By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 26/06/2020
Label: Ripple Music
“Forever
Gone” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Forever Gone
2). Taken
3). The Song Is At The Bottom Of The Bottle
4). No Wrong
5). Dark Ravine
6). Dead Yesterday
7). So Fine
8). Crystal Madonna
9). Lavender and Sage
10). Was, Is, and Shall Be
11). Isolation
The Review:
Wino is the rarest of beasts-
an elder statesman of a metal genre who is still revered and hasn't faded into
irrelevance. It's a testament to his skills as a song writer and his charisma
or star quality, if you prefer, that is sadly lacking from the scene these
days.
Whether
it be his output with The Obsessed (uniformly excellent), Saint Vitus
(ditto), Spirit
Caravan (ditto), The Hidden Hand (ditto) one off involvements
like Shrinebuilder,
Place of
Skulls and even Probot (again, ditto) Wino is always an engaging aural presence.
We
are a decade on from his last acoustic solo album (not counting his records
with Conny Ochs) and I listened to “Forever
Gone” wondering what type of songs he would present this time.
Pleasingly, this feels like a sequel to “Adrift”- Wino has retained the lovelorn and melancholic qualities of that
record and they are presented just as starkly here.
Only
two tracks feature a full band presentation, the rest are guitar and voice-
with some extra instrumentation to compliment the stark arrangements here and
there. The title track and the three tracks that follow are wistful and also
dark. In fact, it's not until the seventh track, “So Fine” that there are any kind of uplifting vibes to be really
heard. A hint at Wino's headspace
may be found in the album's powerful closing statement- a cover of Joy Division's
“Isolation”. Lyrically, the album is great throughout and Wino's ruminations on the world are worth the price of admission.
If
Wino is in a lonely place of dreams
where hours turn into years, as “Lavender
and Sage” proclaims, then he is gifting us some great music. How many more
records there will be we simply cannot know. It's crazy, but Wino started up The Obsessed in 1980. To put
this into perspective, Lemmy started Motorhead in 1975, so only five years of
activity split the two talismanic frontmen.
You'll
certainly wade through dark and murky waters as you listen through this album,
but as you might expect, there are hidden depths that are worth investing the
time to find here. A natural and worthy successor to “Adrift”, full of sombre
reflection and eloquent musings.
“Forever
Gone”
is available HERE
