Legendary British doom outfit, Electric Wizard, will release ‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1,’ their new 2 disc live-to-tape album, on December 13th 2024.
Recorded into a 16-track tape machine, capturing their essence, their malevolence, Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is as heavy as one would expect from The Wizard.
“It’s raw as fuck,” boasts Jus.
“It’s like a lost ’70s black metal demo rehearsal session or something. It’s raw, nasty, screaming in your face. I always promised Electric Wizard was like rats in your face. This is verging on it.”
As the COVID pandemic took hold in 2020, Electric Wizard wondered if they might ever play live again. Out in the wilds of the English Westcountry, where singer/guitarist Jus Oborn and guitarist Liz Buckingham live, the band descended into their crypt-like jam space to make a live album like no other.
“We’d been gigging for two years at that point, around America three times, going to Japan and Australia, and we were sounding pretty good by the end of it,” adds Jus.
“When the pandemic happened we thought, ‘Fuck it, maybe we’ll never play again.’ So we went into the jam room and played the songs to get them on tape to capture how we were playing at the time.”
Opening with the enormous Dopethrone, and taking in signature apocalyptic doom staples like Witchcult Today, Satanic Rites of Drugula and the ever-destructive Funeralopolis, the set here shows how powerful and dominating The Wizard can be.
Jus says he wanted to capture a feeling like that of Motörhead’s classic No Sleep ’til Hammersmith (1981), or the sense from KISS’ ALIVE! (1975) that you were getting a window into something, a world the band created. It’s also, he says, an opportunity for a band as big and cult-like as Electric Wizard to bring something from metal’s dirty underbelly into the light, if only for the purposes of freaking out the unprepared.
“We’ve always been trying to drag the underground into the overground,” offers Jus. “Rather than pretending to be playing some big stadium, arena show.”
A soundtrack to the end of the world? Come this way, my fanatics. Electric F*cking Wizard awaits…
Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 track-listing:
1. Dopethrone
2. Incense For The Damned
3. Black Mass
4. Witchcult Today
5. Satanic Rites of Drugula
6. Scorpio Curse
7. The Chosen Few
8. Funeralopolis
Formats include two ltd. edition 2-disc vinyl pressings – one transparent green, one hot pink – as well as CD and digital. There are also two exclusive shirt designs.
Pre-order HERE.
