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Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today review



Reviewer:
9.0

142 users:
8.26
Band: Electric Wizard
Album: Witchcult Today
Release date: November 2007


01. Witchcult Today
02. Dunwich
03. Satanic Rites Of Drugula
04. Raptus
05. The Chosen Few
06. Torquemada '71
07. Black Magic Rituals & Perversions
    1 - Frisson Des Vampires
    2 - Zora
08. Saturnine

As a paradigm of the green haze of doom I find the lack of reviews of Electric Wizard part disturbing, part saddening, all frustrating. Shame on you staffers. Far be it from me to announce Witchcult Today as their chef-d'oeuvre, especially considering the interminable veneration of Dopethrone, a reverence which for the most part falls outside the realm of my understanding (to mine ears it's just heavy; not heavily great), there's little skirting around the fact that Witchcult Today is perhaps the ultimate in its class, the one that defines in no uncertain terms that long used affectionate term of red-eyed metallers: stoner.

Gone is the oppressive bombardment of We Live, instead the retrofied riffs convey an all-encompassing, dense heaviness, dissipating much more organically into clouds of warm, trippy chorus-laden layers, a regurgitating bass line hitting you pleasantly in the pits of your stomach whilst Oborn croons, cleaner than ever, like a dirty junkie underneath the haze. A better case for legends adopting ancient analogue equipment in their production process ( Killing Joke the only other springing to mind) I've yet to hear. Even the relative incongruousness of "Black Magic Rituals & Perversions" is outright fogged by future sing-along classics like "The Chosen Few" and "Saturnine" and as darkly foreboding as it is equally a session of jammed out fun, it's really hard to find fault anywhere on the whole record; even the use of lengthy repetition is highly fitting for an album of its kind, particularly as it's mellowed with interspersed frivolous soloing.

Naturally, many will long for the older days before the sound and line-up changes (and they can jolly well have them), but if you enjoy the simple pleasures of having your brain and muscles dunked into an intoxicated, mushy psychedelic-soup then you could do worse that give this a spin or ten. I recommend ten.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 8
Production: 9

Written by !J.O.O.E.! | 25.08.2010




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 26   Visited by: 121 users
25.08.2010 - 22:27
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Three cheers for Troy!
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25.08.2010 - 22:34
vezzy
Stallmanite
Hip hip, hurray!
Hip hip, hurray!
Hip hip, hurray!

Anyway, I see you really got the thesaurus rolling here. So much, that this seems more like an eccentric pile of words than an actual review people would read. Still, it got me a bit... trippy.
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25.08.2010 - 22:40
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by vezzy on 25.08.2010 at 22:34

Hip hip, hurray!
Hip hip, hurray!
Hip hip, hurray!

Anyway, I see you really got the thesaurus rolling here. So much, that this seems more like an eccentric pile of words than an actual review people would read. Still, it got me a bit... trippy.

Nope, no thesaurus this time, just a relatively quickly written view. Actually I find this to be far less verbose than my other reviews.

And anyway, magazine style as I said. With Jonathan Selzer in mind.
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25.08.2010 - 23:35
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Agreed that it's far less wordy, but at the same time it comes across as a little too "smart".

Think like a newspaper columnist: you want to keep it at a grade 10 (as in high school) level, but use "big words" to accentuate the integrity your analysis. That way you appease your entire audience without over or undershooting.

*admittedly doesn't have anything to say about the album itself*
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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25.08.2010 - 23:42
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Troy Killjoy on 25.08.2010 at 23:35

Agreed that it's far less wordy, but at the same time it comes across as a little too "smart".

Think like a newspaper columnist: you want to keep it at a grade 10 (as in high school) level, but use "big words" to accentuate the integrity your analysis. That way you appease your entire audience without over or undershooting.

