Album Review: Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard

Long touted as "the Heaviest Band in the Universe", Electric Wizard have finally staggered out from the cannabinoid fog that threatened to consume them on the blind rage of 2014's Time To Die into a clearer, cleaner headspace.

Anyone who thinks the iconic rock bands of the '70s used up all the classic riffs should get a load of See You In Hell. Its shambling monster groove is more infectious than a plague of zombies and clearly signposts Electric Wizard's new direction. Having stripped out all studio trickery, Wizard Bloody Wizard could almost be an electric blues album, albeit an unimaginably heavy one corrupted with an unhealthy obsession with the occult. More than ever, Jus Osborn's fascination with vintage exploitation flicks has come splurging out in gushes of paranoia, necromania and pagan mayhem. The funeral organ of The Reaper is but a flirty tease of the final condemned ruin of Mourning Of The Magicians, which pitches itself into the sulphurous abyss.

Wizard Bloody Wizard is a smart move from a band some folks thought were too hidebound to try something new.