Shrinebuilder is a stoner metal fan's wet dream. The group is a collaboration between Scott Kelly (of the legendary Neurosis), Al Cisneros (of the legendary Sleep), Dale Crover (of the legendary Melvins, who also briefly played drums way back in the day for a little band a few people have heard of called Nirvana), and finally Scott 'Wino' Weinrich (who was in Saint Vitus, and every other one of those dudes was influenced the shit out of by Saint Vitus).
So it is fair to expect that the Shrinebuilder album will transcend most other albums to the realm of albums that "kick fucking ass" - and it does. The album is a great listen. It's worth buying on deluxe vinyl. But Shrinebuilder also reminds us of a depressing fact about super groups of all shapes and sizes: they will never become greater than the sum of their parts.
The reason for this is simple. Most bands only possess awesomeness limited to their key element, sort of like Al Cisneros is in his post-Sleep band Om. But these key elements rarely, if ever, combine into even greater entities. So when you sit around drinking a flat of Busch tallboys with your buddies picking and choosing the players that would make the "ultimate kick ass band, braaaaah" you have to realize that band in reality would never be as good as it sounds.
Super groups are overrated by default. They defy the nature of what a band really is. The greatest bands in history can never function on the same epic level outside of their 'classic' lineups. For example, Mastodon. As a unit they are the greatest band in metal, but if anyone was replaced or put out a solo record they would likely falter. Look at what happened to Black Sabbath after they fired Ozzy. ‘Mob Rules’ was cool, but it was not ‘Master of Reality’. It wasn’t even ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’.
This is not to discredit the Shrinebuilder album. Again, it is awesome. It easily surpasses most releases in its genre. It certainly kicks fucking ass. It's just if it were as good as the group that recorded it, it would make any stereo that attempted to play it explode. It would be like the Medusa of stoner albums, you couldn't even look at it. It would be like Odysseus's sirens, you'd have to be tied to the mast and totally lose your fucking mind in the face of its gnarliness. It would be the brown sound.
So crank it up and appreciate it for what it is... and secretly hope they put out ten more just like it.
Review by Metal Matt ~ @metalcobra
So it is fair to expect that the Shrinebuilder album will transcend most other albums to the realm of albums that "kick fucking ass" - and it does. The album is a great listen. It's worth buying on deluxe vinyl. But Shrinebuilder also reminds us of a depressing fact about super groups of all shapes and sizes: they will never become greater than the sum of their parts.
The reason for this is simple. Most bands only possess awesomeness limited to their key element, sort of like Al Cisneros is in his post-Sleep band Om. But these key elements rarely, if ever, combine into even greater entities. So when you sit around drinking a flat of Busch tallboys with your buddies picking and choosing the players that would make the "ultimate kick ass band, braaaaah" you have to realize that band in reality would never be as good as it sounds.
Super groups are overrated by default. They defy the nature of what a band really is. The greatest bands in history can never function on the same epic level outside of their 'classic' lineups. For example, Mastodon. As a unit they are the greatest band in metal, but if anyone was replaced or put out a solo record they would likely falter. Look at what happened to Black Sabbath after they fired Ozzy. ‘Mob Rules’ was cool, but it was not ‘Master of Reality’. It wasn’t even ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’.
This is not to discredit the Shrinebuilder album. Again, it is awesome. It easily surpasses most releases in its genre. It certainly kicks fucking ass. It's just if it were as good as the group that recorded it, it would make any stereo that attempted to play it explode. It would be like the Medusa of stoner albums, you couldn't even look at it. It would be like Odysseus's sirens, you'd have to be tied to the mast and totally lose your fucking mind in the face of its gnarliness. It would be the brown sound.
So crank it up and appreciate it for what it is... and secretly hope they put out ten more just like it.
Review by Metal Matt ~ @metalcobra
0 Comments:
Post a Comment