Incarnate covers the years 1983-1994 of Los Angeles doom metal trio The Obsessed's initial existence. Founder-guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Scott "Wino" Weinrich is the group's sole mainstay through several lineups that included drummers Greg Rogers and The Melvins' Dale Crover, and bassists Guy Pinhas, Mark "Professor Dark" Laue, and Scott Reeder — Reeder's name will be familiar to those who remember him from his stint with Kyuss in the late '80s/'90s, before he joined The Obsessed. Fans of Weinrich's decades-long exploits will recognize the song "Spirit Caravan" as the name of his current, post-Obsessed band. The Sabbath, Motorhead and MC5 influences are apparent (beating Kyuss to the punch by over seven years) and Wino's voice assumes a hybrid Ozz-Lemmy quality. Iommi-esque solos figure into tunes like "Sodden Jackal" while the drumming is firmly in the time-honored Ward/Powell mold. Two of the best tracks on here are cover versions: The Animals' "Inside Looking Out" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "On The Hunt," the latter of which is much darker than the original. The two best originals are also back-to-back: "Streetside" and "Mourning." Sonic clarity varies from track to track: the songs from 1983 sound the murkiest and most bottom-heavy; the toms on "Iron & Stone" practically meld into one galloping current. Incarnate suffices as a solid retrospective of the band's music, which squarely fits into the annals of doom-rock, and this reissue tacks on five extra tracks and a video.
Tracklist:
1. Yen Sleep
2. Concrete Cancer
3. Peckerwood Stomp
4. Inside Looking Out
5. Mental Kingdom
6. Sodden Jackal
7. Iron & Stone
8. Indestroy
9. Streetside
10. Mourning
11. Spirit Caravan
12. Skybone
13. On The Hunt
— Bonus Tracks —
14. River Of Soul (live)
15. Climate Of Despair (demo)
16. Decimation (demo)
17. Fears Machine (demo)
18. Field Of Hours (demo)
— Multimedia —
MPEG: Streetside
Total time: 69:54