Review Summary: An immensely impressive suprise from the singer of Doom Metal act Saint Vitus....Never saw this one coming.
Ok....First I have to confess; I hated this album when it first arrived for me in the mail....
I expected something COMPLETELY different from Scott Weinrich (Ex: Saint Vitus, Obsessed)....Honestly, I cant say what I really expected, but it certainly wasn't this. I suppose I foolishly expected something more...well....DOOMY. So sue me.
Truth be told though, this album is absolutely awesome. From the first second of you playing it, it becomes instantly clear that this is NO Doom album...in fact quite the contrary. This, the first of master Scott 'WINO' Weinrich's solo releases, is virtually 100% 70's Classic Rock with some subtle tech-ish experimental nuances throughout.
From the very first track: "Release Me", the implications are clearly there, dead front and center, of a supremely heavy 70's influence. With iconicly written lyrics and hooks like:
"Release me babe,
From this world of pain.
Beseech thee lady,
Hold me in your arms again.
I dreamed last night,
Of makin' love in the sky.
On a grey storm cloud
In a hurricane eye,
So high!"
.....And that's just the first verse of the first song. See what I mean?
This is not necessarily a bad thing though, as this man most certainly knows what he's doing. His writing skills have certainly improved since his last venture with Saint Vitus, as have his lyric writting skills. Frankly, this is simply an awesome album that completely took me by suprise. And for me it's rather difficult to say such good things about an album in this particular genre, as the genre itself is and has been essentially dried up, overused, overabused, and strung out into something that (for bands that attempt 'Classic Rock' nowadays) is utterly grotesque and nothing less than a chore to listen to. So please believe me when I say that what we call "Classic Rock" is apparently not dead, just resting for someone to come along who knows how to make REAL "Classic Rock" again....and my friends.....that man I believe is quite possibly noneother than Scott "WINO" Weinrich.
This man really knows how to make good Rock that isnt more of a laugh to listen to than enjoyable. This is actually good Classic 'Stoner' Rock that is both fun to listen to and is ACTUALLY impressive to boot.
The guitar work was one of the most noticeable differences to the older, instantly noteable bands such as Queen, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Ozzy, Black Label Society, Steely Dan, Dave Matthews Band, etc etc...... While being immediately nostalgia-inducing with it's iconic "Old-School" sound, it is at the same time, new, refreshing, confusing, interesting, and sometimes downright strange. With his often random 30 second solos spanning a fair portion of the album, utilizing rather odd distortion pedals for the particular genre, giving some of his leads and solos a very Spacey and Other-Worldly sound, and at other times giving them almost discordant and sporadic and confusing sound-mixtures....All coalescing into a single rather massive sound for it to be classified as "Classic Rock" rather than "Experimental-Fusion-Classic".....
Even still, if you break down each separate guitar part induvidually and realise more of what he's doing, you'll realise that his compositions (be them still ultimately simplistic) are actually quite complex in overrall structure... And therein lies his true talents: Writing deeply-layered and complex, simplistic Classic Stoner Rock.
In retrospect, this is an awesome album from beginning to finish. A complete suprise, and that's what makes this a 5/5.
Easily worth looking in to. An enjoyable listen and equally relaxing right alongside noteable Post Rock bands.
