Having only recently reviewed Italian scuzzmeisters Demonio's excellent new release "Reaching For The Sky" along comes another slice of Italian scuzziness for Desert Psychlist to wax lyrical over in the shape of Wizard Master's latest release "Ablanathanalba" (Electric Valley Records). Wizard Master, in much the same way as the aforementioned Demonio did with "Reaching For The Sky", have for their latest release embraced a more heavily psychedelic and blues orientated dynamic, a dynamic that sees the band still drawing inspiration from the likes of Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard and bands of that ilk but also toying with elements that can be found in the music of new breed doomsters like the UK's Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, France's Witchthroat Serpent and Argentina's No Stone, in other words an engaging blend of heaviness and melody.
Random noises. screams and a snippet from a
60's pop song introduce opening song "
Hell Riders" and are followed by a deliciously dank riff heavy groove so classically
proto-doomic it should be preserved in museum. Vocals for this slice of
doomic delight are delivered in clean melodic sneery tones, the sneery aspect of those vocals adding an almost
garage rock element to the proceedings. The song continues along this path right up until around about the halfway mark when an unexpected flourish of church like keyboards and sampled horror movie narrative signals a shift towards a more convoluted and complex dynamic with the guitars and keyboards combining to bring an almost twisted
prog feel to the songs final moments. "
Funeral Boogie" follows and here we have a song that would get feet tapping at even the most sorrowful of internments, an upbeat but still gloom laden slice of
proto-doom that starts life quite dark and sinister but then evolves into a chugging choppy riff fest with an ear catching chorus. "
Acid" is next, a low, slow and heavy tome drenched in searing lead work and driven by sedate thundering percussion over which those sneery vocals tell their tale in an equally sedate meter. Tolling bells and weird inaudible narrative announce the arrival of "
Master of Wizardry" an eerie off centred and delightfully disjointed opus that only really comes together in its last quarter but despite this is nevertheless an enthralling, if somewhat unsettling, listen. The final two tracks of "
Ablanathanalba", "
We Are Füd" and "
Tested By Death" are both glorious examples of how far the
Italian doom scene has come over the past few years, the former is an excellent blend of
Sabbathian proto-doom and
Italian scuzzy
acid rock bolstered by a great vocal melody while the latter sees
Wizard Master throwing elements of lysergic
bluesiness and twisted
doomic proggishness into the mix to create something that is unnervingly dank and dismal yet at the same time possesses an unexpected spine tingling charm and beauty all of its own.
The
Italian acid-doom scene is in a very good place at the moment with bands like
Black Spell,
Sonic Demon,
Witchsnake and
Demonio garnering the sort of reactions that were once the reserve of the
Swedish underground scene a few years back. With "
Ablanathaalba"
Wizard Master may well have muscled their way to the top of that pile.
Check it out ...
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