WINO -

WINO - PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM - SOUTHERN LORD  
Wino notes that his personality has been described as “punctuated equilibrium” and hence the album’s title given how this disc is the former The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, The Hidden Hand, Shine and Spirit Caravan singer and guitarist’s solo album. Quite honestly one cannot be certain what that description means - perhaps Wino’s friend’s are as high as the man himself - but whatever the meaning this record is an equilibrium between three parts stoner doom that the musicians is know for, one part late '60s heavy rock a la Amboy Dukes (no disrespect to Wino) and one part '70s rock a la Foghat (say). The music is half arrangements with heavy as lead riffs and half free-form unstructured clatter. This latter component sure brings the album down. It is as if the man abandoned any attempt to write songs and instead let a sort of musical stream of consciousness take over his addled mind. Acid jazz, anyone? In fact, the album’s cover artwork looks like it was something drawn for Cathedral that was left out in the rain and washed up into a jumbled mix. Never mind, first the song title Gods, Frauds, Neo-Cons and Demagogues shows signs of an active and intelligent mind and second there is enough Vitusian groove on this album to hold the fans at bay until the man's next band/project, which should be on its way in three, two, one... - Ali “The Metallian”