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09-10 Electric Wizard unveil new sin
12-16 Electric Wizard announce tour
09-23 Electric Wizard album stream
07-14 Electric Wizard debut new trac
07-01 Electric Wizard Announce Album
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Often referred to as the "heaviest band in the universe," England's Electric Wizard have consistently redefined thepreconceivedthresholdsofadetuned guitar chord with their peerless doom metal achievements -- this despite an often interpersonallytroubled,ifmusicallytriumphant,career. Formed in darkest Dorset by vocalist/guitarist Justin Oborn (previously with Lords of Putrefaction),bassistTimBagshaw,anddrummer Mark Greening, and initially known as Thy Grief Eternal (briefer still, simply Eternal), Electric Wizard madetheirdebutwith1993's"Demon Lung" single -- a split release with fellow doomste ...read more
Often referred to as the "heaviest band in the universe," England's Electric Wizard have consistently redefined thepreconceivedthresholdsofadetuned guitar chord with their peerless doom metal achievements -- this despite an often interpersonallytroubled,ifmusicallytriumphant,career. Formed in darkest Dorset by vocalist/guitarist Justin Oborn (previously with Lords of Putrefaction),bassistTimBagshaw,anddrummer Mark Greening, and initially known as Thy Grief Eternal (briefer still, simply Eternal), Electric Wizard madetheirdebutwith1993's"Demon Lung" single -- a split release with fellow doomsters Our Haunted Kingdom (who later evolved intoOrangeGoblin).ReleasedbyCathedral linchpin Lee Dorrian's doom-specialized Rise Above Records, the single paved the way for ElectricWizard'seponymousdebut ayearlater, and, although it didn't quite revolutionize the genre (actually, it contained pretty standard doom fare forthetime), thealbum stillmade fora rather impressive start.Released in 1996, sophomore album Come My Fanatics... was another matter entirely, however, effectively rewriting the doomrulebookwiththesheer volume and distortion contained in its planet-sized riffs, and rattling the underground metal scene to its coreintheprocess.Unfortunately,its seismic aftershocks would also be felt by the members of Electric Wizard, who, due to variouspoorlyexplainedinjuries(Greening was dealt abroken arm, while Oborn first lost a fingertip in a domestic accident and, less surprisingly,latersuffered arupturedeardrum!), managed only aset of EPs -- 1997s Chrono.Naut and 1998's Supercoven -- in the next three years.Othersourcessuggested theband's absence had a lot more todo with crippling weed consumption and/or simple lack of motivation, butallspeculation wasdulyobliterated by the long-awaited arrival of theband's third magnum opus, 2000's superlative Dopethrone. Likeitspredecessor four yearsprior,Dopethrone was a revelation in terms of absolutemass applied to amazingly memorable songwriting. In fact, itsoeffortlessly bridgedthestylistic gaps between doom, sludge, stoner, horror, and,at times, even space metal, that 2002's unusuallyefficientlyrecorded follow-up,LetUs Prey, often felt like a collection of outtakes from it. Andyet, Let Us Prey was anything but a throwawayeffort, andhelped furtherElectricWizard's cause worldwide even as the group was crumbling fromthe inside.Tensions were mounting and the trio's ill-fated American tour that summer pushed the growing animosity between Oborn andhiscohortstothebreaking point, and their final date in Philadelphia was actually billed as Electric Wizard's farewell show. This, as it turnedout,provedtobe apremature publicity stunt, but the band's next tour of the U.K. (in support of Cathedral) would see Greening replacedbyformerIronMonkeydrummer Justin Greaves, and ended with Bagshaw's long-rumored departure as well. Curiously, he quicklyreconnectedwithGreeningin a newgroup called Ramesses, while, for his part, Oborn took a few months off to ponder his next move. In time,he decidedtomoveforward with anew, expanded lineup featuring ex-13 and Sourvein guitarist Liz Buckingham, bassist Rob Al-Issa,andtheaforementionedGreaves, and thereborn Electric Wizard released their fifth full studio album in 2004's aptly named We Live.ElectricWizardhad anotherlineup change in 2006 whenGreaves was replaced by Shaun Rutter, who made his debut on their sixth album,2007'sWitchcultToday. Themusical chairs would continue in2008 when Al-Issa left the band and was replaced by bassist Tas Danazoglou. Withtheirlineuponce againsolid, Electric Wizard released BlackMasses in 2010. Electric Wizard went through yet another lineup change in 2012whenGlennCharmanand Simon Poole came on board to replaceTas and Rutter, respectively.After an extensive tour to promote the recording, Oborn and Buckingham made more personnel changes andundertookrecordingsessionsattheir own studio. Original drummer Mark Greening was brought in to replace Poole. Charman left before therecordingsessionsbegan andOborn(under the moniker "Count Orloff), played bass in the studio. Shortly after completing the album, formallyentitledTime toDie,Greening wasreplaced by a returning Poole. Time to Die was released in September of 2014. « hide |
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