Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

To somewhat paraphrase the legendary Devin Townsend, the sound on this album is as heavy as a really heavy thing. Like, really really heavy; a collapsing neutron star, or some such. Dopethrone is a monument in modern day doom metal; easily one of the albums that re-invigorated the scene and brought new life to the (at the time) fairly stagnant genre, all the while re-setting the benchmark for what heavy music can be. It is fascinating how something so muddy and lo-fi (for lack of a better term) can be so gargantuan.

It is hard to do listening to this album any justice. I suggest the vinyl copy, played on the most expensive sound system you can get access to, to guarantee the best experience. “Funeralopolis”, “I Hate You” and the title track are absolutely fucking huge doses of crushing doom magic, and I struggle to think of better ways to experience an hour or so of complete sonic annihilation. If you’ve somehow never heard Electric Wizard before this is without a doubt the best place to start. A stone cold classic and benchmark of the doom genre.

Acoustic Wizard - Please Don't Sue Me Vol 2

Acoustic Wizard is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an acoustic tribute band to Electric Wizard. I could never in a million years have expected this to work, but fuck, it totally does. If anything this project proves that there is real weight to the riffs that Electric Wizard have pioneered, rather than them being yet another crap band playing really slowly and smothered in distortion.

I guess this is one of those things where I really can't say that much and you just have to listen to it to believe that it actually exists. If you're not a fan of Electric Wizard though, I would definitely give this a miss. There used to be a Bandcamp full of this shit, but perhaps Jus'n'Co (or maybe Rise Above) got to them before us and shut 'em down...Who knows? There's always Youtube.

With The Dead - With The Dead

Fuuuuck me this shit is so heavy, I just had to get my oar in just incase the Doomfinder General shits out a review for this before me! I don't write about that much doom metal these days so I'll take this fairly rare opportunity to plug a new supergroup of slow. With The Dead features the original Electric Wizard backbone dynamic duo (later to perform as Ramesses) joined with ex-Cathedral/Napalm Death crooner and Rise Above Records CEO Lee Dorrian. Now how's that for a good fucking idea?

The result, perhaps expectedly, is somewhere between Dopethrone and Endtyme; a bludgeoning affair of smoggy doom riffery and organ-pulping bass tone. For every stoned wondering of what classic Wizard would have sounded like with Dorrian on vocals, there is now an answer, and that answer will bury you into the fucking ground. There's a bit of classic, trad-doom riffing on "Nephthys" and the odd solo but for the most part this is pure worship to the Wizard sound of old, topped with that magical Cathedral feel. It might seem obvious basing this review around pointing that out, but it's literally perfect. Have a goose. 

Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics

(Words by Richard Lewis, Doomfinder General)

Electric Wizard are... well you should all know who Electric Wizard are. In a just world every person alive should know who Electric Wizard are. If not, go and listen to the song at the bottom of the post, I'll wait...

Come My Fanatics is Electric Wizard's (Electric Wizard Electric Wizard Electric Wizard Electric Wizard) second album but it's the one where they really find their sound. More heaviness, more fuzz, more drugs, more horror movie samples and buckets of misanthropic psychedelia; the whole thing is just wonderful. There are so many good points about this album that it's hard to name them all. From the main riff on "Return Trip" (which I think is in with a shout of being the heaviest thing ever) to the amazing bassy psych of "Solarian 13", and everything in between. Words don't do it justice, so just go and listen to it instead.

Electric Wizard - Time To Die

To say that the recent Electric Wizard album sounds like Electric Wizard would possibly be a very lazy analysis of the situation, but hey – this sounds like Electric Wizard. It sounds so much like Electric Wizard that it literally hurts. Even with Tim Bagshaw back on drums (for long enough to record this record anyway) it just sounds to me exactly like the last two albums. It seriously boggles my little mind how Wizard can (let’s be honest) keep recycling the same old shit and still have it sound fantastic as fuck.

The biggest thing for me with Time To Die is the production sound; it’s much more sludgy, even a bit meatier than its predecessor, and adds a clarity to the swampy sound of thon Wizard of Electricity. As great as Black Masses is, it sounds like it was recorded in an active wind tunnel and then some “new guy” at the studio sucked all the fucking bass and treble out of it. For such a brilliant album, it sounds truly, truly awful.

Anyway, Time To Die is awesome. For me it picks up as the album develops; the triple whammy of “Funeral Of Your Mind”, “We Love The Dead” and “SadioWitch” is absolute top class doomery. The whole thing has a recurring theme of eery keyboards and samples relating to satanic worship meandering in and out every so often. This cumulates in the closing outro track “Saturn Dethroned”, which takes the eery keyboard widdly-widdly-ness to epic new levels of spookiness.

Despite the fact that I like to complain about everything (but hey, I’m an internet blogger – we’re the scum of the universe) please, please be assured that Time To Die is a fantastically heavy record by a longstanding doom metal legend.

Electric Wizard - Legalize Drugs & Murder

So if you weren't at the London show when this 7" came out, you were pretty much boned for an original copy! Represses exist on 7" though thanks to Rise Above, and the EP was released more nationally as a free copy by the good folk at Terrorizer magazine, on the excellently under-rated format of tape and with a couple of extra tracks thrown in for good measure! You though vinyl had a warm sound? Son, you need to fire up that ol' tape deck and chomp this fucker into it.

Legalize Drugs and Murder is the usual Leccy Wizz affair of drugs'n'riffs; opening with a sample of bubbling bongwater before sludging headfirst into a muddy-as-hash-oil riff-fest. It is, quite honestly, the best thing in the world to nod your head to whilst smoking a fucking massive spliff. Word. All the tracks are excellent, including the remixes. I genuinely feel like I have stepped back in time plugging my headphones into my seldom used tape deck! Far out, man!

This is currently selling for a variety of different prices on Discogs and eBay because let's not forget that Terrorizer is a British magazine and there are still plenty of Wizard fans over the globe who cannae get a copy of this bastard!