Black Masses

The opening track, "Black Mass" is crazy heaviness, with insane singing and beautiful dirge-like fuzziness. "Venus in Furs" is a much better track (it has nothing to do with the Velvet Underground song, by the way, other than the title, seemingly inspired by the same book), with the warped fuzz stoner sound, the clinging riff, the insane sneering vocals, the haunting, sweeping solo guitar crunching across soundscapes of stoner grunge, with strange voices floating and sweeping. Wild, crazy, intense and beautiful. Definitely one of the best songs on the album. "Night Child" wafts and wails, but it's nothing special. "Pattern of Evil" is wicked, stuttering soundfulness, shimmering and shammering off the walls of my mind. Next. "Satyr IX" boogies with weird bass doodlings, before building up to a freaky and insane buzz-out that just goes on for ages and ages and ages. It's total rock `n' roll. "Turn Off Your Mind" has a wicked mid-paced riff that just gouges and tears at your brain until it's stripped bare. Strange, heavenly, the end is a sweet stereo swirl. What a crazy track!! "Scorpio Curse" is a wicked rocker that rolls and rolls and roll and rolls, with sweet flanging effects. Great stuff. "Crypt of Drugula" is a sort of weird sound-out that just goes on and on and on and on. With "Black Masses", Electric Wizard simply just delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers.The album art is... interesting. Lots of nudity.

Electric Wizard. A band who is usually spoken in the same breath as Black Sabbath. I could go on and on and on and on about how great this album is or what I like about it but I think anybody that likes Doom Metal and never heard of Electric Wizard should be ashamed. Get rid of that guilt and buy this album. Listen and find what you've been missing from you music life and become one of us.

I've picked this up and while its good it doesn't blow my socks off. Since the split post LUP, these guys have been refining their style and while this album feels like a complete album of songs it just feels... comfortable. With the old EW I always felt always the sense that they were pushing boundaries, these latter albums while refined don't have same sense of adventure, more settled into a groove.So yeah, personal taste in play. As a counterpoint I found Ramesses (the other original members) 2011 album Take the curse to be more adventurous and more satisfying.

This album is one of my favorite metal releases of 2010. Electric Wizard effectively took the sound of Witchcult Today and honed it into a wonderfully heavy slab of metal. The best way to describe the sound is ultra-heavy, super-evil, 70s-style doom metal. The effect is something that sounds familiar yet eludes easy comparison to any other work. Black Masses finds Electric Wizard at their most Sabbathesque in their appreciation of a groove and the deep low end. However, Sabbath never this heavy nor evil-sounding. The definitive tracks are Black Masses, Venus in Furs, and Patterns of Evil.

This isn't Dopethrone,this isn't Come My Fanatics....it's something more intune with the late 60's...early 70's vibe. All the heavy sludge of graves and occult insanity is here..just more under produced. I mean this in a good way...The album starts off a bit on a faster note than you would expect. With a full blown devil chorus.. Black Mass..Black Mass...almost like a mantra of evil fury. Im not gonna go into all the songs, too much work..LOL. But the record(ya I called it a record)is all about demonic dynamics and dirty garage sounding satanism. I tell you the one thing that seems really a change for these guys is the vocals. Guess you noticed how much more up front the vocals were tracked on Witchcult Today. Well its even more so here. I might even say his vocals sound dark and cool. Still in the shadows on a few songs but he must have gained some balls,'cause I really dig what hes doing here. Don't worry,half the time you're be scratching your head at what he's singing,it just seems Oborn has found his vocal muse....(By way of Crowley and bad horror flicks..) The whole massive,stoned out disc was recorded 100% anaologue. It does sound really muddy..like walls of sound that drip off the ceilings of LSD freaks. This is one strange album. Remember that Black Sabbath made 4 really heavy,doomy albums then switched gears with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Still heavy but oddly different. Trust me if you like Electric Wizard you will foam at your mouth over this cd. Fall into the doom and the tragic...just slightly modified...Hail the Wizard!

Totally stoked to pick this disc up and im so sorry to say that i wasnt that thrilled with it.Not that its bad but when you have a back catalogue like these guys youre gonna have to live up to that.Like i said, its not because its bad music, but when youve put out cds like we live,dopethrone, and let us prey youve made your life alittle more difficult to try and live up to that

This album seems to be the natural progression for EW. It may take a while to grow on some people... Jus Oborn has gotten much better as a musician over the years, and puts the songs "Patterns of Evil", and "Turn off your Mind" together greatNot as trance inducing as the older stuff, but a great listen. Other favorites are the title track and "Scorpio Curse"A very solid doom album, I hope there guys keep making albums forever.

Top 3 in their discography.

We're doomed I tell ye, doomed! By doom metal that is.Do you like early Black Sabbath, especially the first two albums? Do you also like contemporary psych such as The Warlocks? Finally do you like what used to be known as "heavy metal"?If the answer to any of these questions is "YES" then you'll probably love this band and album. If the answer to any 2 questions is "YES" then you will love them. If the answer to all 3 questions is "YES" then you will probably have this album already. If not then buy it to see what you're missing.There are eight tracks, spread over a double vinyl album or 1 CD (unless buying the down-load of course), only one of which is under 6 minutes (and then only just), all being slow and what non-genre fans would consider ponderous, with lots of wah-wah, fuzz and distortion, thus making for a very satisfying heavy psychedelic experience indeed.I nearly forgot to mention that the double vinyl LP package is brilliant - 180g coloured vinyl (there's a choice of colours on the record company site but I suppose it's pot luck in other places - mine was blue and purple swirls). The LPs come in a nice gatefold sleeve (nice cover!) with full colour card inners bearing lyrics, images (including X rated) and acknowledgements (the latter including Pentagram, Venom, The Pretty Things, Alice Cooper, Slayer and Priest).

Another wonderful offering from the overlords of psychedelic heavy rock. The UK's finest underground band just got even better.Analogue in the extreme the strange production transports the listener back into a world of incense, Afghan coats and patchouli oil. "Black Mass", "Satyr IX" and "Scorpio Curse" are some of The Wizard's finest moments in years and much credit should be given to Jus Oborn for continuing to bring new elements into a sound which moves the band into a style all of their own.As mentioned by another reviewer this album isn't instant and requires several listens before its crushing heaviness can really be appreciated. After that it's never off the turntable.Awesome.

great stuff. don’t waste your time comparing it to whatever and just get into the mood. production is brilliant and it shows that music is not just a sum of instruments and singing. highly recommend!!!!

This one is definitely a grower. Go into it looking for dopethrone.2 and you will be disappointed, but who needs 2 of the same album? This album is a masterpiece all of it's own, a different experience. More complex and less crushing than other Electric wizard albums this one is all about the atmosphere of evil. As previously mentioned it will take a couple of listens to adjust to the new feel but once you're hooked there's no escape, work your way through initial doubts and you will be rewarded by the Wizard.

Perfect! Thanks!