ghostly hue on "Into the Hollow" -- but this is as balls-out rock as Songs for the Deaf, only minus the mythic momentum Dave Grohl lent that record. But Era Vulgaris isn't designed as a monolith like Songs; its appeal is in its lean precision, how the riffs grind as if they were stripping screws of their threads, how the rhythms relentlessly pulse, and, of course, how it's all dressed up in all kinds of scalding guitars, all different sounds and tones, giving this menace and muscle. If the songs aren't pop crossovers -- not even the soulful seductive groove of "Make It Wit Chu" qualifies it as a potential pop hit -- they still have hard hooks that make these manifestos even if they aren't anthems: "Misfit Love" digs in like a nasty Urge Overkill, "Battery Acid" is metallic and mean, blind-sided only by the gargantuan, gnarly "3's & 7's." It's hard to call Era Vulgaris stripped-down -- there's too much color in the guitar, too much willful weirdness to be that -- but this is Queens of the Stone Age at their most elemental and efficient, never spending longer than necessary at each song, yet managing to make each of these three-minute blasts of fury sound like epics. It's exhilarating, the best rock & roll record yet released in 2007 -- and the year sure needed the dose of thunder that this album provides.

This album is the best I've heard in ages, so different from most of the rock bands out there, for me personally they just keep getting better and better withe each album. Changing with each album but still maintaining their own unique queens sound. I seen them live recently and was completely blown away, if you ever get a chance to see them, GO! you won't regret it. If you don't have this album or any, buy one and you won't be disappointed.