Today, due to dour weather and various health problems, Desert Psychlist was searching for something that might lift our mood and make us feel a bit better about our situation, something that met our heavy, fuzzy and doomic criteria but still had a bit of a feel good factor about it, and like a good nurse Bandcamp provided the medicine. The tonic we found came in the shape of a four song EP titled "Warriors of Doom" recorded by a four piece from Amsterdam going by the name of Fuzzard, an EP that despite its heaviness carried somewhat of an upbeat and joyous swagger in its gait. Some of you might remember the names Bas (guitar, vocals); Arianne (guitar, vocals); Tijmen (bass, vocals) and Niels (drums) gracing the line up of another Amsterdam band called Gaai and that would be because it is the same band but whereas with Gaai this line-up toyed with a more stoner/psych sound with Fuzzard they go all in doom. Now given that Fuzzard have hardly any presence on social media there is good chance they will never know how much their little EP has brightened up our day, let alone that it has moved us to pen a few words about it, but never mind we did it anyway.
Fuzzard open up their new release with "Subject #69", guitar tones dialled to fuzzy and rhythms pushing thunderous, now given that this is an EP with the word "doom" in its title you might be thinking this dynamic is somewhat par for the course but then in come the vocals and turn things completely upside down, instead of an Ozzy type nasal whine or a Dio-esque howl what we get is clean lead and shared harmonies delivered in an almost playful meter that are in perfect sync with the songs equally playful but nevertheless heavy groove. For next track, "Serpent King", guitarist Arianne steps up to the mic to tell us a tale of "emerald spires" and "lizards and snakes" in creamy smooth powerful tones, even throwing in a token growl at one point, against a backdrop of gnarly occult rocking doom. Title track "Warriors of Doom" is a song with its tongue pushed so far into its cheek its in danger of escaping its mouth entirely, it's lyrics are a satirical overview of climate change and its effects on the planet delivered in an almost comedic and somewhat vaudevillian vocal style, it's a song with a serious political message but that delivers its message with an element of irony attached. Fuzzard bring things to a close with a cover of Ansley Dunbar's "The Warning" cleverly mixing the bluesiness of Dunbar's original with the more proto-doom version made famous by Black Sabbath while still managing to put their own unique spin on things.
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