Shrinebuilder – Shrinebuilder

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009, posted by K.Panagiotis

Finally I have witnessed the presence of God around me. HE comes quietly like HE doesn’t want me to know why and how. HE has plans for me. He wants to play with my mind, my sanity, my whole being.

So, as HE knows everything, HE takes form of four selective human beings that have been more than heroes to generations that lived the last two or three decades. God comes in forms of Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan etc) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis) on the guitars, Al Cisneros of OM on bass and the mighty Dale Crover of The Melvins on drums. This is Apocalypse itself, imagine the divinity of these individual bands on their own, then compare the result of this combination. Luckily, the nightmare last only 39 minutes, divided into five units of pure heaviness, honesty, non-commerciality and will to show that less is always more.

The album begins with ”Solar Benediction” and Wino’s voice comes straight after the first riff to bring smiles on our faces. You just can’t help but diving deep into this album from the start, great changes in vocals between Wino, Kelly and Cisneros throughout the whole duration of the album. Next comes one of the best tracks for 2009: ”Pyramid To The Moon”, you just have to listen to this. An amazing opus that grips you from below to a sea of sounds, colors, visions and multiple erections. Only for this, they will be named gods to the future. ”Blind For All To See” contains excellent bass play from Cisneros and is the crawling piece of this puzzle, everything seems to go slower but you dyon’t mind at all.

It seems as if you know a wild card is going to come out next. And it is ”The Architect” that comes to prove you right, the most straightforward of the five pieces, also the shortest, less than six minutes. Again Wino and Kelly do excellent job, building mountainsides of riffs and fill the journey to oblivion with their voices. The ground is prepared and the last stop is called ”Science Of Anger”, the epic of the album, the long one lasting nine and a half minutes. The perfect closure in a perfect album. The cornerstone to a greatly built shrine, where we shall worship these four gentlemen in the near future.

I don’t know if all this is going to last, does it really matter anyway? All I know is that Shrinebuilder is something fresh, something that came to show us that there is no need for blastbeats or growls in the year of 2009. The ’00s end triumphantly with such releases and i have no fear for the next decade. Did I tell you I have found God recently? HE came and told me a story about some guys in a shrine. And we all know that God is always perfect, right?

Track List	Line Up
01. Solar Benediction 02. Pyramid of the Moon 03. Blind for all to See 04. The Architect 05. Science of Anger	Scott “Wino” Weinrich – vocals, guitar Scott Kelly – vocals, guitar Al Cisneros – bass guitar Dale Crover – drums