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Critic's Choice Early Warnings (Music) Recommended The List (Music)
Shrinebuilder, Rwake

When: Sat., Nov. 14, 8 p.m. 2009
Phone: 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401
Price: $15

You want a real supergroup? Shrinebuilder's lineup is an embarrassment of riches: Scott Kelly, singer and guitarist for Neurosis; Scott "Wino" Weinrich, front man for Saint Vitus and singer and guitarist for Hidden Hand; Al Cisneros, bassist and vocalist for Sleep and Om; and Dale Crover, drummer for the Melvins. If they had a mind to, they could rip through the trendy underground metal scene like real vikings pillaging a Wagnerian opera set. Most of the tracks on their five-song self-titled debut, recorded in three days and released last month on Kelly's Neurot label, are long, challenging, and supple, deriving their power less from raw fury and more from otherworldly grandeur, sinister patience, and the kind of cat-and-mouse tension that it takes a bunch of crusty old guys to really handle properly. All four members contribute vocals as well as moments that will remind you of their respective bands, and the total package is towering and regal, its geometry non-euclidean and its doomy ambience—especially on "Pyramid of the Moon"—grounded in seafloor-solid rhythms. Rwake opens the early show and Yakuza opens the late show. —Monica Kendrick