JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C 29/10/07

 

ELECTRIC WIZ\RD / WITCHCULT TODAY

 

British Doom Metal banc Electric Wizard return with a storming new album, all the songs are full of slow, unyielding, powerful, deliberate, Heavy riffs, rhythmically hypnotic and will pierce your sub consciousness like a wooden stake going through a Vampire’s heart.

 

If you like your Metal Doom laden and as heavy as a really heavy thing, you will love Electric Wizard’s early Black Sabbath type sound, their album “Dopethrone” is cindered by fans to be the bench mark but Witchcult Today is not far behind and with tracks like “The Satanic Rites Of Drugula” you cant go wrong, the title alone is enough to make you want to play it.  The title track starts the album off with a slow, deliberate riff that builds with time and is very organic sounding; “Dunwich” by comparison is quicker by comparison and has a really thick, heavy riff that leaves sticky marks on your speakers as it oozes out like some lumbering leviathan.  The 2 part “Black Magic Ritual’s And Perversions” is disturbingly evil and the final track “Saturine” is Electric Wizard at their best and shows the bands talent off superbly.

 

If Doom Metal isn’t your normal taste you may just like this as it works of so many different levels and as long as you are prepared to give it the time it deserves your patience will be well rewarded, another fine album that deserves to be in your collection.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.myspace.com/electricwizarddorsetdoom & http://www.riseaboverecords.com/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 59 mins + 8 TRACKS

 

 SOILWORK / SWORN TO A GREAT DIVIDE

 

This is Melodic Death Metal at its best and if you like In Flames and the Gothenburg sound you will love this new album and consolidates the bands position after the excellent “Stabbing The Drama” and puts Soilwork into the major league of world Metal.

 

 All the songs have that hard edged, twin guitar sound that’s tempered with catchy hooks and melody filled chorus’s, its impossible not to like songs like “Exile” or “Bleeding Thorns” as they are everything you could possibly want from the genre and better than a lot of the material that is out there as this is played to perfection with passion, conviction and a genuine love of the music that is impossible to fake.  The band has great potential for a crossover into the mainstream and reap the rewards that they so justly deserve.

 

Also listen out for; “Your Beloved Scapegoat”, the superb “Light Discovering Darkness” the emotive “Sick Heat River” and the outstanding “Silent Bullet”  all of which can be heard on my HFM show and that’s why its album of the week, the bench mark for this type of Metal has now been moved up notch and any band will have to come up with something very spectacular to beat this album.  Get it early and get the free DVD.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.soilwork.org/  & http://www.nuclearblast.de/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 46 mins + 12 GLORIOUS TRACKS