Despite generally singing about the crushing futility of things, Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich has one of those deeply reassuring, soulful voices that resonates particularly strongly in troubled times.
Forever Gone is a beautiful record, with Wino’s bruised, bluesy rasp set to a backdrop of acoustic guitars and trippy atmospherics, and acres of sonic space for the doom metal icon’s sombre observations to hang in the air, commanding and comforting in equal measure.
The overtly folky No Wrong stands out as a particularly potent moment of vulnerability, as Wino sides with the angels, insisting that ‘My heart ain’t black and my soul I won’t sell…’ over ageless rolling chords.
Taken is stunning, too: a woozy, acid-folk reverie with a bewitching fuzz-guitar-cum-violin motif. The record ends with a thunderous but ghostly reading of Joy Division’s Isolation, on which 58-year-old Wino effortlessly channels the morbid angst of a 21-year-old Ian Curtis to scintillating and, again, oddly reassuring effect.
