Today in news that will surely make Grim Kim happy: The Church Within-era line-up of The Obsessed (That would be Wino and future Goatsnakers Guy Pinhas and Greg Rogers) will reunite to play next year’s Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland. I don’t really have anything clever to say about this, other than I wonder why poor Scott Reeder keeps getting left out of reunions. Nick Oliveri had to be dragged away by a SWAT team for Reeder to get invited to play with Not Kyuss!, and now this. And that’s like ten years after Lars Ulrich implied that he wasn’t a skilled enough bassist to be in Metallica in Some Kind of Monster. I mean, sheesh.

ANWAY, the fest takes places from April 12 – April 15; The Obsessed with play on April 14. I always tend to believe that these reunions are never really one-off deals, and that we’ll see the band announce some more appearances soon. But of course I don’t know that for a fact, so… if you’re dying to see these dudes, I’d start making travel plans.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this!

“La Hechicera de la Jeringa,” the title of the song in the new Premonition 13 video, apparently means “The Sorceress of the Syringe,” and that makes sense, ’cause you’d need to shoot something into your arm to think this was a good video. I mean, generally speaking, I think that anyone who says anything bad about Scott “Wino” Weinrich deserves a smack in the mouth, and I know that “retro Sabbath video” is probably what they were going for here, but sheesh, this is cheesy.

Premonition 13′s 13 is out now on Volcom, and I implore you to check it out despite this silly video. You can ever download two songs for free here.

-AR

And here’s a great way to continue continuing your morning: fan-filmed footage of Shrinebuilder performing two new songs — “Let the Hell Come” at Scion Rock Fest back in March, and “Nagas 1&2,” at the recent Roadburn festival. As was the case with that Neurosis footage we posted a little earlier, one of these clips ain’t new, but for some reason I’ve never seen it posted elsewhere, so, y’know, it’s new to us.

Here’s “Nagas 1 & 2″…

…and check out “Let the Hell Come” after the jump!

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In retrospect, when you take the ’90s Unplugged craze out of the equation, stripping your band to its acoustic core is a pretty ballsy thing to do. As the last few decades have lead to exponentially more overdubs and walls of amps, “unplugging” one’s self is a good way to show one’s chops as a songwriter (or one’s lack of them). Obviously, “unplugged” has become a slang term for shamelessly neutering your music for a blunt and/or vulgar attempt at crossover appeal, a condescending cash grab that assumes, “Hey, girls don’t like my band ‘cuz it’s too loud, but what if I sit on a barstool and play this acoustic guitar?” Acoustic albums have generally been driven out of the collective consciousness, and, in retrospect, for good reason.

Which is why Wino’s acoustic album, Adrift, is such a pleasant anomaly. It’s at once a cogitatively dissonant idea (one of metal’s biggest non-Dio legends puts out a completely non-heavy album?) and a perfectly sensible one (Wino’s bands and solo material haven’t exactly been an exercise in atonal brutality). Like any other doom metal innovator, if you stick a guitar in his hand, quality riffs will spring forth. But hearing them in exclusively this context is interesting: metal can use heaviness as a crutch, and Adrift never relies on it. Though it’s not perfect, the album never lapses into dullness. You never wish a band would kick in. Metal isn’t exactly known for being intimate, but here, Wino leaves himself completely vulnerable. Adrift’s success or failure rests entirely on his shoulders, and if there’s anyone who could flourish under that sort of pressure, it’s him.

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I’ve been listening to Graf Orlock’s Doombox EP so much these past couple of weeks that I can now recite a movie quote from a movie I’ve never seen (that would be Harsh Times). The whole thing is under twelve minutes long (read Sammy O’Hagar’s rightfully-glowing review here), so it’s easy to listen to as an aid for short bursts of disrupted internet service/”FUCK YOU TIME WARNER CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!”-inspired rage. I’m so obsessed with the EP, in fact, that I now outright hate the people of Tacoma, Vancouver, and Portland, as those are the only three towns Graf Orlock will be hitting up on their upcoming mini-tour with the also-awesomeOwen Hart (whose contributions to this year’s second edition of Scott Hull-curated This Comp Kills Fascists were two of the highlights of that collection). Hopefully these dudes make it to other parts of the country in the not-too-distant future, ’cause I’m dying to see this shit played live.

So while we usually try not to cover regional tours ’cause so few of you will ever get to go, my envy of people who can attend these shows is such that I am going to post all three dates:

Dec 17 – Tacoma, WA @ The Redroom
Dec 18 – Vancouver, BC @ Garbage Mountain
Dec 19 – Portland, OR @ Branx

Go if you’re lucky enough to live in that part of the country.

Meanwhile, The PRP tells me that Scott Kelly and Wino are gonna be doing some shows together next year. They call the itinerary after the jump the “initial dates,” so hopefully there will be more soon, ’cause that sounds like a show that many of you might enjoy.

The aforementioned “initial dates” are…

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I had completely forgotten about Vince’s love of Bob Ross until his post yesterday. It would have been awesome if Bob had done an all-metal edition of his show, in which he discussed the joy of Ed Repka and Paul Romano. Learning about your craft is so metal! Thanks for reminding me, Vince, about what an inspiration Bob should be to us all.

Here’s some other things we did this week:

• We spoke to Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna, the legendary Wino, Harvey Milk’s Creston Spiers, and Cruel Hand’s Chris Linkovich.
• Vince, Axl and Gary discussed their favorite albums of 2010 so far.
• We’re giving away a free mp3 of Fistula’s “Ohio Death Toll Rising.”
• We checked out new releases by Kvereltak, Misery Index, Watain, and Parkway Drive.
• Anso reviewed the Big Four Live from Sofia, Bulgaria movie theater satellite thingy.
• Vince did a really a good job of impersonating Axl.
• Vince also discovered two new Sumeriancore bands that stink, and one that doesn’t.
• He also wondered: What is it with drummers wearing basketball jerseys?
• Guess what Serj Tankian thinks borders are?
• DEVIN TOWNSEND HEADLINE TOUR! DEVIN TOWNSEND HEADLINE TOUR!!!

A week from today, Vince and I see Faith No More in Brooklyn. So expect lots and lot of pointless pondering about FNM next week, ’cause that’s pretty much all I’m gonna be able to think about.

-AR

While there are more obvious statements than “supergroups more often than not fail to meet our expectations” – “fire will ruin your house” and “Guns N’ Roses have gone through numerous line-up changes” are tied with it – there aren’t many. And yet, with the announcement of a formation of one, excitement is usually the first emotion called upon. And while saying that supergroup prospects should immediately be met with caution is like saying a new car should be approached with the attitude that you will most likely wrap it around a tree, the failure/success ratio is sadly stacked toward the former. However, this usually isn’t the fault of the uber-collective, but our own gargantuan expectations assuming that this new band featuring members of other bands we like will be as good as all the involved bandmembers main projects COMBINED. And while there have been some out and out failures as of late (cough Greymachine cough), the other two most notable supergroups that reared their heads this year – scraggly doom metal gathering of titans Shrinebuilder and semi-unkempt gathering of some dudes from your uncle’s favorite bands Them Crooked Vultures – have gotten an unfair rap in the wake of their respective debuts’ releases. While to say the bands’ detractors dislike their albums because they don’t rival Neurosis, Sleep, the Melvins, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, or Led fucking Zeppelin is unfairly ignoring their actual grievances, to write off either Shrinebuilder or Them Crooked Vultures would be a damn shame, in that, while not reinventing any sort of wheel, in a year where the biggest supergroup commercially was Chickenfoot, a solid doom metal album and a solid stoner rock album are two pretty significant things to dismiss.

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