Tenacious D

Jack Black and Kyle Gass were the twin visionaries behind Tenacious D.: two sloppy dudes strumming and wailing the hysterically funny '70s faux-metal ballads that had made them legendary for their L.A. club gigs. (Black went on to a big-time screen career in movies such as School of Rock and, um, Shallow Hal.) The D's long-awaited debut album is an angel-dustrial bong-water brew of Styx, Rush, and Triumph, with a dollop of Journey, a soupçon of Kansas, loads of Zep and Sabbath, a pinch of Black Oak Arkansas, maybe a dash of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Not since Bob and Doug McKenzie have two jokers nailed the clod-metal aesthetic so accurately: Nearly every lyric here comes straight from your high school's bathroom wall.

Tenacious D sounds like it was bashed out in one dazed and confused all-nighter, with musical help from famous pals such as Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Phish's Page McConnell, and producers the Dust Brothers. But what makes the D such noble warriors is their mastery of every '70s-rock cliché, from the Skynyrdesque groupie-chasing boogie "The Road" to the perfect Steve Howe–style guitar filigree in the middle of "Rock Your Socks." You also get the best song ever written about Ronnie James Dio ("Dio"), the best song ever written about kielbasa ("Kielbasa"), tormented battle-of-evermore prog narratives such as "Wonderboy" and "Tribute," and the for-lovers-only acoustic ballad "Fuck Her Gently," where Black adopts his most sensitive Steve Perry voice to charm the ladies with sweet nothings such as "I'm gonna hump you sweetly/I'm gonna ball you discreetly." (ROB SHEFFIELD)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide