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Solo blues project of mixed emotional levels.-
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| Wino: Adrift |
Acoustic, Blues, Stoner Rock
Exile on Mainstream Records
March 8th, 2011
- Adrift - 3:11
- I Don't Care - 3:26
- Hold On Love - 3:23
- Mala Suerte - 3:50
- Old and Alone - 4:36
- Iron Horse/Born to Lose (Motörhead cover) - 4:05
- Suzanes Song - 3:35
- D-Bear - 3:06
- Whatever - 2:21
- Shot in the Head (Savoy Brown) - 2:42
- O.B.E. - 2:51
- Green Speed - 4:54
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| Review Information |
Release length: 41:58
Review posted on March 6th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 8.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Punctuated equilibrium (2009) | Adrift (2010)
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| Split(s): |
Wino/Scott Kelly (2011)
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| Live CD(s): |
Live at Roadburn 2009 (2010)
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| Review |
Wino is the solo project by Scott "Wino" Winrich, guitarist of many well known bands such as The Obsessed, Place of Skulls, Shrinbuilder, and many more. His work has been strong in many Doom Metal bands, and the debut full-length effort Punctuated Equilibrium followed that same path. However, the follow-up to that release, Adrift, was actually a mainly acoustic album that has a strong Southern and Blues presence to it. It makes for an interesting departure from Scott's traditional material, but chances are good fans will have expected nothing less from the man at some point in his career.
While the main premise of this recording is for it to be an acoustic release, some tracks violate from that presentation, including "I Don't Care" which features an accompanying electric guitar over the acoustic guitar, and it actually gives a rather impressive guitar solo at the end of the track too. While it's nice that it's included to make the song sound a little stronger, it just kind of feels like it takes away from the raw Blues emotion behind the music mostly due to the distortion utilized on it. If it weren't such a high pitched one, then it would have been fine, but sadly it's not really the pitch for the song. This isn't the only time it happens either, as it appears at the end of "Hold on Love", and is at a different pitch all together, working well with the song instead of sound too over the top. There is also a number of other songs it happens on, and for the most part it works with them as well, and the pitch used basically goes with the overall atmosphere of the song, such as "Mala Suerte" having a darker, harder Southern feel to it, which causes a deeper electric guitar to appear in the background and taking over more as ambience for the song then anything due to it's very low volume, though it seems to build up at times throughout the song.
For the most part, that sums up the album. There's nothing really else that can be said about it since it's literally well produced Southern-style Blues done by one man with an acoustic guitar that occassionally has an electric guitar back him up for a little while. It would have been better had there been another acoustic guitar, such as during "Iron Horse/Born to Lose". He does a really good job at it too, and the only downfall I had was that there was even an electric guitar included. It takes away from the emotion that Scott himself puts into the music. His singing typically picks up with the music, being a little rhaspier and sterner during the moments where the music builds up to emulate any extra burst of emotion. Either way, it all feels natural, and as if these tracks were produced from the man's heart, except for the two cover songs that appear here that clearly didn't come from the heart, but the troubling thing is that they actually have more emotion in them then the rest of the album. "Iron Horse/Born to Lose" is one of these covers, being a Motörhead original, and it honestly just feels like there's more energy behind it in many ways, includes a backing acoustic guitarist at the end instead of an electric guitar, as well as a dark atmosphere that isn't quite reached outside of "I Don't Care". Aside that, there is also "Shot in the Head", originally by Savoy Brown, is a fantastic cover of the original, has a great deal of emotion behind it, extra vocals layered behind Scott as back-up vocals, and actually has the best sounding electric guitar performance at the end, really capturing the proper Blues atmosphere for the song, as well as what the other track's atmospheres had and would have greatly benefitted by instead of what happens to have been used.
Any fan of Metal can truly respect the Blues style, as many similarities can be found between it and many styles of Metal today. Many bands even say that Blues was an influence to their style, especially with earlier acts that forged the way for today's bands. The music here captures pretty much everything positive about the style, but sadly many don't quite have a strong enough emotional state to them, which is one of the huge allures to Blues in the first place: The raw emotion brought into the vocals and music. When you end a Blues CD, you should be able to say that yuou felt the pain the writer had when he wrote it. You should be able to understand the anger, frustration, and the disgust brought into it. And for the most part, you get that sense here, but not all the time. Some tracks feel a little bland and, while the guitars are great, come off more as filler material then anything. "O.B.E." is the perfect example, as it takes on a more Progressive keyboard input that one could argue is a blend of Stoner Rock and Space Rock, being completely illfitting to the entire release. "Adrift" and "I Don't Care" really seem to capture the emotional essence being poured into them, both giving off a matching atmosphere such as "I Don't Care" being that of a man in a dark room, frustrated, pouring his soul out on his acoustic guitar all alone. Even the cover tracks have a fantastic amount of emotion behind them, and "Green Speed" really captured the anguish and frustration of the soul of Scott himself with the really harsh guitar riffs being played, and suiting vocals being rather stern, though clean without much of a harsh performance to them. Aside them, there are some other tracks that feel emotional in some sense, but nowhere near as strong of one as these tracks.
In the long run, Adrift is a very impressive Blues attempt through acoustic guitars, and for the most part it's a success. Some songs just don't pack that true emotion behind them. Instead they just feel like regular songs that take on a Southern feel stronger then those with emotion may have to try to hide the fact that there's no significant bond in them between music and the feelings of it's composer. The tracks that feel like genuine Blues, however, are the ones that really get to the listener. Most of the time you feel the pain, and the rest of the time you feel the anger. It's there and feeds into you, making you feel exactly what the composer felt when he sat down with his guitar and belted out the songs that are contained in here, and that is what you should expect from Scott Winrich on Adrift, or any other Blues or Blues-influence release out there, and that is exactly what you get on many songs in Adrift by Wino. It's just too bad it's not all of them.
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