Heavy as a fat guy...

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today (2007)

If you haven't heard of Electric Wizard,you aren't a true metalhead...just listen to this album and you'll know what i'm talking about.

"Electric Wizard is a hallowed name in the stoner/doom underworld, producing two of the genre's true classics in Come My Fanatics... and Dopethrone, along with a handful of essential albums and EPs. Currently, vocalist/guitarist Justin Oborn is the lone founding member of the band, which now also consists of guitarist Liz Buckingham, bassist Rob Al-Issa, and drummer Shaun Ritter, who manages to capture some of the earlier Wizard feel here on his first release behind the kit. Witchcult Today was recorded in Toe Rag Studios � famed for their analogue recordings and an ever-growing collection of vintage equipment � and produced by owner Liam Watson (the engineer and mixer on the White Stripes' smash hit Elephant, from the same studio) in order to achieve an authentic throwback sound. The result is the aural equivalent of a Hammer Horror flick from the '60s and early '70s, chock-full of arcane imagery and preternatural riffs, with Oborn's banshee wail low in the mix as usual. The production creates a lush, warm analog masterpiece without any modern equipment or computers used, as the evils of ProTools are replaced with those of weed, the occult, and devil music.

The title track kicks off Witchcult Today in classic Wizard s t y l e, with a riff that sounds like it could have come from the self-titled album or Come My Fanatics..., only it is accentuated here by the second guitar. The song has a slowed-down drugged-out Mercyful Fate vibe, minus King Diamond's falsetto, as Jus' vocals are particularly anguished and the lyrics depict a goat-headed demon materializing from a cloud of pot smoke during a Satanic ritual. If that doesn't draw you in, there's the devilishly catchy riff of "Dunwich," a more uptempo rocker based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, with a groove that has a tendency to stick in one's memory long after the record is over. "Satanic Rites of Drugula" is a stoner adaptation of Hammer Films' The Satanic Rites of Dracula and may border on self-parody, but the concept (a vampire count resurrected by dopesmoke who drugs his victims before drinking their blood in order to get high) would certainly make an interesting movie in its own right. The crunching doom riff and the Sabbathy tone of the leads and solos back up Oborn's improved vocal abilities, giving the over-the-top lyrics the credibility they need.

The short instrumental "Raptus" � Latin for "rapture" � features the sitar and leads into "The Chosen Few," a tale of stoned Satanic slaves set to a heavy midtempo riff, with a Hammond organ late in the song and some lyrics ("The time has come/All the chosen, time to put down your bongs/Take up a knife, end a life/Legalize drugs and murder") that show the hatred still flickering in the resin-coated heart of the Electric Wizard. Although not as immediate as "Dunwich," "Torquemada 71" and its sing-along chorus provide the other memorable hit of the album, as the newly-paired rhythm section swings along and Oborn shines vocally again. He actually sounds better than ever throughout Witchcult Today, as he's singing relatively cleanly with an Ozzyish tone to his voice. "Torquemada 71" is inspired by Tom�s de Torquemada, who was the first Inquisitor General of Spain and the sadist responsible for the torture of countless heretics during the Spanish Inquisition, but the Countess Elizabeth Bathory is also mentioned in the song as his "necroqueen," even though he died 62 years before she was even born. They'd make a cute couple though. The riff and guitar work is stunning as Liz and Jus complement one another to provide a fuller sound.

"Black Magic Rituals & Perversions" is the oddball track here, a welcome return to the tripped-out sounds of "Doom Mantia," "Ivixor B/Phase Inducer," and "Mountains of Mars" from the past, with its otherworldly atmosphere and indecipherable chanting oppressed by a massive riff for the first half. The second half of the song gets spacey and psychedelic until it ends abruptly at exactly eleven minutes. This song had originally been announced as being 20+ minutes and I would definitely love to hear an uncut version, but I've heard that they had to cut it because playing the full track would have opened the Gates of Hell and summoned forth a legion of demons. True story, that's just how evil it is. The final track is the epic "Saturnine," and it suffers the same fate at just a shade over eleven minutes, as the hypnotic riff is suddenly cut off and leaves the listener wanting more. The stripped-down retro production by Liam Watson may not impress followers of the Wizard who consider the loud and angry Dopethrone to be the band's pinnacle, but those who prefer the earlier material should find Witchcult Today to be "mind-melting occult rock" and perhaps the band's finest offering yet." (review from stonerrock.com)