Electric Wizard

Witchcult Today (Rise Above Records 2007)

Album review

Home | Interviews | Live Pictures | Reviews | News | Tourdates | Message Board | Links | Search | CD Store | Trade Index | Mailing List | For some reason I couldn't procure a promo copy of this cd for review, so being the fan and collector I am, I scrimped up $35, and hunted down the limited edition silver foil gatefold double LP on clear vinyl at my local musical money pit, Armageddon shop in Providence. Fuck yes. The foil is super peeeerrty, but does tend to get scuffed up easily on it's way from England to your record player. The gatefold opens into a band photo, and true to Electric Wizard form there are alot of naked people and satanic stuff in the artwork on the insert...wouldn't be right if there wasn't eh? The lyrics are actually readable on the LP version, (and microscopic in the cd booklet) so here you can make out gems like "Under Saturns rays I rest in eternal sleep Dopesmoke violates my tomb and awakens me Clawing from the grave my batwings spread Their blood filled with drugs, so high, so dead" Awesome. You can actually make out alot of the vocals on this album, a definate improvement over previous releases. Of course I must mention the musical doom, the wafting sounds of drugs and darkness that pour from your speakers as the vinyl spins...it's one of their best so far, no disapointments here. It's not as perfectly brutal as Dopethrone, not quite as musically evil as We Live, but killer in it's own stoned, grooved-out, 70's-sounding, heavy as fuck way. Guitars are layered like thick concrete, distortion that rattles your brain, vintage vocal reverb...and the best part for me, analog recording. I'll take a 2" 16 track reel to reel over a computer any day, so I'm digging the new vintage sound they've got going on here, they're one step closer to Sabbath. Album Rating: Reviewed by: Wolfie ©2008 AbsolutMetal