The 2004 Reviews Section: Place of Skulls, With Vision

PLACE OF SKULLS

WITH VISION
SOUTHERN LORD RECORDINGS, 2003
3 OUT OF 5
SUMMARY | IT'S WINO DOING WINO. WHAT'S THERE TO SAY?

I apologize for not doing a review in three months. I've been preoccupied with a lot of things over the summer - a proposed new site, DVD reviews, complaining about CBC Radio programs - and as such music reviewing has been taking a back seat to said projects. The biggest annoyance about doing a site such as UR is the irritating conceit of having to do everything myself. I have to be the publicist, the web designer, the shill - essentially, I have to be everything. This, in turn, leads to some things being slow on the upkeep while I patch up some other hole in the UR façade. This week, it's music reviewing. Truth be known, I haven't been listening to much over the past few months so full apologies if I haven't been much of a friend to commercial interests. It's hard to appreciate death metal when writing about Leonard Cohen and constantly bullshitting one's way through the commercial landscape. Great fun, I tells ya.

The first review out of the can for the new fall season is With Vision from Wino's new band Place of Skulls. I keep hearing how Wino's new band is supposed to be different from his other bands, but with Wino I'm starting to think this is somewhat of a conceit. I don't hear any real difference between St. Vitus and The Obsessed, or Spirit Caravan or Place of Skulls. Honestly, Wino's oeuvre is starting to wear a bit thin with me as the man uses the exact same guitar tone and sound in every band he's ever been in. That's not a rare thing in music but I'm really beginning to think people are kidding themselves if they think With Vision is some new beginning with regards to the man's career. What I'm hearing is Wino with a new backing band, and while this is the best I've heard from the one-named "geetar gawd" since The Obsessed whipped out The Church Within a decade ago it isn't anything different from everything else Wino's done in his career. With Vision is indicative of the exact same stoner doom he's played since at least the mid-1990's. Sure, it may be better produced and more uniform than Wino's sound was during his stint as frontman for Spirit Caravan but what I'm hearing here is yet another stoner doom metal record with Wino in it. Maybe it's just me.

Given that the band contains ex-Death Row/ex-Pentagram shibboleth Victor Griffin, it shouldn't be just me. Perhaps it's the blurring-together of stoner doom bands in general - one fuzzy guitar tone blurs together into another so easily with these types of bands it's hard to tell sometimes. Still, I don't believe that Place of Skulls' album is that different in quality from what's out there in the stoner genre today. I surely wouldn't give this five stars or whatever just for the band being technically proficient and conforming to stoner doom standard. That's just it - With Vision is another stoner doom album, and I honestly think it's critically overpraised. Mind you, I'm not going to go into tirades about how the 'zine world is overrated or whatever - how many times have I done that this year already? twenty? one hundred four? - but I don't expect anybody comes to UR because I'm similar to what's already out there in the metal webzine world. I wasn't thrilled with this album and dammit, I'm not going to change my opinion of With Vision after I've heard it for the three hundredth time. The people involved in the making of this album have done better; I imagine said people have the capacity to do better again.

Man, what is it with me these days? Remember when I used to piss through a review in five minutes like I used to do five years ago? Man, why am I so worried about professionalism now? I'm losing my edge. I need to throw in more homo jokes.

SOUTHERN LORD RECORDINGS
PO Box 291967
Los Angeles, CA 90029
USA
http://www.southernlord.com/
[email protected]