The Obsessed, Ritual King & Sigirya, The Bunkhouse Swansea, 20.08.24
A big ol' bag of riffs hit Swansea as one of the stoner/doom tours of the year rolled it's way into The Bunkhouse in a haze of weed smoke and Orange Amps. This kind of thing has a history in in Wales' second city and many of the old faces from the years made their way to The Bunkhouse on a Tuesday night ready to witness a legend of the game, some new faces and meet up with some old ones too.
The Bunkhouse ranks up there as being one of my favourite UK venues. If you want to blueprint of how to do an intimate, community led music space then this is how you do it. Yeah it's a little rough around the edges but there's always a warm welcome, plenty to drink and ample room for watching bands or just chilling out. There's a lot of venues that could learn from The Bunkhouse.
The relaxed atmosphere meant that many of us there early were chatting and mingling with Scott Wino Weinrich and the rest of the band, as some of the scene veterans said their hellos to old friends and colleagues. Before long though it was time for the first band and opening the night were veterans Sigirya (8), currently squirrelled away in the studio recording album number three (?) they got the night going with the partisan crowd hanging on every riff. With a deputy bassist filling in for Mead, the foursome are always quality on stage bringing bags of experience and some grooving, stoner riffage, from the band formed by former members of Acrimony.
Stuart's guitar comes with all the reverb and bite of Ionmi's. After the massive Dragging The Bones, there was the usual banter from vocalist Matt, every hometown Sigirya show feels like they're playing in their front room. We were treated to some new stuff and while the punky thrash of King Of The Ditch has been in the set for a while, the perfect song for Rhys to get a bit of pace behind the kit, but the second new one (name unavailable) was more classic Sigirya grooves. The new record is sounding great already but alas it was time to end as Sleeping With The Dogs closed out their account for the night.
Next it was change of pace as the more progressive, psychedelic strains of Ritual King (8) made their way through The Bunkhouse. The Manchester trio are a bit more retro harking back to the psych rock 60's though keeping the distortion levels high, it meant that there was less stoner rock stomping and much more space rock wandering as most of their tracks shifted into instrumental blues rock jams.
Jordan Leppitt content to let his guitar playing say much more than his vocals, despite having a great soulful voice. As he lets the passionate solos rip the bottom end of Dan Godwin (bass) and Gareth Hodges (drums) steer this intergalactic journeying. A Hawkwind-esque palette cleanser between two servings of Sabbath worship, Ritual King managed to entice the hardened stoner/doomsters away from the bar with their psychedelic leanings.
Then it was time for the main event a man who has frequented these shores a number of times in a number of different guises over the years. Scott 'Wino' Weinrich is a bit of legend in the doom/stoner scene of the USA, and over here too. There are very few people who can claim to be a hero of Dave Grohl, played with Lemmy, members of Sabbath, Clutch and Pentagram, he's been a member of Saint Vitus (one of the big four of doom coming in the wake of Sabbath) and has formed numerous bands including Spirit Caravan and the band we were all hear to see...The Obsessed (9).
Having been the band he initially formed they've had a tumultuous history but in 2016, Spirit Caravan evolved into the this current version of The Obsessed and they've released two records since then; Wino and drummer Brian Costantino adding Chris Angleberger on bass and Jason Taylor on guitar in 2022. So this was the line up that took to the stage and it was a full bore run through of a setlist drawn from every album, particular focus on 1994's The Church Within which they play in full on the American tour, but I mean we got six songs from that including Skybone, Streetside and Mourning, equal billing for Gilded Sorrow and Sacred, with two each from The Obsessed and Lunar Womb.
Each song was greeted as an old friend, the mix between old and new balanced well as The Obsessed have always been a band that gives the people what they want, heavy stoner/doom riffs, those sneering vocals of Wino and a rebel soul behind them. An 18 song setlist flew culminating in a Spirit Caravan track (Lost Sun Dance) to end the show on a doomy note. One to tick off the bucket list for sure, in a city that appreciates the riff.
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