My Thoughts on Alive In The Catacombs, by Queens of the Stone Age... 12/6/2025

I am going to start blogging about music, especially some of my favorite artists and albums.

I have been a fan of QOTSA since not long after they hit the music scene. Since then, they have significantly shaped the “stoner rock” subgenre of music, grinding chord by grinding chord, trippy effect by trippy effect, laid-back atmospheric by laid-back atmospheric.

Whenever a group releases an acoustic album, it promises to be both a departure from and a reaffirmation of their most celebrated songs.

Queens of the Stone Age checked all of these boxes and more with Alive In The Catacombs. As indicated in the title, the album was recorded in the Paris Catacombs. It signifies frontman Joshua Homme’s desire to visit the historic site and, essentially, “skip the line.” It also acts as a punctuation mark to Homme’s status as a cancer survivor. There is a music video for “Running Joke/Paper Machete” and a documentary of the entire recording process.

But the songs, the reworking of their stoner rock standards, absolutely took my breath away. “Villains of Circumstance,” a song that I always repeat at least three times when it streams from Pandora, etches new depths, summons deeper emotions. The song had already explored themes of longing, separation, and how time is far more painful when it stretches between meeting and reunion. In this version, I experienced these feelings more poignantly.

The rest of the album’s songs, especially their musical arrangements—laden with soft-strumming acoustic guitars, electric piano, chains for percussion, and even the moaning accompaniments of a violin, a viola, and a cello—and Homme’s haunting vocals, present what they promise, not only redefining these songs but setting down this band’s place as an unsung influencer of artists to come.

I will listen to this album repeatedly. I have it on repeat presently.