November sounds very far away right now, especially if you count backwards until the release of the new album by the incredible Electric Wizard, which is going to be their ninth full length and is cunningly titled Wizard Bloody Wizard.
Not expected to be anything less of another monster, it can't be better described by anyone other than the band's own Jus Oborn: "Right away we knew this was it... the new direction we should go in. Real heavy music... really basic heavy rock, blues based but brutal. I think a lot of modern heavy music has disappeared up its own arse... it's too pretentious and technical. We wanted to get back to that primal sound... over-amplified blues, Hendrix, Blue Cheer, Zeppelin. They took that music and then turned it up. So we thought, 'Let's do the blues in our style. Heavy, heavy super fuckin' blues, total snail-paced funeral boogie for this 21st century hell. I guess it's meant to be hopeless but it's also defiant and unbroken."
Oborn does not feel shy about the upcoming record on his statements, and continues: "Y'know, a lot of bad shit has happened to us, but through it all was the music. We still dig loud heavy music and the album is not really depressed or angry, it's arrogant and rebellious. I still believe in rock and roll and I still believe in killing it on stage and mentally destroying an audience."
"We've been worn out by the modern scene - it's all about styles and genre. We just wanna make solid heavy music. No rules. We didn't set out to record a style or product. We set out to record what we wanted to hear. I want people to know it's ELECTRIC WIZARD from the first second, but also to know we are gonna take them on a trip. Heavy doesn't just mean tone and bottom end. I think people have become too obsessed by fx and boutique amps. It's more about playing style, attitude and song-writing... y'know, a lot of our songs have been interpreted as acoustic numbers by various people and they are still heavy and ominous sounding... you can't dilute true darkness."
"It's an anti-studio really. We wanted to put as little between the band and the tape as possible. We needed to take stuff away and use less equipment 'cos I think the raw sound of the band is killer. Studios have progressively made the recording situation more difficult and convoluted. I always think the best recordings are the simplest and most basic ones. So, yeah, we built the studio that we wanted: mics, mixing desk, tape machine, that's it. No bullshit."
"Sex and violence are our basest instincts," Jus continues, and wraps it up. "I guess we think that engaging the brain and guts on this most basic, primal level is the fastest way to grab people's emotions. It's 'shock' tactics, but the world is so fuckin' brainwashed or bored that they need to be 'woken up.' The 'man' is slowly neutering and killing us with technology and lies... it's time to fight back."
The first piece off the new record we get to here is a heavy blues burner titled See You In Hell, up only on Spotify for now.
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