Electric Wizard
Black Masses

When you have a name of this weight and have produced works like "Come my fanatics..." and "Dopethrone," you know that every new release is still the acid test, the album that can reaffirm you as the absolute master of hell or throw you into the angelic realms of paradise (those that EW want to avoid). It is due to this importance, within a genre that remains niche, that every new chapter is scrutinized in the smallest details, undergoing a process of critique and analysis aimed at understanding the current form of the band or artist in question. "Black masses," precisely for this reason, was an album somewhat understated, not too appreciated by critics and also by a portion of the fans.

Clarifying from the start that "Black masses" (November 2010), cannot compete with the two previously mentioned works, it must also be said that we are faced with an excellently constructed CD and, above all, capable of bearing the visceral and demonic sound of the most intransigent stoner doom and "caveman-like." The destructive weapons that have characterized the career of these Brits are the leaden and abrasive atmospheres produced by the blonde Liz Buckingham's six-string (who joined the group starting from the CD "We live"), overlaying a sound carpet made tremendously obsessive by a recording designed to give a "vintage" touch to the CD. Additionally noteworthy is the entry of the new bassist Tas, replacing Rob Al-Issa.

What perhaps made some people frown is the "simplicity" of "Black masses": a platter that leans much more than in the past on the song form, without limiting itself to static compositions. The timing of each track shows how the pieces remain elaborate but much less dispersive than in some previous episodes. Starting from this new principle (which makes "Black masses" one of their more assimilable works), Electric Wizard construct an extremely obsessive and redundant full-length, but with that positive and pleasant redundancy. This is the case of the splendid "The nightchild" and "Patterns of evil" where the sepulchral voice of Jus Oborn, together with Buckingham's guitar chaos, creates an infernal sermon that undermines the listener's certainties. A work that reconfirms the band in great shape, capable of bringing out the best in themselves in "Turn off your mind", with its compulsive and extremely "drugged" riff.

"Black masses," to date the latest studio CD by the Bournemouth group, is a mature, evocative work in line with what our artists have done, particularly from "Witchcult today" and its scenarios more inclined towards doom. Perhaps a work not as minor as it has been hastily labeled.

1. "Black Mass" (6:06)
2. "Venus In Furs" (6:22)
3. "The Nightchild" (8:02)
4. "Patterns Of Evil" (6:30)
5. "Satyr IX" (9:58)
6. "Turn Off Your Mind" (5:51)
7. "Scorpio Curse" (7:32)
8. "Crypt Of Drugula" (8:48)