3 keepers
keeper avg .375
English band Electric Wizard's seventh album (like all the previous ones I surmise) is the definition of "doom metal," riffs of pummeled sludge with vocals howled in from the pit of despair. Comparisons to Black Sabbath are obvious; others reference Witchcraft (which sounds more like Sabbath) and Candlemass (who they sound nothing like); but unsurprisingly I see no reference to the filthy crunch of punk band Flipper. The other key ingredient is the unholy poetry of Venom, wailed by guitarist / vocalist / lyricist Jus Oborn.
There's not a ton of variation here; that's to be expected as metal bands usually seem to carve out a distinctive sound and then inhabit it. Album opening kinda-title song "Black Mass"**** sets a powerfully dark tone; Oborn heretically intones and barks "Hear me Lucifer, Take me higher, higher, black mass, black mass." "Night Child"**** and "Turn Off Your Mind"**** are the two other memorable tracks, mostly by virtue of having relatively catchy choruses. Guitarist Liz Buckingham received shared writing credit on all three of these tracks - hmmmm.
There are some goth-y keyboards (either subtle strings or the dark choir moans favored in satanic horror movies) distributed throughout for a little bit of seasoning. "Satyr IX" (ooh, a pun) is the doom-iest, drinking right from the source, Black Sabbath, self-titled, track 1, side 1. And "Scorpio Curse" bends metal convention a little, played in a waltz-time. Most of the album runs together, petering out at the monotonous noise collage "Crypt of Drugula" (nearly 9-minutes). But making an album so creepily evocative but also catchy is kind of a feat in and of itself.
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