ELECTRIC WIZARD - Wizard Bloody Wizard
Spinefarm Records
The problem with over-hype is when it catches up even the faithful leave you holding a bag of shit. That's the case for present day ELECTRIC WIZARD in a nutshell. There's no denying their early greatness but they did peak out with Dopethrone in 2000. Since then they've tried to stay relevant whether it's been through line-up changes, experimenting with their sound or just going back to the basics.
They got lucky in 2007 with Witchcult Today not because it was a fantastic album. It was because that's the year hipster-ism broke into the metal scene. So you have that plus a friendly mainstream metal media which likes to reward mediocrity while overlooking this band's contemporaries who these past ten years have been doing a better job. Hell I still laugh at Decibal Magazine who in 2010 included Black Masses in their best of the year listing even without hearing the release. So much for their credibility.
Which brings us to Wizard Bloody Wizard, OK nice album cover. I'm sure they'll sell plenty of t-shirts on their next tour. But musically, well if you thought the last couple of ELECTRIC WIZARD albums were piss poor then this one won't surprise you. Frankly I have no idea where they were going or thinking when they recorded this. The opener (which came out early as a single) "See You in Hell" is a bluesy load of crap. The second cut, “Necromania”, is more upbeat with a 70's rock and groove structure. It's a decent song, now if I can only think of the band they stole it from, LED ZEP?
It's not till the third cut, "Hear the Sirens Scream", where the band breaks away from the typical to something unexpected albeit still unoriginal or creative. I give props to the rhythm section on this one. No need to mention their names because they'll be ex-members in a year or two. "The Reaper" had promise with it's use of Hammond organ sounds and Mid-Eastern 60's psych guitar but it was merely a throwaway instro or worse the opening intro to the truly bad "Wicked Caressness".
Actually this release has one good cut and it's the very last song on the album "Mourning of the Magicians". It's more like the band simply sticking to what it has recycled for years now. It's slow, plodding psych induced doom. In the end all I can say is that EW should've titled this one We Suck because that's about it. Maybe in a few years they'll just drop their name and go by Oborn & Buckingham. All that's left now is to see if Spinefarm has enough cash in their advertising budget to pay off some media scribes in order to get this coaster into some end of year best of lists. Before anyone of em hears it of course.
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