Admittedly, before I even fired up the website’s back end today, I called the Hotel Mercure in Tilburg, The Netherlands, to make sure they still had my reservation on file. Roadburn 2012 is shaping up to be something really special. First we get the announcement that Sleep is playing, and now this:
Roadburn is elated to announce that legendary doom pioneers The Obsessed will reunite to play the Roadburn Festival on Saturday, 14 April 2012. The band will be featuring the lineup from The Church Within; Scott “Wino” Weinrich on guitar/vocals, Greg Rogers (Goatsnake, Sonic Medusa) on drums and Guy Pinhas (Acid King, Goatsnake and Beaver) on bass.
There is no debating the impact that Wino has had (and continues to have) on the stoner scene, and The Obsessed is the band with which he developed his signature doom songwriting and guitar sound. Formed in Maryland in 1976 as Warhorse, they soon changed their name to The Obsessed. The original four-man lineup was pared down to a power trio and they spent several years playing shows and honing their sound, culminating in the release of the Sodden Jackal 7? in1983.
The band then went on hiatus as Wino joined Saint Vitus for a few years in the late ’80s. They reformed in 1990 with Wino joined by a rhythm section of Greg Rogers and Scott Reeder. The new lineup released Lunar Womb before Reeder left to join Kyuss. At that point Guy Pinhas joined as the bass player and the band was signed to Columbia Records and went on to release The Church Within.
The Church Within was Wino’s most critically-hailed album. Despite being co-released by Hellhound Records and the major label Columbia Records, the music-buying masses were not ready to embrace doom in 1994 and instead fixated on buying records by rehashed pop-punk bands. Several factors led to The Church Within becoming The Obsessed‘s last full-length album. Despite not becoming a top-seller, the album remains hugely influential.
Wino has appeared at Roadburn in a number of guises, including: Saint Vitus, Shrinebuilder, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and his eponymous band, Wino. His distinctive style of guitar playing and his seemingly endless supply of great riffs has earned him a place on the Mount Rushmore of stoner rock, and now we at Roadburn are thrilled to give you the opportunity to experience the band that started the legend.
Other recent Roadburn announcements include 40 Watt Sun, Sólstafir and Agalloch. Here’s more on that:
Portland, Oregon‘s Agalloch will bring their sweeping sonic landscapes conjuring desolate forests, icy waters and fire emerging from fog to Roadburn‘s main stage on Thursday, 12 April. The band’s highly atmospheric touchstones, which are equal parts dark ambient, drone, Nordic folk-infused black metal and dark wave, are as much a cinematic experience as a musical one. Agalloch‘s releases — four full-length albums and several EPs over the last 15 years — are a feast for the ears in the same way that Werner Herzog‘s and Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s visual imagery is a feast for the eyes. Marrow of the Spirit (2010) is a healing, spiritual journey through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and one of last year’s most 
stunning statements in metal.
Iceland‘s very own Sólstafir will appear on Friday, 13 April as part of the Roadburn Festival. Having emerged with a sound as dark as the volcanic ash spewed by their homeland’s volcanoes, the band has evolved to excel at blending atmospheric, angst-fueled post rock with their blackened heritage, underpinned by psychedelic phrasing and an eerily, hypnotic groove for a truly mind-expanding experience. Iceland‘s endless white landscapes, glowering peaks, empty valleys and shrieking winds can be heard and felt through the band’s moving, sonic elements, too. Sólstafir have come a long way much in the same way that Enslaved has progressed, albeit somewhat differently, as showcased on Köld (hailed as a true masterpiece) and the forthcoming Svartir Sandar, the emotional equivalent of the stormy North Atlantic.
After calling it quits in 2009, Warning‘s Patrick Walker returns with his new band 40 Watt Sun and we are really pleased to welcome the band for a one-off show on Saturday, 14 April. 40 Watt Sun‘s stunning debut album, The Inside Room, ranks among the very best Roadburn-related albums of 2011, and offers Walker‘s distinctive melancholic voice a more prominent role. His soaring and somber pipes bless the album’s burning tracks. 40 Watt Sun‘s emotionally charged, slowcore hybrid of Jesu meets a harder-edged Red House Painters put the band in a class of its own.
You know, it had been a little bit since a Roadburn announcement came through, and I thought maybe the four days of the fest (three for Roadburn proper and one for the Afterburner) were full, but nope. As it turns out, the addition of British cult doomers The Wounded Kings completes the lineup for Saturday, and there may yet still be more do come. God damn, this thing is huge.
