Dopethrone

Three years had passed since Come My Fanatics..., and the band had all but vanished. Bassist Tim Bagshaw was arrested for breaking into a liquor store, drummer Mark Greening came off his motorcycle and broke his collarbone, and singer and guitarist Jus Oborn was arrested for setting fire to a Reliant Robin. Oborn has said Rise Above's Lee Dorrian pressed him for a follow-up, and that the difficulties of those three years went straight into the record. Only three songs existed when they went in: "Dopethrone", "Funeralopolis" and "We Hate You". Bagshaw says he wrote "Vinum Sabbathi" in about two minutes. The centrepiece, the multi-part "Weird Tales", was built entirely inside the studio; Oborn later called it "kind of stupid, like prog-rock or some shit". They worked at Chuckalumba Studios through May and June, with the recording itself taking three or four days and the mixing dragging on through arguments. Oborn wrote all the words and names H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as the influences on them. Decibel put the album on its top twenty stoner rock records in 2007 and Terrorizer called it the album of the decade in 2009. "Mind Transferal" comes from these sessions but was first issued as a bonus track on Japanese pressings. The running order here is the original British release's as printed.