THE OBSESSED have wrapped up their next album. Frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich told the Laughing Monkey With Shawn Ratches podcast that Live Fast - Love Hard - Die Free is finished — "mixed, mastered, the whole nine" — and already in the hands of Heavy Psych Sounds Records, with a release now penciled in for around March 2027.
We reported back in June that the Maryland doom institution had started tracking the record at Waterford Digital Studio in Pasadena, Maryland, with producer Frank Marchand. According to Wino, the label originally had its own timeline, but the band chose to push the release into spring, partly because guitarist Jason Taylor is about to become a father and partly to steer clear of the holiday season. A single is expected first, and Wino said a video will "probably" follow, though the song hasn't been picked yet.
One track is already familiar to concertgoers: the title track has been in the live set for a while. Wino said the band is split on whether to play more new songs before the album is out and will most likely hold them back. He wrote "Live Fast - Love Hard - Die Free" with drummer Bob Pantella (MONSTER MAGNET, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX) in mind, crediting him with letting the band "come right out of the gate blazing" — something Wino says he'd never been able to do before. As for the rest of the album, he describes it as packed with songs, most of them short.
The band isn't waiting long for the next step. THE OBSESSED return to the studio in December 2026 to record a standalone EP for a later release. A couple of songs that didn't make the album are still in the can, but Wino said he'd rather approach the EP from a fresh angle — possibly even as a single long piece instead of a batch of short songs.
Live Fast - Love Hard - Die Free will follow 2024's Gilded Sorrow, the Ripple Music release that ended a seven-year studio silence for the band Wino founded in Potomac, Maryland in the late 1970s. Between THE OBSESSED, SAINT VITUS and SPIRIT CARAVAN, he is one of the founding figures of American doom.