Shrinebuilder –
Self-titled
(Neurot
Recordings, 2009)
Buy the album here
Shrinebuilder
are the perfect supergroup. The band
contains members of some of the most respected bands in stoner and doom. Wino of Saint Vitus and The Obsessed, Dale
Crover of Melvins, Al Cisneros of Sleep and Om, and Scott Kelly of Neurosis
combine to create a record of such unity and breadth it would take any other
band an entire career to come close.
While the members share common musical ground, there is a rich diversity
of vision, tone, and experience that produces a new experience on each
subsequent listen of this record. In
Wino and Kelly the band boasts two of the most distinct voices in contemporary
heavy music. Crover’s legendary drum
sound has helped lay a doom blueprint, and Al Cisneros can lay claim to
recording stoner rock’s defining albums with Sleep and having the most
gloriously fuzzed out bass sound around. Shrinebuilder themselves have only
produced one album to date, but perhaps with this near perfect record their
work is done.
It
is totemic music that inspires images of pagan celebration and worship, draws
on natural and celestial symbols, and drives it all home with the full force of
false gods. In “Solar Benediction” and “Pyramid
of the Moon” we are taken on a voyage through day and night as if watching the
skies from the start of human civilisation.
Shrinebuilder ask us to imagine what these most omnipresent of celestial
bodies would have meant to people at the earliest stage of development of our
societies; the fear, awe, and war that would have ensued in our attempts to
make sense of that which is out of reach.
“Solar Benediction” burns with the power of the sun. The track channels the rage of a burning
desert in to a beautiful contemplation of the birth of civilisation, religion,
and war. No time is wasted with Wino’s
distinct wail giving way to the heavy riff and thick growl of Scott Kelly. Al Cisneros’ beautiful high-pitched,
fuzzed-out bass sound and Crover’s full, earthy drum tones keep the track
grounded and natural feeling, but the overall sensation is one of endless
power. It finds its counterpoint in “Pyramid
of the Moon” with its more Sleep-esque riff and almost spoken vocal bringing
the temperature down. Kelly’s sonorous
tone will be familiar to fans of his solo acoustic work, but it finds a more
fitting home here with the beautiful doom guitar sounds that he and Wino
exchange throughout. The paganist
atmosphere escalates through the mid-section of the song with droned chanting,
winding and ethereal solos, and heartbeat-like bass drum sounds that produce
the effect of a pounding tribal mass.
The
light and dark of Shrinebuilder are equally compelling, but in “Blind for All
to See” we are trapped in the contemplative slow-burn of a half-light dusk,
reacting to the vibrations and squeals of experimental guitars but held in captive
sway by its alluring bass sound.
Cisneros has the unmatched ability to create soothing, sensual,
addictive basslines that once heard you hope will never end. The unpredictable guitars, restrained drums,
and deep vocals just glide over or bounce off this bassline as if it is the
monolith towering over awe-inspired worshippers. “The Architect” is much more immediate with
an opening riff which seems to have inspired later era Mastodon. Wino’s voice and incredible timing are on
full display, patiently finding the perfect moment to accentuate the riff with
an ascending wail or gentle word, and never attempting to dominate the
song. At under six minutes, “The
Architect” is the most direct and deliberately catchy of the songs on Shrinebuilder but still carries the
atmosphere of pagan worship that drives this album. The bass solo at the end carries in to final
track “Science of Anger” and its overlapping, squeezed guitar sounds and gentle
vocals. The slow riffing takes centre
stage this time with Wino’s beautiful voice through the verses setting up the
explosion of Scott Kelly’s huge chorus riff and verse. Wino’s delivery of the line “Humbly I stand /
Awestruck and numb” is an album highlight for me and cements “Science of Anger”
as the most memorable track. Inspired by
Sleep’s stoner riffing, infused with Saint Vitus’ more delicate tones, and driven
by Neurosis-like intensity this final song has all the elements that make this
record so special.
A
darkly gentle exploration of the birth of civilisation and humanity’s attempts
to understand where it belongs among it all, this record is testament to the
strengths of each musician here. It
opens itself in waves, inviting further enquiries, always with something more
to offer, another stone to overturn. And
while it may pay homage to innumerable influences, Shrinebuilder has become a benchmark for modern stoner and doom that
may even surpass the best efforts of each member’s full-time band.
