Spiritu

Spiritu is a band that I can't believe I didn't know about earlier. They are everything that you want in a stoner metal band. There are two types of stoner metal singers: the kind that sounds stoned (The Sword, Nebula, Bloodhorse) and the great singer with a rough voice (Kyuss, Sasquatch). Spiritu's singer is by far the best of the second category; far better than John Garcia. He is simply the best singer in this genre I have yet encountered. The guitar is dark, fuzzy, and doomtastic. Sick riffs, nice clean parts (almost Skynyrd style), good solos, cool harmonies in the opening song and amazing vocal melodies throughout. This album is from 2002, and it's so good that I can't believe it's not a well-known classic among stoner/doom fans. It's new enough to sound original (well, as original as stoner metal can be) but keeps to the influences; some riffs in Fat Man In Thailand that use the classic doom tritone and half-step hammer-ons sounds lifted directly from the Black Sabbath theme. So if you don't own their self-titled album, FIND IT!!