the Obsessed : "Sacred"

While I am more of a St. Vitus fan, the Obsessed is just as much Wino's show. For me there was always more of a rock n roll feel to this band which I hear as being more upbeat than St. Vitus. So if you are trying to find the liens between doom and stoner rock. I would say that St. Vitus is doom where these guys are more stoner rock or more often in the case of this current incarnation of the band stoner metal. It opens with a more uptempo song, but I am more impressed with the double bass drive to  "Punk Crusher" that finds Wino's voice sounding better than it has in recent memory. The title track has a good groove to it , more on the rock n roll side of what they do, The vocals have plenty of room to fall in with the riffs. I like this better than the rock n roll side they show after this one on "Haywire" which makes it apparent that Wino is the next in line for Lemmy's throne , because even though "Haywire" is not really what I want to hear from Wino, he is making that kind of timeless rock n roll that Lemmy did with Motorhead.

"Perseverance" has more of a Deep Purple groove to it. The drums even have a Zeppelin like swing to them in places. The production is really dialed in and while Wino's vocals are high in the mix it works for the more mainstream feel of these songs. There is almost a ZZ-Top feel to the call and response nature of the interplay between the vocals and the guitar on "It's Only Money". "Cold Blood" is an instrumental that's decent for what it is , but I perfer the darker turn the verses to "Stranger Things " takes . The more Led Zeppelin blues boogie side with a tinge of metal on " Razor Wire" which has a somewhat silly chorus, but it's all in good fun I suppose. "My Daughter My Son" finds me checking out a little and not holding my attention.

They drive straight ahead with the more meat and potatoes rock of "Be the Night".  The darker more doom oriented tone to "On So Long" is more of what I have been looking for. "Cross Roader Blues" really indulges his need for slide guitar. I will give this album an 8. I think he sounds great here and production wise this is pretty solid. This is more fun drinking music than the more introspective depressive side of St. Vitus, they are obviously two different projects and this new direction makes that clear with out polarizing old fans.





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