With its roots stretching right back to the earliest days of heavy metal, stoner metal is often seen as one of the metal subgenres closest in spirit to the source of the entire genre. Be it the legendary generator parties that sparked the desert rock boom of the early 90s, Britain's own prolific stoner/doom crossovers or Scandinavia's groove-laden contributions to the scene, one thing is clear: there's more to stoner than a shared love for the devil's lettuce.
These days you can find entire festivals dedicated to stoner - Desertfest and Heavy Psych Sounds fest, to name two - and bands around the world united in the love for 70s style heavy metal and hard rock. But these five records represent the game-changing moments in the development of the haziest of metal's sub-genres.
