From the south of England during times of great turmoil, a sound grew, a sound that echoed with the distrust and hatred of the disenfranchised. That sound reverberated through earth and gave birth to its final form, a Wizard of pure energy and electricity, an Electric Wizard.
This one is a little different to the past couple of bands I've done in this series as Electric Wizard are still actively touring and writing music but outside of their genre, Doom, not many have heard of "The Wizard" or if they have they haven't listened to them. Which is a shame, they take what Black Sabbath invented and made it darker (yes, darker) gave it more bottom end (yes, more bottom end) and they have written some of the most important albums in the Doom genre.
A three hour car ride south from Birmingham (the birthplace of the Black Sabbath) will find you in Dorset the birthplace of Electric Wizard or more accurately the birthplace of Lord of Putrefaction which through a few line up and name changes became the abominable Electric Wizard. A band who plumbs the depths of the diminished 5th and has written some of the darkest doom that ever found it's way out of satan's black heart. Not only do they write some of the darkest music ever conceived but they write honestly some of the catchiest and incredibly sprawling, incomparably heavy, and just absolutely immense music, in every sense of the word.
Electric Wizard is definitely one of my favourite band of all time if not my favourite so I find it criminal that so few people know of them or if they know of them they haven't heard their music before. Electric Wizard should be taught in schools it should be Maths, Science, History, Electric Wizard.
In the early days after the release of Come My Fanatics the band got caught in a series of mishaps Jus Oborn, the founder, Vocalist and Guitarist of the band got arrested for Arson for torching a car outside of a police station, Mark Greening the drummer got arrested for breaking in to an off license and stealing a bottle of whiskey which he sat on the footpath out the front and drank. Tim Bagshaw fell through the window of a church trying to steal a crucifix off the roof that they could use on stage which he got community service for. Mark Greening broke his collarbone in an accident and Jus Oborn suffered a collapsed eardrum on stage and severed his finger while laying carpet wink. All of these anti-social shenanigans and injuries fueled the dark sound that went in to their music back then, which I don't think anyone is complaining about, except for maybe the band members.
Since the release of Let us Prey they have calmed down a bit which is probably a good thing. Their music still reigns supreme in the world of Doom and their legacy remains intact. Jus Oborn has been the figurehead of the band from day one and has had a very strong idea of what the band is and should be which has rubbed a few band members the wrong way Mark Greening the original drummer left on bad terms but later reconciled and returned to help write their second last album Time to Die which they released in 2014. The turmoil between Jus and Mark helped fuel the foreboding sound on the album and made me think of some of their earlier releases. Justin Greaves left on bad terms also stating that he hated that loser (Oborn) and would piss on his grave. I feel like this is a common theme in bands where there is one founder and other members join and leave because they don't really get much of a say in the way the band runs or the way the band writes.
Every band has their hard times and most of those bands use those experiences to fuel their writing process but none more effectively than Electric Wizard, you can hear it through the era's of their music. The early days were fueled by injuries and anti-social behaviour and spawned Electric Wizard, Come my Fanatics, Dopethrone and Let us Prey and you can hear it in those albums. The second era was forged by members coming and going endless touring and the addition of perennial mainstay in Liz Buckingham which gave birth to the albums We Live, Witchcult Today and and Black Masses. Then there's the modern era which saw a former enemy return and Electric Wizard reform the craft that they have spent their entire life perfecting which saw them spew forth, Time to Die and Wizard Bloody Wizard. All of these eras are pretty distinct in their sound, of which I love the second era the best, the addition of Liz Buckingham really fleshed out the guitars and gave them a more catchy sound.
Of all the bands I've ever heard none have been more captivating to me than Electric Wizard, once they come up on my playlist that's all I'll be listening to for the rest of the day, I'll go from listening to a fully shuffled playlist to all Electric Wizard because Funeralopolis or Saturnine popped up in the shuffle. That's not a word of a lie by the way, that's the absolute truth. it's happened way to many times for it to be a passing fancy.
VikingHammer Out!
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