CD Review: Queens of the Stone Age

CD Review: Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age's 'Lullabies To Paralyze': Aidin Vaziri | Yes, the cover art is reminiscent of a third-grade Halloween art project; bassist Nick Oliveri, who frequently took the stage naked, has gone missing; and a member of ZZ Top does make a cameo appearance. But spare your disappointment for Queens of the Stone Age's third album. The follow-up to 2002's "Songs for the Deaf" rocks so hard that within the first five minutes most sensible people will be contemplating growing their hair to their elbows and joining a peyote love cult in the desert. Front man Josh Homme sticks firmly to his utopian vision of cross-pollinating the Stooges with Black Sabbath, and he delivers. He combines a primal metal riff and manic cowbell for the blinding "Little Sister," melts the amplifiers with the spine-crushing grooves of "Burn the Witch" and enlists not one, but two hot rock vixens -- Garbage's Shirley Manson and the Distillers' Brody Dalle -- to guest on the track "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man." Lullabies? Only if you like to fall asleep to the sound of the gates of hell creaking open and dragging your soul through seven layers of fire and brimstone and Hostess Cupcakes. And, really, who doesn't?