The Agent of Oblivion Metal Alphabet: 'E' is for ELECTRIC WIZARD

[Agent of Oblivion]

"When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple of ways you can get out. One is death, the other is...mental institutions."

I've been waiting for this letter because this is representative of some shit I really love. Endlessly heavy material here. Intentionally evil, oppressive, and racked with drugs. Singer/guitarist Jus Oborn worked with doom band Eternal before founding Wiz. Eternal's straight crushing doom, while Wiz expanded upon/perfected the sound by blending in psychedelia and dark acid-fueled themes.

Their self-titled debut came out in 95, and while good, was just a stepping stone and an entry point for the band. Black Sabbath followed through to their natural conclusion. Slow, sludgy, and stoned. Here are tracks off of the s/t

Electric Wizard - Behemoth
Electric Wizard - Mountain of Mars
Electric Wizard - Stone Magnet

Makes me want to smoke a whole bag.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

They followed that up with the album that would really cement their direction as the heaviest band on the planet, Come my Fanatics. The guitars tuned even lower, the pot smoke got thicker, and the music got better. While I guess you don't have to be stoned to enjoy Electric Wizard, it sure helps. These guys fall into love it or hate it territory, though.

This album has some majorly dense riffs paired expertly with lots of spaceout territory.

Electric Wizard - Doom Mantia
Solarian 13- Electric Wizard
Electric Wizard Ivixor B - Phase Inducer

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Holy fuck, do I ever wish I was not out of pot right now.

I think this is the first bit of doomy stuff I've ever really dug...couldn't get into Candlemass and such, and I don't know much about this area of metal anyway. Good stuff.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

^If you get that one, disregard the bonus tracks. They're trash. Totally unnecessary, and produced horribly.

Their next album, Dopethrone, is my pick for best album of the decade, and that ain't no fuckin' around. It's the heaviest thing I've ever heard, and is positively mindblowing in every way.

Electric Wizard - Vinum Sabbathi
Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis
Electric Wizard - Barbarian
Electric Wizard - I, the witchfinder
Electric Wizard - The Hills Have Eyes
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Electric Wizard - Mind Transferral
^ that last one is only on the reissue.

That's almost the whole motherfucker. Listen to it. Love it. It's a monolithic masterpiece.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I think the band was collectively exhausted from something as awesome as Dopethrone so the toured around and fucked off for a couple years until they put out Let us Prey in 2002. This one's shorter, less dense, and easier to listen to. The production's a little slicker, but to attempt to reproduce the sound on Dopethrone would've been madness.

Electric Wizard, Master of Alchemy from Let Us Prey
Electric Wizard - Mother of Serpents

 

[Gary]

I listened to Come My Fanatics,

and Witchcult Today yesterday. I have nothing else to add. Let's not forget the awesome samples they include in their music.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Another two years to smoke up and recharge, and we get We Live.

Electric Wizard - We Live

I liked the vocal improvement here and the Neurosis-y expansion of the guitar texutres on here quite a bit.

Electric Wizard - Malfiore A.K.A. Flower of Evil

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Witchcult Today might be their strongest effort since Dopethrone. It recaptures their earlier sound a bit, and was apparently recorded on vintage equipment, so it sounds old and druggy. I suppose if that's the goal, go all the way. Neat idea.

Electric Wizard - The Chosen Few

Electric Wizard - Satanic Rites of Drugula

 

[Gary]

Gotta give love to

Earth

Emperor (Probably my favorite Black Metal Band ever.)

Esoteric

Eyehategod

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I thought about Earth, but they've gone beyond metal at this point.

 

[Slayer]

When we were sharing our respective top 10s/20s of the decade back at the old board earlier this year, I took note of Dopethrone on the top of your list. I know we've always diverged on doom metal, with me picking up the gothic side and you falling into the stoner category, but I decided to check it out as a curiousity and didn't like it at all. Today I decided to give it the ol' second-chance, listening to the songs from both that and others you posted... and I just can't get into this band (or style of music in general).

While they're not going to be my full "E" article, I'm going to give major love to Enslaved. Over the last few years, I've largely fallen out of most black metal* despite the proliferation of the genre over the same time period (it feels like the metal review site I go to features at least two BM reviews every week), but Enslaved's extensive body of work still gets regular rotation on my iPod due to their ever-changing styles and willingness to try new things without falling into commercial traps.

* going back from early 2004 to last year, I don't believe I bought any black metal albums aside from Enslaved, although so far this year I've bought three (Absu, Altar of Plagues and Cobalt), so it is making a comeback of sorts for me

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

 

[Slayer]

Awesome

Although I'd figure you'd prefer this pic of Walter instead

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

See, I could dig Electric Wizard, so long as there's no vocals. That's when it kills it for me. All I can think of then is "shut up, you're not fucking Ozzy, fuck off." Doom as a whole loses me on the vocals, since most of the singers tend to just seem like they're trying too hard. The only doom singer I can really get behind is Dax Riggs, and Acid Bath was so borderline doom that I wouldn't even count them as a doom band (most sludge groups are borderline anyway).

But, gentlemen, I bring you the fifth most important US thrash metal act, San Francisco's own: EXODUS.

"Piranha"

"The Toxic Waltz"

"Fabulous Disaster"

"Brain Dead"

"War is my Shepherd"

"Now Thy Death Day Come"

"Deathamphetamine"

Rec'd Albums: Bonded by Blood, Fabulous Disaster, Tempo of the Damned, Shovel Headed Kill Machine
Avoided Albums: Pleasures of the Flesh, Force of Habit, Let There Be Blood

 

[Precious Roy]

ELO - Mr.Blue Sky (Original Promo)

 

[Precious Roy]

what happened to imbeded youtube?!?!

 

[Precious Roy]

Better Than Ezra Performs "Good" on Hard Rock Live

 

[Precious Roy]

Foo Fighters - Everlong

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

None of those things are metal.

 

[Slayer]

I like those bands and all, but they're not metal.

My belated "E" article:

Evergrey is a power-prog metal band from Sweden formed in the late 90's by the band's central figure, guitarist/vocalist Tom Englund [/ironicname]. Not pure-prog in the sense that they're not built on showing off their chops à la Dream Theater, although they do occasionally have non-standard time-signatures, long instrumental sections and non-ABABC structured songs. They also enjoy writing concept albums, or albums with a single unifying theme.

Recommend: In Search of Truth (a Drew Top-20 of the '00s album), The Inner Circle and Recreation Day.

Avoid: Monday Morning Apocalypse. Not quite their version of Load, but it did feature simpler songs, nu-vocal effects and basic chugga-chugga riffs that, while still being fairly better than most commercial metal, was a definite disappointment in light of their other work.

(Blackened Dawn) - from Dark Discovery (1999)

(Solitude Within) - from Solitude Dominance Tragedy (2000)

(The Masterplan) - from In Search of Truth (2001) (actual video)
(Watching the Skies) - ibid

(The Great Deceiver) - from Recreation Day (2003)
(Visions) - ibid

(Touch of Blessing) - from The Inner Circle (2004) (actual video)
(Harmless Wishes) - ibid

(Broken Wings) - from Torn (2008) (actual video)
(When Kingdoms Fall) - ibid

 

[Czech]

what happened to imbeded youtube?!?!

I think you only get x amount of embedded youtubes before it switches to links-only. I feel it's a fair policy, because as we found out at the old board, twenty embedded videos slows the browser down to a crawl for most users.