Astra‘s debut album The Weirding is an incredible album.  Astra is a straight up progressive rock band from San Diego.  And when I say progressive rock I do not mean this weird modern shit but something that could have been recorded in the early 70′s.  If you are going to Roadburn make sure you take time to check them out.

Nachtmystium‘s put out an superb metal album a few years back that is a high point of the decade.  Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 is Pink Floyd and Darkthrone’s love child.   The last three songs on the album are epic!  Nachtmystium put on a hell of a live show too.

Another tattooist/artist/musician, Danial Higgs and Lungfish are a band I just got turned onto this year.   So I did not want to include them in the my top 10 even though they are pretty damn bad ass.  Being from the tattoo world I did not know that the Lungfish Danial Higgs and the Tattooist and Artist Danial Higgs were the same person.  My favorite Lungfish album to date is probably 2006′s Love is Love.  I am just got hep to them so I am way into them right now.  Great album!

Doom supergroup Shrinebuilder are a powerhorse force of doom greatness.  Shrinebuilder features Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Wino (The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan) Al Cisneros (Sleep, OM) and Dale Crover (The Melvins). This self titled LP is doom at it’s finest.  Each member adds a little something to each of the songs.  Killer.

Danny Barnes is one of the most prolific song-writers in the music business today.  With his albums with the Bad Livers and his solo albums he just keeps putting out more and more stuff every year!  2006′s Oft Mended Raiment is a smorgasbord of sound and wonder.   I love the use of samples on this record along with Danny’s high lonesome vocals.  A contrast that works will.  Also this years, Pizza Box, is awesome!  He is the master of the claw-hammer.  The highlights for me are the title track, Sleep, and Charlie.  Danny is an awesome story teller.  Many Hailz Danny.

I could go on and on but I won’t…I can’t wait for the next.

Shrinebuilder interview

This past Wednesday I witnessed the first ever live gig by Shrinebuilder, the heavy metal supergroup featuring Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Wino of St. Vitus/The Obsessed, Dale Crover of The Melvins and Al Cisneros of Om/Sleep. As if we doubted the integrity of any of those guys, they played a nearly hour-long set at the tiny Viper Room in Hollywood for a way over capacity crowd, then did it again fifteen minutes later for whomever didn’t believe they would really begin at 10:45pm. Their self-titled debut, out now on Neurot, nearly fulfills Shrinebuilder’s astronomic promise. But live’s where it matters. We all know these four can play — they’re each musical figureheads in their other bands. But do they have chemistry? Hell yes. On stage they’re four bandmates, riffing off each other, following one another’s grooves, soaking it all in. Dale Crover reminded me that he’s one of the best drummers in rock music. If I had only been able to hear his cymbal work, it still would have been a great night. He should record an album with just cymbals.

I had the opportunity to interview Scott Kelly and Wino about Shrinebuilder for a short piece in Decibel magazine, published here. Here’s the full transcript of what they had to say.

//////////////////////////

SCOTT KELLY

Rumors have been floating around since ’07 about Shrinebuilder’s existence. Did the expectation ever get to you? Did you think about how mammoth this band could possibly be?

I don’t know what you mean by “get to me.” Not really. I knew before I was a part of it that it was going to be something great. When they asked me to be a part of it, I felt confident that my input would be significant. There’s a real belief and trust in the visions in this band, you know? We’ve all known each other, and known who each other were, forever. And been big fans of each other’s work. So there was never any doubt in my mind that what we would do would be exactly what we wanted to do. And therefore fine, whether people like it or not. I don’t care. Never been a concern of mine whether people like what I do. I just gotta feel satisfied with it, you know? Not to say it’s not nice when people like it, but it doesn’t affect the bottom line at all.

On the blog you kept during the album’s recording process, you described the first night of playing with Shrinebuilder as “immediate thunder.” Can you describe in a little more detail what it was like to all jam in the same room at the same time for the first time?

Well, the expectation and the anticipation of the whole event was pretty strong amongst the four of us. Al and Wino and I had jammed together, Al and Wino and Dale had jammed together, but we hadn’t all four been in the same room. We were wondering, “is this gonna gel? Is the chemistry gonna be there naturally? Is that gonna take time, ‘cuz often times things like that take time?” And it just blew up. The first song that we played was “Solar Benediction,” the first song on the record. And it just…instantly was right there, you know? I dunno man! Water, man. Just flow. Perfect. No hitch. It just happens. And it was strong, you know? It was like we were able to step right into it.

On a personal level, playing with Jason (Roeder, Neurosis drummer) for 25 years, I’ve been basically ruined for playing with any other drummers. I mean every time I play with another drummer I’m sorely missing him. Dale’s really the only guy in the world other than…maybe Dave Lombardo that I would really want to play with. Because I knew that he had that same fire, that same reckless drive that Jason has. So I was really excited about that. In fact I remember calling Jason right before and being like “I get to play with Dale Crover tomorrow.” That was really great, you know?

I’ve always found – I’ve found so much between the three of those guys, over the years. I mean it’s really like – I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent listening to Wino’s music. His guitars, the tones and textures, and his really unique voice. I can’t tell you the hours that I’ve spent listening to Al’s music. Om is one of my very favorite bands ever. If I had to choose one, that might be it. It just works with every part of my being. And the Melvins changed the face of everything. They’re one of the deepest, most inspirational influences in music in my life. It’s fucking amazing! I don’t think I could pick three other guys that I’d rather play with than those three.

Read the Rest of the Interview At Cerebral Metalhead