a flower of evil indeed - From the flat out spooky opening chords of Eko Eko Azarak, this CD seems to come out of the speakers and flood the room with a thick, dark, smoky presence that is almost tangible. On top of this, the songs stick in your head for days, a neat trick for doom/stoner metal, which often tends toward sameness. This is advertised as Electric Wizard Mark II on the liner notes and indeed it is, as heretical as it may be to say this, I find Mk II to be a more focused band with better musicians than Mark I. There, I said it. I found their earlier releases somewhat monochromatic at times, but with the addition of Liz Buckingham on second guitar there s a lot more going on in terms of the density and the sinister way the instruments intertwine around each other like giant cosmic serpents mating in the void. (Yeah, I said that and I mean it, deal with it.) The flow and fury of this is easy to get caught up in and I find it hard if not impossible to extricate myself from it. And best of all, I don t want to. I want to luxuriate in this wickedness like Baudelaire in an opium den with an exotic woman and a bottle of absinthe.
we live- possibly the best? - I can t beleive there are no reviews for WE LIVE. Everyone points to DOPETHRONE, or COME MY FANATICS, both are great Electric Wizard, but what makes Electric Wizard great is every album is a little different. I have found the WIZARD in the last few months, but since then have collected EVERY bit of music they have created, and WE LIVE contains a few of my most favorite tracks. WE LIVE, came out with the original guitarist/vocalist Jus Osbourne and NO other original members- new members including a 2nd guitarist became Electric Wizard for this album. As a guitarist of 20+ years, I feel WE LIVE is Electric Wizards most interesting album. Not quite as much sheer power as dopethrone, but just as spacey if not MORE SO than COME MY FANATICS, with a little more complex musical construction. The recording is not quite as loud and powerful as dopethrone, more balanced, but with alot of wah-wah, additional electronic noise/samples, super spacey as well as super rough and heavy, several tracks develop half-way into the track and change a bit, rather than drone on and on with the same riff as in the track s beginning. The vocals do use some distortion/effects, but are more clear than dopethrone overall, and there is more range in the vocals as well, compared to the other albums. Track 1- eko eko azarak: very spacey as well as heavy, the song is very long, but has some transitions and changes which make it develop and keep me interested for the whole length. Track 2- we live- very rough, very heavy, with a few different riffs as well- again possibly more complex than older EW releases. Track 3- malfoire aka flower of evil- slow, heavy, dark, with higher pitched more clear vocals, one might even call it singing. One of my favorite tracks due to the fact that its a little different, yet posses what I love about EW- trippy, heavy, dark music. Again a track that develops and changes- almost as a part 1 and part2. Track 4. another perfect day- much faster than most EW, distorted vocals, but still rather clear, breaks down into super heavy riffs too. Track 5, 6, and the more rare track 7 may be the reason why nobody mentions this album. 5 and 6 are good, but drone on forever, you have to really be in the mood for these, very long, very slow, repetitive music. Track 7 - the living dead at manchester morgue- only one some releases, faster, super distorted vocals, not much of a groove - not really what im looking for with EW- but you have to respect the band trying to change it up a little- reminds me of we the undead on EW previous release LET US PREY- which is also not well liked overall. I highly recommend this album to any ELECTRIC WIZARD fan, especially those that enjoy the spacey, trippy, songs of COME MY FANATICS. WE LIVE also has some super heaviness that fans of DOPETHRONE should appreciate. For those who are new to Electric Wizard, as a musician, i find this album to be every bit as enjoyable as COME MY FANATICS or DOPETHRONE, actually it may be my personal favorite. There is more diversity in this album, experimental in nature, but still super heavy.