*admittedly doesn't have anything to say about the album itself*

The thing I need to get across, and what will probably make me sound like an arrogant arse, is that I'm not really writing for the members of this site. I totally get that this kind of review is pretty inappropriate for the amount of people who don't have English as a first language but at the end of the day I can only write the way I'm happy with. I've seen many a reviewer far more technical in their language than myself (mostly in magazines) and I can't really help but gravitate toward that kind of style as it's that kind of style I enjoy reading. It's just nice to have a medium in which to publish stuff that hopefully can be of use in the future if I ever have the chance to write for a magazine or something.
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25.08.2010 - 23:45
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Fair enough - I was just giving you advice on how to better write for METAL STORM, but if your plan is to move on with this (or at least to be prepared if the opportunity to move on with this presents itself) then I think you're doing the right thing in regards to the intellectuality and brevity.

Good luck in your venture.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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25.08.2010 - 23:49
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Troy Killjoy on 25.08.2010 at 23:45

Fair enough - I was just giving you advice on how to better write for METAL STORM, but if your plan is to move on with this (or at least to be prepared if the opportunity to move on with this presents itself) then I think you're doing the right thing in regards to the intellectuality and brevity.

Good luck in your venture.

Haha, cheers. Yeah I don't have any particular goals yet, it's just nice to be able to hone a particular style whilst I study etc. I certainly have a way to go but I'll try not to alienate too many people in the process.
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26.08.2010 - 07:03
Rating: 8
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
Great return to form after releasing two mediocre albums
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26.08.2010 - 10:13
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Dangerboner on 26.08.2010 at 07:03

Great return to form after releasing two mediocre albums


Let Us Prey mediocre?
I find that one fuckign brilliant, almost up to the level of Dopethrone.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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26.08.2010 - 10:19
Rating: 8
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
I don't care for Let Us Prey much at all. It's just too drawn out and repetitive for me.
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26.08.2010 - 11:30
Daniell
_爱情_
Question is: are you trying to actually review music, or are you trying to impress the reader with rare vocabulary and weird juxtapositions (regurgitating bass...). I read a few of your reviews and never had to use a dictionary, but still, I can't help but feel that reviewing music isn't your ultimate goal.

*end another comment with zero said about the album*
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26.08.2010 - 11:54
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Daniell on 26.08.2010 at 11:30

Question is: are you trying to actually review music, or are you trying to impress the reader with rare vocabulary and weird juxtapositions (regurgitating bass...). I read a few of your reviews and never had to use a dictionary, but still, I can't help but feel that reviewing music isn't your ultimate goal.

*end another comment with zero said about the album*

See my responses to Troy.
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26.08.2010 - 13:23
destroyah
supercharger
Written by Guest on 25.08.2010 at 23:49

Written by Troy Killjoy on 25.08.2010 at 23:45

Fair enough - I was just giving you advice on how to better write for METAL STORM, but if your plan is to move on with this (or at least to be prepared if the opportunity to move on with this presents itself) then I think you're doing the right thing in regards to the intellectuality and brevity.

Good luck in your venture.

Haha, cheers. Yeah I don't have any particular goals yet, it's just nice to be able to hone a particular style whilst I study etc. I certainly have a way to go but I'll try not to alienate too many people in the process.



Luckily I'm still on my summer break. If you'd made me read this mid-semester I probably would've shipped you a nailbomb for the quasi-academic style of the review. Other than that I have no complaints as to the style, job well done


As for the album, I too consider this their best work to date.
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About me:

"The best out of all the people ever" - Washington Post

"We abandoned Christ for Destroyah's love!" - The Watchtower

"Simply amazing!" - Rolling Stone
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26.08.2010 - 13:28
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by destroyah on 26.08.2010 at 13:23

Luckily I'm still on my summer break. If you'd made me read this mid-semester I probably would've shipped you a nailbomb for the quasi-academic style of the review. Other than that I have no complaints as to the style, job well done


As for the album, I too consider this their best work to date.

