Customer Reviews

Shrinebuilder

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title says it all -- Wino has never sounded this inspired, and Al Cisneros brings amazing depth. The vocal interplay between the two is seamless and never fails. The songwriting is fantastic, and the groove is every bit as mighty as the cover art suggests. The sound is absolutely massive, expansive, imaginative and inspired.

Shrinebuilder [Vinyl]

This album has the uncanny ability to make the listener feel like we're only floating along at 25 MPH on a lonely midnight highway while actually cruising along at 80. The album gets better as it hums along effortlessly to the best track on the album, IMO, the awesome finale: Science Of Anger. Then the album unfortunately ends leaving the listener transfixed and wanting more. Somewhere during the fifth track we've careened off a cliff but just don't care as we float back down to earth. The album seems to pick up speed with each track. Solar Benediction is first gear as the band seems to be finding it's footing. Pyramid of the Moon is second gear. Blind For All to See with it's groovy Jefferson Sabbath Doors inflections finds the band slipping comfortably into third. This song is like a snake that slithers into your ear and lays some eggs in your brain to hatch. The Architect pushes the album forward into forth and you can feel the music picking up hypnotic speed. Then we discover the album has a fifth gear with the impressive final track. Buy this album and go for a ride.

I'd like to add that the cryptic lyrics on this fine album are beautiful and really fit with the music. I have no idea what such lines mean to the writer: "As triad cedes to the principle" or "the father emptied him to let the vessel fill". However, I find much personal meaning in such lyrics and that's what makes this album so special to me. Interestingly, the lyrics are almost incomprehensible without the music. They go together hand in glove. The music compliments the words and vice versa. I think others will appreciate the mystical groove of Shrinebuilder as I do. I'm looking forward to more from this fine band.

Shrinebuilder are an exciting super group formed from great and influential artists in the Doom, Sludge and Stoner genres, who play an elaborate mixture of the three styles resulting in an incredibly strong and well formed rock and metal listening experience.

The line up features Scott Kelly on guitar and vocals (Neurosis and frequent and vocal guest to Mastodon) Al Cisneros on bass and vocals (Sleep/Om) Dale Crover on the drums (The Melvins) and finally the legendary and hardworking Scott `Wino' Weinrich on guitar and vocals (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and vocal guest to Clutch, Probot and more)

With a line up like that, a whole sub-community of rock and metal fans should be clamoring all over this band. The best thing of all however is that, unlike most super-groups Shrinebuilder actually gel really well as a band and turn in a collaborative feeling record that actually sounds both as good as the sum of its parts and as if it was written together in a room by all the members, rather than just hastily compiled from their own individual songs.

Even with this collaborative feel and distinct Shrinebuilder sound however, each individual member still manage to put their own stylistic stamp on each and every song.

The tracks on their self titled debut studio album from 2009 are all fairly long and explore a mixture of moods, with rumbling bass, fuzzy effects laiden lead guitar and a mixture of vocal styles that range from a classic rock feel to loud sludge style barking, often transitioning seamlessly.

The album is absolutely consistent throughout and all five tracks are exemplary, and would each be a stand out track on anyone else's album. Even the production job is perfect; leaving a remarkable album that can't really be faulted in any serious way. If the band can maintain this standard of quality I really hope to hear more from Shrinebuilder in the future.

In summary, if you like any of the musicians involved in this project or any of the genres from which they come then Shrinebuilder is something that you really ought to check out. Best of all, it all works incredibly well musically and would still be one of the best albums released that year if none of these musicians were famous.

This album is easily one of my favorite albums to come out in recent years. It's one of those albums that literally made my jaw drop the first time I heard it. Simply put: fantastic sludgy, psychedelic doom metal. One doesn't even need to take drugs to venture into another world when listening to this amazing album!

Al, Scott, Wino, Dale = SHRINEBUILDER

This is a great album, by a line up of veteran musicians. Fire and brimstone, heavy, dark, psychedelic, bluesy doom. If your into this type of music I'm sure you will enjoy this album. If your not into this type of music you probably should be ; )

Blimey, this year has been a corker for rawk - the progressive vibes of Mastodon's "Crack the Skye", the shifting sands of Sunn O))) "Monoliths and Dimensions", the expansive beauty of Mono's "Hymn to the Immortal Wind", the tribal psychadelia of Minsk's "With Echoes in the Movement of Stone", the sublime dark majesty of Wolves in the Throne Room's "Black Cascade", the claustophobic yet expansive layers of Nadja/Black Boned Angel's self-titled offering, the ethereal indo-stoner fusion of OM's "God is Good" and the driven hypnotic madness of Zu's "Carboniferous", to name but a few.

The past two weeks have delivered two further gems: A Storm Of Light's "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" and then Shrinebuilder!

What can I say about the Shrinebuilder album? Although it is early days, and I am in danger of getting carried away, this could just be one of the definitive post-Sabbath albums. My, my, is it good. If you are here looking at this review, don't hesitate: get it. I am confident you will not regret it. If any negative reviews appear, I will eat my beard.

I am not a religious person...but listening to this record makes it clear that a higher plane exists.

The truth has been found...in the RIFF...this is nothing less than THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, and I feel blessed.

Fellow disciples of the RIFF, please kneel, for the Holy Ones hath arrived...SHRINEBUILDER is their message.

Awesome album! I got into Shrinebuilder because of Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Scott Weinrich. They definitely deliver with really awesome vocals and great guitars. Dale Crover from the Melvins lays down really interesting drums and Al Cisneros is Sleep. Hoping this album is not the last.

This is the definition of epic. Shrinebuilder is a doom/stoner supergroup, consisting of Scott "Wino" Weinrich (guitarist/living legend from Saint Vitus, Obssessed, etc), Al Cisneros (legendary bassist from Sleep, and now Om), Scott Kelly (vocalist and guitarist of Neurosis), and Dale Crover, the drummer from the Melvins and tons of other projects (he also drummed with Nirvana on their original demo). Stellar.

Opening tune "Solar Benediction" doesn't start off well, with some weedy Wino vocals, but then gets high and mighty with tough guy verses, then it becomes a bit like a Pelican or Isis song with tons of cool chillout guitar parts that build up into some really great guitar sounds . It sounds a bit Soundgarden at times, but the layers of sludge finally get pretty thick and heavy. "Pyramid of the Moon" is a bit Alice in Chains at first, but the tough guy verses kick in and then it builds and builds with the shimmering wah and the oriental motifs into a slamming, penetrating druidic OM-like zone-out. "Blind For All To See" starts out with a groovy Om-like wandering bass buildup, then gets into the killer guitar riffs. Well, it goes into one groovy solo, then back to the chorus, before busting out into another groovy solo. Guitar noises and feedback EVERYWHERE!! "The Architect" - at 5:57 the shortest song on the release - is punchy and gets to the point quickly and is quite like a Saint Vitus song. It's a pretty conventional rock song, but it does have a pretty trippy guitar solo. This song also ends off with a minute of Al Cisneros' weird snaky bass sounds. It's followed by "Science of Anger", the CD's longest track at 9:25, which starts off a lot like "The Architect" as a Saint Vitus song, but then becomes tantric and grooves on cool stoner moods,

...& I'm not surprised considering the superlative integrity of the ingredients. if you know the various origins of construction, there is no excuse in not possessing a copy of this magnificent endeavor.

Let this album own you & bookend it with High on Fire's "Snakes for the Divine"