Electric Wizard - Time to Die

Time to Die, Electric Wizard's eighth album, was the fourth of theirs I heard. I'd started strong on Dopethrone, then got Let Us Prey and Black Masses. I was really enjoying what I'd heard and had a great time seeing them live. I'm not a huge metal fan, but every now and again a band has a huge impact on me. Electric Wizard is one of those bands.

A few months after it came out I found this copy of Time to Die in Spillers Records when I was back in Cardiff for the weekend. I think I knew they'd released a new one, but hadn't had a chance to pick up a copy. At that point I was more of a casual fan gradually buying albums as-and-when. I was certainly pleased to have a chance to buy it without needing to order it, although knowing there were probably more exciting colours out there was a bit of a shame (I think it got reissued for Record Store Day shortly afterwards too).

A month and a half later I placed Time to Die as my third favourite album that year (behind Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Shellac - it was a strong year). A month and a half isn't a long time, but I knew two things: it was a truly great Electric Wizard album and a truly great album in general. I don't know the generally accepted ranking of Electric Wizard's albums (beyond Dopethrone and Come My Fanatics competing for the top places) but I certainly consider this one of their best and would recommend it, along with those two, to anyone getting into the band.

The opening duo that make up side 1 are incredible - both amazingly memorable, slow and brutal. The riff on the title track is great and carries the song out brilliantly. It captures everything I want from the band in one go and Jus's vocal are perfect. I'm listening to it pretty loud, but I keep wanting it to be louder - it's the sort of song that needs to take over everything. I Am Nothing is a huge slab of bleakness (which isn't a criticism) and the instrumental Destroy Those Who Love God isn't just filler, as you might expect it to be. We Love the Dead also has some incredible guitars that really make the song and effects on Lucifer's Slaves are brilliantly psychedelic.

I've listened to Time to Die a lot over the last few years and I still love it. I've over-played Dopethrone a bit so it's become a go-to Electric Wizard album on my iPod (I'm missing mp3s for a lot of their albums). Every now and again you want an album to pummel you into despair, and Time to Die will certainly do that in the best possible way.

Format: Double 12", gatefold, picture sleeves, poster
Tracks: 9
Cost: £21 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 15/11/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Electric Wizard - Let Us Prey

Let Us Prey was the second Electric Wizard album I heard. A few months after getting Dopethrone I found a second-hand copy of the cd for £6 in London and was pretty excited to hear some more of the band. Now, seven years later, I think it might be my least favourite Electric Wizard album. That isn't as bad as it sounds - it's still a great album, but when I want to listen to Electric Wizard, this isn't the album I ever think to go to.

The album starts with a huge riff, the sort you'd expect from the band, but then we're quickly introduced to thing I dislike most about the album - the muffled vocals. Jus's vocals are so low in the mix and (I assume) intentionally incoherent. There's a layer of fuzz and noise that seems to sit on the surface. The mix of doom and old blues-rock are lost beneath it and, too, are things I love most about Electric Wizard. We, the Undead takes those muffled vocals to the next level. It's an interesting thing to try, and under any other circumstances I might quite enjoy it. Of course I bought it simply because it was there, but in hindsight I wish it hadn't been my second Electric Wizard album.

The songs are still great in their ways: both songs on side 2 are great and the outro to Priestess of Mars is huge, but huge in spite of the fuzz, which is a shame; I'd love to hear that song on any other album. The double-LP includes the Japanese bonus track Master of Serpants on the D-side rather than squeezing the six songs across just one 12" like the original release did. It's a nice addition, but an instrumental song that you could understand why it wasn't on the album-proper.

A short while ago I noticed that Rise Above had re-re-issued the Electric Wizard back-catalogue on vinyl and had some nice colours in stock. Rather than wait and hopefully stumble across them in shops (something that rarely happens in the UK, but often in the US), I decided I'd just complete my collection in one go. It's very pleasing to have them all sat there together.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 7
Cost: £24 new
Bought: Rise Above Records
When: 14/09/16
Colour: Gold
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

I was very pleased to finally get a copy of Dopethrone on vinyl recently. It's not hard to come by online (I'd never seen it in real life before), but for a long time the only one regularly available was on black vinyl - there had been so many represses on different colours it seemed a shame to settle on black. On a trip to Brighton I was very excited to see this pink vinyl copy in Resident records and quickly added it to the small pile of records I was buying. I'm guessing this is from the 2015 repress but I can't find any detail on how many are of this colour.

