Queens Of The Stone Age – Villains

Giving the album four out of five, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine claimed that “At this stage, Queens of the Stone Age don’t have many new tricks in their bag, but their consummate skill — accentuated by the fact that this is the first QOTSA album that features just the band alone, not even augmented by Mark Lanegan — means they know when to ratchet up the tempo, when to slide into a mechanical grind, and when to sharpen hooks so they puncture cleanly. All that makes Villains a dark joy, a record that offers visceral pleasure in its winking menace.