Electric Wizard: Wizard Bloody Wizard (2017)

With an album title like that, it is pretty clear that the band is making some type of homage or reference to the great Black Sabbath.  And it is obvious that Electric Wizard have created a much more retro-sounding album, one that would have sounded perfectly natural if it had been released in the 1970's. 

Electric Wizard has never really been one of my favorite bands.  I have certainly enjoyed them in small doses, and I still love the song "Dunwich", but I have been mostly reluctant to get deep into their prior catalog.  Their psychedelic brand of stoner/doom metal simply does not speak to me as much, though I can definitely see the appeal others might see.  I have really been turned off by portions of songs where the band simply meanders along with their slow, fuzzed-out riffs for several minutes at a time.  But that is where this album mostly differs.  Electric Wizard have tightened up their sound significantly and delivered their most cohesive record, at least of the ones I have heard.

The only real problem is that the band is unable to reach the heights of some of their earlier material.  There is no "Dunwich" on this album.  No song that stands head and shoulders above the rest as a true highlight on this album.  And there are still a couple of throw-away tracks, including "The Reaper" which disappointed me greatly.  I was hoping my dog would have a new theme song (yes, his name is technically The Reaper).

None of this is to suggest that this is a bad album, it just does not really grab attention.  Electric Wizard will likely continue to be more of an occasional treat for me, which is mostly a shame, because I really want to like them more than I do.  I love their mystique and image, the music just does not totally grab me.   

Initial Impressions: Electric Wizard: Black Masses

This one took me awhile to finally track down.  I have gotten away from ordering albums online unless I really want them.  This did not interest me enough to go that route although I did love Witchcult Today.  But as much as I did enjoy that album I have to be in the right mood for it.

Electric Wizard sounds like the soundtrack to some old 1970's low-budget occult horror movie.  I think that is part of the idea in fact.  I remember an interview with Jus Osborn in Metal Maniacs a few years back (obviously) in which there was a special segment of movies that he recommended.  They were mostly obscure films with the exception of Suspiria.  I checked a few of them out, all the ones I could find on Netflix.  These are the types of movies that I can imagine an Electric Wizard soundtrack to.

The major complaint I have had about Electric Wizard in the past and the reason I have to be in the right mindset to listen to them is their repetitiveness.  The band will frequently drone on and on with one idea with little variation.  Othertimes they will start in on a psychedelic section that will go on for a very long time.  For the most part on this album, the band tends to avoid that.  Most of these tracks are complete and straightforward songs without a lot of meandering parts.  The second half of the album drags a little bit at times and seems to lose steam.  The more interesting songs come in the first half.

This is still very slow music, but that is to be expected.  Electric Wizard has always relied on crushing grooves and extremely heavy riffs.  Those are definitely present here.  They have always been at their most interesting when those riffs move at a little bit of a faster pace and there are some songs on here that do that.  I did have a little bit of an issue with the nasally vocal delivery on "Venus in Furs" at first but it gradually grew on me.

As a full album I think I enjoy this one more than Witchcult Today.  It is a bit more accessible due to the lack of overly-long, drawn-out psychedelia.  However, it does not have a track that stands out far in my mind.  Witchcult had "Dunwich" which is such a terrific song.  This one came close with the title track, but it is just not quite there.  Overall though this is a better album than their previous one.  That has been the extent of my Electric Wizard experience thus far.

Lyrics: H.P. Lovecraft

I am a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft's work. Every major horror author of the last 75 years owes a debt to Lovecraft. Many times his influences are obvious in the works of Stephen King and Clive Barker, as well as others. His influence can also be strongly felt in the lyrics of many heavy metal songs. That's why we're here today.

ADVENT: "SHUB-NIGGURATH"
Where the stones lain,
thou will call his name

If thou know the Signs,
If thou know the Words.

When the Sun
Enter in the Ram,
And darkness are fallen,
Turn thy face
To the Northern Wind

Iah! Shub-Niggurath!

...Heaven can wait...
Great Black Goat of Woods
Worldly pleasures
I call thou!
...Waiting another day...

The sign of Voor
Rise in the sky
The seal is broken
The sign of Kish
Appear in the circle
The Gates are open
The Sign of Koth,
Elder thou watching,
Seals what was unfolded

Return on the Earth again!
Wordly pleasure!
Great Black Goat of Woods!

Kneeled thy body
By Archon of the Night,
Scent on the fire
The Seal of Blaesu
is tracing

I'll have their power
Becoming as a god
My soul is strong
I feel their stream
Growing within;
Black Horrors of the Night
Will kneel to me
I'll take their forces
and I'll order
Over them...

ZARIATNATMIX, JANNA, ETUTNAMUS,
HAYRAS, FABELLERON, FUBENTRONTY,
BRAZO, TABRASOL, NISA,
VAR-SHUB-NIGGURATH ! GABOTS MEMBROT!

Ancient creatures
Who sleep beyond the time
Appear through mist and fire
Without shape,
Out of cosmic void

Is my soul condemned
From here to eternity?