Dopethrone was my introduction to Electric Wizard. I'd known about the band for a while and think I'd just read that Dopethrone was their finest album. They were playing in Bristol soon and I figured I should actually listen to one of their albums first, so went into HMV and bought Dopethrone. That was 7 years ago and remains one of the best choices I ever made. At £13 it was expensive for a cd but the second I pressed play I knew I was in for a treat.

I'm quite picky when it comes to metal, but Electric Wizard are my perfect idea of metal - huge riffs, distortion, sludge, doom, listenable vocals (a lot of metal fails this one) and punishing drums. But they also have this blues edge that takes you right back to Black Sabbath. The intro to Funeralopolis has this incredible blues guitar played over fuzz and drums that never fails to put a smile on my face (nor, for that matter, does the huge outro or "Nuclear warheads ready to strike / The world is so fucked, let's end it tonight"). I'm a fan of the whole album, but side-A here is just perfect - Vinum Sabbathi and Funeralopolis are two of my favourite Electric Wizard songs. Barbarian follows the slow Weird Tales perfectly; after the drawn out outro Barabrian almost sounds like a punk song in it's speed and delivery. I, the Witchfinder and We Hate You on side-C also deserve a mention for being mind-blowingly good songs.

I gave a copy of the cd to my friend Hugh who was also coming to the show who described the band in a brilliantly succinct text message when he first listened to the album: "the second song is 2 weeks long. I feel like I'm stoned". I think the band would be happy with summary.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £23 new
Bought: Resident Records, Brighton
When: 13/07/16
Colour: Pink marle
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Electric Wizard - Black Masses

I've been listening to Electric Wizard for quite a while now, but this is the first of their albums I've had on vinyl. I can do better than tell you about how I got into Electric Wizard, because in this case I can show you what made me listen to this band - this poster (you can click on the link, or see my (badly framed, but much loved) copy in the pictures below). You'll agree that it's a fucking incredible poster.

When I was living in Australia, Electric Wizard were touring the country with an Australian stoner/doom band called Pod People, which included two dates in Canberra (two more than most bands bothered with), one in the student union bar. A while before the gig, these posters appeared all over campus advertising the show and I remember thinking it was the coolest poster I'd ever seen. I'd heard of ANU getting some decent gigs in the past, but in the four months I'd been there nothing great had come to town. After seeing the posters I went home and Googled Electric Wizard; the first link I clicked on described Electric Wizard as "the heaviest band in the world". Needless to say, I was quite intrigued.

The worst part of this story, is that I didn't go to either of Electric Wizard's Canberra shows (or, in fact, any on that tour). They played a five minute walk from where I was living and I didn't go. In hindsight, I regret this very much. In the Australian calendar, late-October/early-November is exam time and I had four very difficult exams to prepare for (ANU was a much harder university than Lancaster). On top of that, I was going on a trip through central-Australia two weeks afterwards which would require most of the money I had left and some time planning. Finally, the gig was Au$28 and this was a lot of money to an exchange student with travel on his mind. At $28 there was no way I could convince any of my friends to come (who were far from metal fans) and this was before I didn't mind going to shows on my own. I should have gone.

Anyway, some time afterwards I picked up a copy of Dopethrone on cd and it blew me away. It's the most brilliantly slow yet grooviest doom I've ever heard. I made a copy for Hugh and he described Funeralopolis as being "two weeks long". A while later they played The Trinity Centre in Bristol and I went with Hugh, Richey and a friend of his whose name I've forgotten but was a nice guy. The Trinity Centre is/was a church and I can't think of a better venue to watch Electric Wizard in. It was excellent and I no longer felt like such a fool for missing them in Canberra. I've since seen them again and plan to see them as many times as possible. There's nothing like a good, slow headbang sometimes.

Black Masses is the latest Electric Wizard album, and if you go on Rise Above Records' website you can still get some fancy colours of this record. My sister asked me what I wanted for my birthday last year, and I asked for this. I'd been eyeing it up for a while, but hadn't quite got round to clicking "buy". The blue and red swirl looks great, although it's worth mentioning that in my colour-blind eyes I can only see the red clearly through a camera. Otherwise it just looks like the darker blue around the edge. The whole package is pretty lovely. Musically it's everything I want and I've come to expect from an Electric Wizard album. My favourites are Venus in Furs and Turn Off Your Mind.

I can't say there are many bands I've got into because they had an excellent tour poster, but Electric Wizard are certainly one of them. Before the gig I'd taken down one of the posters from one of the pillars around campus and I've had it on a wall in every house I've in since. Although it should remind me that I should have gone to see them, it mostly reminds me how awesome Electric Wizard are.


Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 8
Cost: £0 new
Bought: gift
When: 29/10/12
Colour: Blue and red swirl
Etching: none
mp3s: no