ElectricWizardThey’re back, those filthy hippies with their long hair and degenerate ways, trying to entice people back into their devil worshipping ways with the offer of Satanic doom, drugs, b-movies and freakish sex. They are all combined here as “allegedly” licking the cover of their new album will cause temporary paralysis, hallucinations and grant access to their cult with backward masked messages within the tracks giving you entry to secret covens where all these things happen. In all seriousness though, one of the biggest surprises here is that the Wiz have decamped from long-time home Rise Above Records who they have been with since their self-titled debut way back in 1995 and moved to Spinefarm. Not that this has meant any change of ingredients to their modus operandi so no worries there for long term acolytes.

I have noted quite a few comments from people saying that what they have heard has not blown them away but this was in most cases before they had been subjected to the whole album. You need to give it time to fester before it brainwashes you completely, Time To Die is not an immediate album and the 65 minutes need time to seep in. Having listened to it at least 7 times and that’s over 7 hours of my brain in a mashed fug it has done so well and truly now and I am pleased to say that I am really enjoying the album, more indeed than I expected to.

Cloaked by sounds of a babbling brook at either end we are psychedelically summoned through the portal of ‘Incense For The Damned’ (a classic film in itself) into a thick cloying fug of bass heaviness and monolithic looping melody. Jus Oborn’s somewhat nasally vocals join in like a call to worship and the stomping heaviness combined with the somewhat crusty Chris Fielding mix work perfectly together. Some wailing guitar parts ooze out in the background and a vocal clamour foully sees the sermon in full flow. Naturally it is one of several songs elongated over the ten minute mark, but there was never going to be any getting off lightly here as it plods along with (the already departed) Mark Greening’s diplodocus slow pummel, driving you relentlessly into its depths. Without pause we are balls deep in the title track without realising. Everything flows like a sea of tar seamlessly here and the melody is heady and heavy, designed no doubt to contort and expand brains when played live. The vocals become more strident hitting high wails but still it’s the music that’s very much at the forefront leaving you coasting along on its all-consuming mass.

‘I Am Nothing’ is a monstrous slab of all out nihilism and it’s so heavy it hurts, a bit like sucking on a mushroom bong and knocking yourself into another dimension. It’s the longest track and there is no escaping it as everything is layered up at the start and just gets all the more intense as it goes on stewing your head into a messy pool of slime. The retro sounding psychedelic organ work and barrage of samples that endlessly draw the breath out of it at conclusion are particularly effective. The punky Hawkwind sounding ‘Funeral Of Your Mind’ lurches and churns all over the place making you feel sick after the effects of that bong hit before the head clears momentarily with the much looser ‘We Love The Dead’ a slothful corpse crawler which ceaselessly snaps at your ankles as you try to escape.

Sadiowitch has been chosen as the single, I guess due to running times it’s one of the few they could pick for radio play as if the pleasures of flesh, drugs and sadism are ever fit for mass consumption. It’s like a Jess Franco tribute put to music as this slice of sadisterotica billows out the speakers with some meaty thick melodic riffs flexing their way and cutting like the strike of a whip. ‘Lucifer’s Slaves’ should really see the bikers not already present turning up late to the party and greedily consuming all that’s left in a debauched hedonistic display of selfishness. The last few tracks on the album are definitely groove heavy and all blend into each other a bit, there is a lot of melody to them but it’s all warped like your brain will be by now if you have listened this far.

Not so much a mere album as an experience (man) this really has done the business for me and called me back to the arms of the cult after having not heard them for a while. It’s good to be back and I am now really keen to witness the ritual and these new songs live.

Wake up, time to die!

(8.5/10 Pete Woods)

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