The Obsessed

Rip It Up, Issue 204, 1 August 1994, Page 28

The Obsessed

Very rarely do I listen to rock music made after 1979. Why listen to a poor 90s copy of the Stones or Sabbath or Zeppelin when you can hear the real thing? But every once in a while my attention is grabbed by a review of something new. When Kirk Gee called the Obsessed “regressive”, “nasty and unrelenting” and “loud, for the pure dumb pleasure of it” I thought ‘Alright! Here's something I might like!’ I read how singer/ guitarist Scott “Wino” Weinrich has been around since the early 80s Washington DC hardcore scene. How the Obsessed were the only heavy metal group to be embraced by punks like lan Mac Kaye and Henry Rollins. Now people like White Zombie and L 7 are citing them as an inspiration (but don’t let this put you off). And then, somewhere between the old Obsessed and today’s version, Wino hooked up with a Southern California group called St Vitus. They released five of SST’s heaviest albums, only to bite the dust after a German label released the original Obsessed demos

which caused so much interest Wino was forced to choose between St Vitus and his old band. He chose to reform the Obsessed. A couple of years ago they released Lunar Womb and now, The Church Within, which is how come I’m talking to drummer Greg

Rogers. At first I was disappointed to learn I’d be talking to the drummer (traditionally drummers have the least to say and have least input in the music) but Greg turned out to be one of those charming southern men. He’d been living in Tennessee, playing in a blues band and working as a cook when he got invited to join the Obsessed, even though he’d never even heard their music. His attitude was just like, “cool, a trip to Europe” but as soon as they started practising he knew they were the go. So Greg, whaddya think is the greatest period for heavy rock? “Why, the 70s of course. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Captain Beyond. There’s this band called Sir Lord Baltimore — “

Sir Lord Baltimore! I tell Greg I used to

know a record collector who was dying to hear their stuff but it’s impossible to find in New Zealand. Greg says it’s real hard to find in America too but he found a record for 99 cents in a used record store. He offers to make me a tape and send it to me. Cool! I mention my disasterous interview with Kyuss singer John Garcia and Greg says he saw them play last night (Kyuss’ bassist Scott Reeder was in the original Obsessed). “Those guys are friends of mine. John, the singer, is kind of strange, there’s some part of him you can’t really get to.” (Greg says that I’m not the first journalist to complain about John Garcia’s personality).

Being from Tennessee, Greg is naturally a fan of good ol’ southern rock. He's a huge fan of ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers and tonight he’s going to see a double bill with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ted Nugent. He first saw Skynard when he was 11 years old and got all their autographs, including Ronnie Van Zandt’s. This impresses me. He’s also a major Frank Zappa fan, as are the rest of the

band — The Church Within is dedicated to Zappa. “I’ve got a tattoo of Frank on my arm and I’m half-way through buying all his records. I got my 31st one two days ago,” says Greg. So the Obsessed have got impeccable musical taste and attitude. Wino and bass player Guy Pinhas are currently homeless (being without girlfriends to give 'em a roof, like Greg’s) and the press kit gives us this classic R&R quote from Wino: “If your gonna play rock and roll you’ve gotta be an outlaw, you’ve gotta be willing to starve, you’ve gotta be willing to got to jail, you’ve gotta spend your own money, you can’t cry about the little hurts.”

The music of the Obsessed is not quite as awesome as the hype would have you believe but put it this way, it sounds a lot closer to Sabbath than Danzig — slow n’heavy, although the singer can get a bit heavy handed. Th excitement factor isn’t that high, but it’s plenty dark sounding.

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