Now that I open the Gates
I see the horror
That come out of time and space...

The Horror... The Horror...

DEATH BREATH: "FLABBY LITTLE THINGS FROM BEYOND"
Vile beyond conception
Floating in the air
Made visible by science
They're around you everywhere

In loathsome profusion
Archaic and arcane
These jellyish monstrosities
Are fucking with your brain

Confused to a state of repulsion
You stare at the unnamable spawn
Keep still - Don't move or they'll get ya
These flabby little things from beyond

Beyond aesthetic standards
Fouler than the night
Paralyzed you're screaming
As they're going for a bite

With a malignant purpose
Too unholy to be grasped
You slowly start to fathom
That this is your final gasp

Lo and behold the abominations
You try telling yourself you've been conned
But as they pierce your flesh you acknowledge
The flabby little things from beyond

With your preternatural eye
You watch before you die
Sights so vastly profane
You've gone beyond insane

Confused to a state of repulsion
You stare at the unnamable spawn
Keep still - Don't move or they'll get ya
These flabby little things from beyond

ELECTRIC WIZARD: "DUNWICH"Dunwich child,
You know not your fathers' name.
Dope numbs the pain,
Ascend dark wooded hills to kane.
Your mothers' witches,
Burnt at the stake for sorcery.
You were conceived,
Upon the altar, rites obscene.

Child of Dunwich rise
You have your fathers' eyes
Child of Dunwich rise
End the world that you despise

Dunwich child,
Of whispered past now they'll learn.
High on the hill,
Black clouds gather now they'll burn
Bay at the stars.
"Why was I born at all?"
Hear voice of doom,
From other worlds your fathers' call.

Our time has come,
The end has begun...

SEPTICFLESH: "LOVECRAFT'S DEATH"
The cold comes
The rats in the walls break
The deadly sound of silence
As time decays
You try to name the unnamable
A whispererer in darkness

Our hound smells you
The haunter of the dark
Will come to take you to our realm
Your life, your books
March in front your closing eyes
Beyond the walls of sleep

Lovecraft in the realm of the dead

Obsessed with Necronomicon
The Arab's wicked dream
You found a path to Azathoth
And walked the Dagon's realm

Your friends were haunted too
Do you remember Charles?
Or haven't you heard
The music of Erich Zann
The call of Cthulhu we disguised
With notes and raving rhythms
To spread the seed of lurking fear
Into the heart of man

Lovecraft in the realm of the dead

Your time is out you saw too much
You used the silver key
You know too well that minds like yours
Can never rest in peace

You stared at the abyss
You'll never rest in peace

You'll never rest in peace

METALLICA: "THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE"
Messenger of Fear in sight
Dark deception kills the light

Hybred children watch the sea
Pray for Father, roaming free

fearless Wretch
insanity
He watches
lurking beneath the sea
great Old One
forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the Shadows is rising
immortal
in madness You dwell

Crawling Chaos, underground
cult has summoned, twisted sound

Out from ruins once possessed
fallen city, living death

fearless Wretch
insanity
He watches
lurking beneath the sea
timeless sleep
has been upset
He awakens
Hunter of the Shadows is rising
immortal
in madness You dwell

Not dead which eternal lie
stranger eons Death may die

drain you of your sanity
face The Thing That Should Not Be

fearless Wretch
insanity
He watches
lurking beneath the sea
great Old One
forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the Shadows is rising
immortal
in madness You dwell

Metallica also had an instrumental song called "The Call of Ktulu".

MORBID ANGEL: "THE ANCIENT ONES"
Locked deep beyond the gate
Lost within the stars
Realm of the ancient ones
Malignant ones
Against the light
Power of the blackened sky
Hateful spawn "We are the chasm depths"

Come forth ancient ones, Tiamat Kutulu
Rise, greet the cursed with your wrath
My enemies are yours
Twist their minds with your spells
Crush their souls
With your infernal grasp

A scorn from the Absu
Kutulu snaps his jaws
Cauldron burns and receives
Crushing the voice of the tyrants
Raise the horns in blasphemy

YYRKOON: "OCCULT MEDICINE"
Through the universal needles
The official healing knowledge spreads itself
Here in some dark and hidden places
Humans dedicate themselves
To morbid discoveries
Morbid experiments
And sleeps the occult... medicine

Studying the art of death to feel a morbid thirst
Old as the beginning of time
Mutilation creation of misery into the cave of hell
Into this diabolic place
And sleeps the occult... medicine

Steel instruments shine in
A lively light of green substance
Dead or alive
Bodies and souls are waiting for the contact with these macabre tools
They are only creations made alive

This is just a small sample. There are tons more.

Hot Girls in Metal Pt. 5: Liz Buckingham (Electric Wizard)

Liz Buckingham is not only an attractive woman, she is also an amazing guitar player. Currently with the stoner/doom metal occultists Electric Wizard, Liz has also done time with 13 and Sourvein seeming to have an affinity for doom.