THE OBSESSED — The Obsessed (review)

EP · 1983 · Traditional Doom Metal

3.5/5 · 2024-07-02
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Although Black Sabbath usually gets credit as the first heavy metal band to release an album in 1970, likewise Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin released what many call early metal the same year. While all three bands were extremely popular throughout their 70s run, it seems the speed kings Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were more influential at first in spawning legions of imitators that would evolve their heavy metal styles into faster and more extreme expressions.

Only a handful of bands favored the Black Sabbath sound over the more traditional 80s heavy metal sound. Pentagram was one of the earliest doom metal bands following in Sabbath’s footsteps forming as far back as 1971 but still not releasing its first album until 1985. Clearly the speed freaks needed some time to take a chill pill and rediscover the occult lyric-rich slow plodding delicacies of the world of doom metal.

Although it would take another decade for doom metal to really take off, the 80s found a few intrepid Sabbath revivalists strutting their stuff. Witchfinder General, Trouble and Pentragram emerged as well as Candlemass’ epic doom metal classic “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” in 1986 but even that would have to wait a few years before it would be accepted during an era where thrash metal and neoclassical soloing was still reigning supreme.

One of the early traditional doom metal bands to emerge from Potomac, Maryland was THE OBSESSED. Originally formed as early as 1976 only under the name Warhorse, the band played live for a number of years before changing its name in 1980 to a more doom metal friendly moniker and then continued to play the live circuit for another few years before finally releasing its first self-titled EP (some sources list this as being titled “Sodden Jackal 7”).

At this point the lineup was lead vocalist guitarist Scott Weinrich, bassist Mark Laue and drummer Ed Gulli but THE OBSESSED experienced many lineup changes before its debut full-length that premiered in 1990 not to mention later reformations. This EP only featured three tracks and went unheard during its initial release but found the band establishing themselves as one of the doom metal revivalists that would rekindle the lost potential of Sabbath inspired bands that had been usurped by the speed fueled forms of metal that dominated the 80s.

A lo-fi affair THE OBSESSED delivered three tracks that were somewhere in between the Sabbath inspired doom metal they would become more famous for and the speedier early metal expressions from bands of the era. While the opening “Iron & Stone” reminds a bit of Manilla Road, the shorter “Indestroy” definitely features a more Ozzy Osbourne nod in the vocal performance and although the speedy guitar riffing is closer to Venom than Candlemass, there’s still a doomy procession to it. “Sodden Jackal” on the other hand slows things down a bit and offers a veritable slice of early 80s doom metal that represents the band’s later output.

An interesting little early 80s early doom metal release even if its impossible to find now. Luckily the band’s first two EPs along with other odds and sods have been compiled into the “Incarnate” compilation. Despite remaining underground throughout the rest of the 80s the band broke up once before reforming and delivering three albums in the 90s including the lauded “The Church Witin” album from 1994. One of the lesser known bands in the early doom metal revivalist world but certainly one to check out.