OFF: clearing out old albums

[Paul Mather]

On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, bart wondered:

=> > =>      Electric Wizard - _Electric Wizard_
=>
=> What do these guys sound like, out of curiosity ? I've seen CDs by them
=> (including a double) - wondered if they were sabbath clones or sub par doom
=> merchants /stoner / sludge whatever.

I bought the double CD reissue of _Come My Fanatics_/_Electric Wizard_ a
day or so ago.  They are pretty much a stoner/sludge/doom/Sabbath-ish
outfit.  The charm and appeal of their music is, IMHO, that it is
crushingly heavy.  Wall of sound doesn't begin to describe it.  They
remind me of Sleep, only better.  I cannot unreservedly recommend them,
because, like many bands of that ilk, they play too slowly that it
starts to become annoying.  Combine that with a limited selection of
riffs, and you have to decide whether to be charitable and call the
result "relentless" or be brutal and dub it "monotonous."  But I can
find such "propulsive" simplicity endearing, especially under the right
circumstances.  As a bonus, there are moments of Space Ritual-era
delay-effect spaciness to be found, too, which is rather refreshing.
But, as is often the case, the lyrics throughout are throwaway, and
probably only made sense when the author was hitting the bong really
hard whilst penning them.

I don't think this helps you much, does it? :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

NP: Gov't Mule, The 8x10, Baltimore, MD, 7/30/97 (electric set)