Kyuss, often heralded as a cornerstone of the stoner rock and metal genres, had an influence that belied their relatively brief time in the spotlight. In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Brant Bjork, the band’s drummer and a pivotal figure in the stoner rock movement, opened up about the pressures and expectations that came with being part of a band so revered.
Reflecting on the early 90s, Bjork shared how lofty comparisons to metal giants Metallica hung over the group. “Our guy at the label would always say, ‘You guys will be the next Metallica,’ and that bummed me out,” he revealed. Bjork pushed back against such notions, explaining, “I wanted to be this Kyuss! I felt like we fucking rocked and had hit the peak of our chemistry at the time, and Metallica were super-cool guys and really supportive, but seeing it all on that scale, it was just like, ‘This isn’t for me.’”
For Bjork, the success model embodied by Metallica felt far removed from the ethos he valued. “If that’s the epitome of success in a rock band, it just seemed unrewarding. They got up and played the same things every night, said the same things… I could tell it’d become a traveling circus, a machine.” At only 20 years old, Bjork felt more inspired by the spontaneity and rawness of Kyuss’s live performances, saying, “I wanted Kyuss to go more in that direction.”
Their proximity to Metallica’s arena-filling juggernaut came into sharper focus during a 1993 tour of Australia, where Kyuss served as the opening act. For Bjork, the experience was surreal but also a harbinger of his discontent. “Supporting Metallica [in 1993] was fucking bananas,” he recalled. By then, his feelings about the band’s trajectory had solidified. “It was weird; by the time our management told us about the offer, I’d already decided I didn’t want to be in Kyuss anymore. I felt like I was no longer jiving with the guys and whatever we’d had that was magical, it was gone. I didn’t want to stick around to watch this really magical ship sink into the sea.”
Bjork’s departure came shortly after the recording of Kyuss’s third album, “Welcome to Sky Valley”. The record would go on to become a classic, a testament to the band’s enduring impact despite their internal fractures. Meanwhile, Josh Homme, another key member of Kyuss, would later channel the desert rock spirit into Queens of the Stone Age, further cementing the legacy of their shared roots. And while Kyuss never reached Metallica-level fame, their influence rippled across generations of rock and metal.
