Shrinebuilder

S/T

Neurot Recordings 2009

I know they won't really like it but "supergroup" fits this project/band perfectly as it features members of St. Vitus, Neurosis, Om, and The Melvins.  However, with that being said the debut album from Shrinebuilder bears little resemblance to any of the aforementioned bands.  Sure their are elements of doom but compositions are so much more expansive and "mind-blowing."  You might be somewhat fooled as the album's opener, Solar Benediction, is a thick doom monster that slithers like a restless snake for its first 4:45 but then it removes its mask and uncorks a celestial bottle of psychedelia and tranquil guitar movements that unfurl like zephyrs at daybreak.  Calming and light guitars hide between grungy mammoth riffs on Pyramid of the Moon.  Dreamy vocals float over the song before giving way to a chanted choir and an effects laden solo.  Blind for All to See hobbles forward using a meandering bass line for support while a fuzz-out guitar reaches out onto astral planes as a sort of hallucinogenic communion with the stars.  In some ways it reminds me of a trippier, version of Sleep.  Ominous Sabbath riffs assail the ears on The Architect while a bluesy guitar solo spurns the booming vocals that faded before it.  With all the high profile musicians involved you might be tempted to feel this is some sort of ego trip but that would not only be unjust but far from the truth.  Shrinebuilder works on a purely artistic level as these masters orchestrate a moving mixture of sludge and boundary eroding instrumentation that is both introspective and mind opening.