"Wizard Bloody Wizard" is the long anticipated new LP from UK cult legends ELECTRIC WIZARD and, man, is it HEAVY!!!! 43 minutes of cranium crushing bludgeon rock, a relentless aural brain rape and, like the band's beloved vintage horror/exploitation movies, definitely not for those of a nervous disposition.
Finally rising above convention and genre, the band have constructed their own vision of classic Heavy Rock… a sound harking back to the dreaded days when ‘heavy’ meant Grand Funk and Black Sabbath and ‘rock’ meant drugs, groupies and mountains of amplification. This is 21st Century blues, dragged (and drugged) back from the grave…
“Right away we knew this was it… the new direction we should go in," says Jus Oborn (guitar / vocals). “Real heavy music… really basic heavy rock, blues based but brutal. I think a lot of modern heavy music has disappeared up its own arse… it’s too pretentious and technical. We wanted to get back to that primal sound… over amplified blues… Hendrix, Blue Cheer, Zeppelin. They took that music and then turned it up… so we thought let's do the blues in our style. Heavy, heavy super fuckin' blues, total snail-paced funeral boogie for this 21st century hell. I guess it's meant to be hopeless but it's also defiant and unbroken.”
Even though the LP promises ‘hymns to death, drugs, sex and violence’, the overall vibe is a band that is revitalised and ready to kill. The sound is aggressive, stripped back and savage, as if the new line-up has mainlined a new level of attitude and ability…
“Y’know, a lot of bad shit has happened to us, but through it all was the music. We still dig loud heavy music and the album is not really depressed or angry, it’s arrogant and rebellious. I still believe in rock and roll and I still believe in killing it on stage and mentally destroying an audience.”
And the band sounds together, really together. The last 3 years of touring, writing and rehearsing have honed and moulded a new sound that has truly distilled the ELECTRIC WIZARD brew. In 43 brain-damaging minutes the band delivers a varied, challenging and breath-taking LP, from crushing blues stomp through savage Detroit sleaze rock, paranoiac passages of droning drug rock and creepy funereal proto-metal/acidrock. This is heavy shit, baby!!
“We’ve been worn out by the modern scene, it’s all about styles and genre. We just wanna make solid heavy music… no rules. We didn’t set out to record a style or product. We set out to record what we wanted to hear. I want people to know it's ELECTRIC WIZARD from the first second, but also to know we are gonna take them on a trip. Heavy doesn’t just mean tone and bottom end… I think people have become too obsessed by fx and boutique amps. It’s more about playing style, attitude and song-writing… y’know, a lot of our songs have been interpreted as acoustic numbers by various people and they are still heavy and ominous sounding… you can’t dilute true darkness.”
The LP’s stunning all analogue recording has been produced by Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham (guitars) in their own ‘Satyr IX Recording Studio’….
“It’s an anti-studio really. We wanted to put as little between the band and the tape as possible. We needed to take stuff away and use less equipment cos I think the raw sound of the band is killer. Studios have progressively made the recording situation more difficult and convoluted. I always think the best recordings are the simplest and most basic ones. So, yeah, we built the studio that we wanted… mics, mixing desk, tape machine… that’s it. No bullshit.”
The LP sleeve and art has also been conceived by the band and echoes, again, their love of the macabre, evil and sleazy. A sick and twisted bad taste eye-assault that aims to titillate, excite and repulse you…
“Sex and violence are our basest instincts. I guess we think that engaging the brain and guts on this most basic, primal level is the fastest way to grab people's emotions… it's ‘shock’ tactics, but the world is so fuckin' brainwashed or bored that they need to be ‘woken up’. The ‘man’ is slowly neutering and killing us with technology and lies… it’s time to fight back.”
ELECTRIC WIZARD is:
Jus Oborn – guitar / vocals
Liz Buckingham – guitar
Simon Poole – drums
Clayton Burgess – bass
