Alongside Black Sabbath, Cream and The Groundhogs, Californian power trio Blue Cheer are justly revered for their part in inventing the genre currently known as stoner rock. The influence of their thick, viscous riffing and bastardised blues wailing on Kyuss, Mudhoney and Fu Manchu is undeniable, and this reissue of the first two Cheer albums comes as a timely reminder of their proto-metal pioneer status. Opening with a feedback-ridden cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues”, Vincebus Eruptum is apocalyptic amp-damage all the way, rumbling, overdriven blues for the end of the world. Outside In is more refined, but every bit as brain-blisteringly heavy, adding psychedelic hi-jinks to the band’s monolithic density. At their best, Blue Cheer thundered like an overweight Stooges. Monumental.