Visceral, dark, slow, and sludgy, Electric Wizard’s occult doom reached new states of Goliath magnificence live this September.
The band arrived in a hazy swirl of smoke onto the stage at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, and immediately pulled the whole audience up into a shared sludgy trance through 1997’s ‘Return Trip’. Their crushingly haunting riffs — played in tight unison and with a beautifully brutal tone — seemed to impale your insides as the venue rumbled with deafening sound.
The crowd — composed of a mixture of goths, older metalheads, and younger fans — seemed to literally fall in a trance-like state of oblivion during the set. ‘Black Mass’ became a reality as the whole black-clad crowd drooped their heads, nodding along to the riffs in unison.
Behind the band, lots of strange imagery accompanied the music; naked women in coffins, some styled as if from the 1999 thriller film Eyes Wide Shut, others from old 60s satanic sex cult films, intertwined with visuals of priests doomily walking around with wavering trinkets and sometimes flashing fractals of colourful splendour. The occult-type imagery of women and priests allowed the music to be felt in another dimension, with its pure evil soul being funnelled through. It made me feel as if I was uncovering the true core of Electric Wizard’s sound, the Black Sabbath and macabre films inspiring darkness, as I witnessed their magic and sorcery fill the atmosphere around me.
The fractal psychedelic visuals, though seemed out of place at first, complemented the stoner doom music very well, especially Jus Oborn’s decorative bluesy lead parts. The music and atmosphere filled the room with magic and electricity wherever you looked – including the ceiling in the venue itself, which was very fittingly a wizard-like dark blue with stars on it.
Although the band’s set was well over an hour long, it consisted of only a handful of tracks that were each played in all their full 10-minute doom metal glory. There were a mix of tracks from throughout their discography, including their earlier works and songs from their post-lineup change albums. Electric Wizard stuck to many of the same songs that usually construct their sets, which though predictable, worked to create a very solid and varied performance.
The pure rawness of their sound was incredible too, with fuzz and distortion filling the air with a great crackling energy. It was refreshing to see Oborn casually tune his guitar between songs with no regard to doing it silently. This rawness and authenticity was something I loved, as I find many concerts are too focused on being polished and professional.
Through the unfiltered, authentic drudge of their music, Electric Wizard shared their dismal and dreary view of the world, and the occult-like ritualism and oblivion that went with it. During the show, the band took me on a trance, into a sonic trip to another world; one where filth and beauty are rolled into one and dragons and wizards of dark magic reign free.
Christian Misje, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