Haha, thanks very much dude. I'll keep an eye out for suspicious, pointy looking packages just to be safe
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24.10.2010 - 03:44
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Meh, didn't find it hard to read at all. I used the disctionary just 2 times and it was just to confirm some stuff since the meaning of everything was still easy to understand.
It's nice when some "big words" are so similar to spanish.

Anyway: Dopethrone is the fucking shit so I will give a "fffffffu you" to the part when you comment about it. Everything else is fine. It's not like I've heard such a huge evolution since Dopethrone. It's pretty much the same (awesome) stuff with some changes here aand there.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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24.10.2010 - 15:26
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by X-Ray Rod on 24.10.2010 at 03:44

Meh, didn't find it hard to read at all. I used the disctionary just 2 times and it was just to confirm some stuff since the meaning of everything was still easy to understand.
It's nice when some "big words" are so similar to spanish.

Anyway: Dopethrone is the fucking shit so I will give a "fffffffu you" to the part when you comment about it. Everything else is fine. It's not like I've heard such a huge evolution since Dopethrone. It's pretty much the same (awesome) stuff with some changes here aand there.

Cheers! To be honest in the grand scheme of things this is nothing, the readng I'm having to do at the moment verges on the incomprehensible - I can barely make sense of most of it.

But yeah, Dopethrone, I think my issue with it is that it falls between the walls of this album, which is unashamedly stoner and generally doom bands that are very heavy and make a meal out of it. I just kind of wish it would be one or the other.
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23.06.2012 - 09:31
Maxx666
Meshuggahian
Best band to listen to when goin for a trip.... While Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone are always my favorite recipe.. this album also doesn't disappoint a bit...9/10
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16.07.2014 - 01:58
mz

Get back on reviewing you cunt.
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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16.07.2014 - 02:44
Ilham
Giant robot
Written by mz on 16.07.2014 at 01:58

Get back on reviewing you cunt.

It's the first time I see you swear. I like it.
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16.07.2014 - 10:16
mz

Written by Ilham on 16.07.2014 at 02:44

Written by mz on 16.07.2014 at 01:58

Get back on reviewing you cunt.

It's the first time I see you swear. I like it.

I curse a lot in real life, but due to my experience, the lack of facial expression can cause misunderstanding in online forums when cursing. That's the reason of my politeness
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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16.07.2014 - 13:59
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by mz on 16.07.2014 at 01:58

Get back on reviewing you cunt.

well, now I won't be getting front page reviews I feel even less compelled to do so really.
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16.07.2014 - 14:20
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Written by Guest on 16.07.2014 at 13:59

Written by mz on 16.07.2014 at 01:58

Get back on reviewing you cunt.

well, now I won't be getting front page reviews I feel even less compelled to do so really.

Maybe if you ask nicely. I like your reviews. Strings should be able to be pulled.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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16.07.2014 - 14:23
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by X-Ray Rod on 16.07.2014 at 14:20

Maybe if you ask nicely. I like your reviews. Strings should be able to be pulled.

I'll see how it goes =P I could always use you as my nom de plume as it were
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16.07.2014 - 14:40
mz

Written by Guest on 16.07.2014 at 13:59


well, now I won't be getting front page reviews I feel even less compelled to do so really.


since you did not published review in long time you got dethroned, and now you say that since you are dethroned you would not publish more reviews. You are mixing up the cause and the consequence of your actions
(just wanted to pull a Joe-esque sentence ;p )
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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16.07.2014 - 14:53
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by mz on 16.07.2014 at 14:40


since you did not published review in long time you got dethroned, and now you say that since you are dethroned you would not publish more reviews. You are mixing up the cause and the consequence of your actions
(just wanted to pull a Joe-esque sentence ;p )

Sounds like my kind of logic
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16.07.2014 - 16:13
Spirit Molecule
spirit molecule
Written by Guest on 25.08.2010 at 22:40

And anyway, magazine style as I said. With Jonathan Selzer in mind.


Haha nice name drop
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