Visually intoxicating, uncompromisingly heavy and revered for making music and lifestyle one, ELECTRIC WIZARD has completed work on its new studio album, title to be confirmed; the effort will be the band's first release through Spinefarm Records.
Formed by vocalist/guitarist Jus Oborn in 1993, ELECTRIC WIZARD — based in the U.K.'s South-West — has thus far released seven studio albums — an increasingly influential body of work recorded on vintage analogue gear with as little technology as possible intruding on the signal ("Pro Tools is for pussies!").
Result: some of the heaviest, dirtiest, most evil-sounding audio ever put to tape, and more importantly to vinyl, with both "Come My Fanatics" (1997) and "Dopethrone" (2000) being lauded as landmark releases.
A cultural as well as a musical force, ELECTRIC WIZARD has left an indelible mark on a host of different genres, the likes of doom, stoner and sludge; at heart, however, they stand as an iconic British metal band, cast in the great tradition, with lyrics and artwork reflecting the hypnotic weight of the music, and subject to the same intelligence and detail.
Wreathed in occult ritual and drug-culture references, with classic '70s horror an inspirational seam, ELECTRIC WIZARD is poised to turn a page; there's the new deal with Spinefarm Records, plus — after a nine-year hiatus — the return of Mark Greening (the drummer on "Dopethrone"), who completes the lineup of Oborn, American guitarist Liz Buckingham, a key member since 2003, and new bassist Clayton Burgess (SATAN'S SATYRS).
Fueled by strong emotion and the harder sounds of late-'60s Detroit, the remodeled lineup — isolated by choice, giant stacks glowing red — set about crafting an eighth studio album to both rival and exceed the milestone recordings of the past, with Buckingham keeping things suitably monolithic and the band generally looking back to some of their earliest influences.
Toerag Studios in London was once again charged with capturing "The Sound," and (encouragingly) words like "raw", "hateful" and "sickeningly heavy" are being traded.
Says Oborn: "Our master plan is this. Real metal!! We stand for rebellion, we are with the kids; we fight, puke, smoke weed, etc...
"ELECTRIC WIZARD is an entity, with its own history, its own symbols, its own iconography, and with this new album, we wanted to return to basic values. It's primitive. We needed to claw it back down to the evil core — sex, drugs, violence, revolution... to go back to being a band that hung out and jammed hard. No teaching songs, just feeling them out.
"If you jam enough and you are on the same level — artistically, musically, whatever, you gotta be committed — then good music will happen. I totally believe that..."
ELECTRIC WIZARD is:
Jus Oborn - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Liz Buckingham - Guitar
Mark Greening - Drums, Percussion
Clayton Burgess - Bass
MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was interviewed on the April 4-6 edition of Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. You can now listen to the chat using the Podbean widget below. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow.
To see a full list of stations carrying the program and when it airs, go to FullMetalJackieRadio.com.
Full Metal Jackie: When you look back on the timeline between records, there's usually a year or two typically between records. Are you starting to look ahead on when you're going to work on [the follow-up to last year's "Super Collider"]?
Mustaine: Well, we have already started the process of listening to licks and talking to people about working. The funny thing is, I'm not a big believer in coincidence as I think that's just people's way of saying that there's no powers greater than us that help line out our life. I totally believe in destiny. And we just got done doing the VEVO acoustic performance a while ago, and some lady walks by and she goes, "Hey, Max Norman [mixer of MEGADETH's 1990 album 'Rust In Peace' and producer of 1992's 'Countdown To Extinction' and 1994's 'Youthanasia'] says hi," right as the elevator door closes. I stuck my hand in the door and said, "What did you say?" "Max Norman says hi." "Max Norman? Max Norman Norman?" "Yeah." "Wow! Wow! Really?" 'Cause we kind of hadn't spoken in… Jesus… forever. So I called him up and said, "What are you doing? Are you still doing this?" 'Cause he had gotten out of making records and he's back into making records and I thought, "I wonder what it would be like to maybe try one song with this guy and see if we can catch lightning twice." So it's just neat to be in that position where you can do stuff like this, because I know how hard it is for bands to make it nowadays. And that's still the underlying goal for me, with my band, is to be able to bring other bands out with us to play live and see how great it is to play in front of some of the greatest metal fans in the world. And I'm not saying MEGADETH fans are the best fans in the world; I believe that, but I know that there's a lot of metal fans out there that, they may not like MEGADETH, but that doesn't mean that they're not great people. So, you learn a lot of crap as you go along, too.
Full Metal Jackie: Dave, many musicians, yourself included, have described an album as a snapshot or representation of where they are in their life. What are your life priorities right now? How do you anticipate they'll affect the musical direction of the next MEGADETH album?
Mustaine: My priorities have changed. Before I got married, it was just about myself and my band. As you change, as you grow, as you pick up people in your life, whether you're planning on getting married or having a casual relationship, whether you're straight or not, or whatever you do, you find love, your life changes and you start to have to think about somebody else. At least I would think that if you weren't a selfish prick, you would be thinking about someone that you love. And once you bring a life into it, again, whether you're straight or gay or have a child naturally or by in vitro or adoption or whatever — which, I think adoption is cool too — to have a responsibility like that totally changes things. [My son] Justis just turned 22, and he's doing great — he's got a great job, he works at our management company, he's in college and all that stuff. And go figure, you would think that having a rock star as a dad, you would be a complete loser, and he's not. [My daughter] Electra is doing great too, and as they grow up, I start to get my "Dave time" back. And I've gotta tell you, man, I'm loving this right now because I've been playing, I've been sitting in my studio listening to music and falling in love with the guitar again. Chris [Broderick, MEGADETH guitarist] and I just wrote some really killer stuff two days ago. I'm excited; I can't wait to see what this new record is going to sound like.
Full Metal Jackie: Awesome, so is Max going to be somebody that you think is going to produce the whole next record?
Mustaine: No. At this point, right now, I would say a definitive "I don't know," because we don't know. We don't even know when it's going to happen. I do know I have tremendous respect for Max. I know Cameron Webb is gonna involved with the record for sure. And I know that Max is a very positive, very hopeful question mark. But I'm a capable record producer and I know that if I did it solely with Cameron, as much as he did the last record ["Super Collider"]… He was one of [producer] Johnny K's guys, and Johnny had some stuff he needed to do and Cameron filled in for him really well, and we made a great team. So I'd like to have Max try some stuff, but if it ain't right, it ain't right. Hard to think that something that Max would do wouldn't be right, but times are a little different, and sometimes people grow apart. I'm hopeful and I'm optimistic.
Full Metal Jackie: Sounds like it's early to tell. You have so much coming up this year.
Mustaine: Plus there's so many frickin' songs too. I was going through all the stuff that we had… I mean, honestly, I have more songs than I know… I don't have to write another note for the rest of my life and I have enough music written to finish my career out. It's a matter of just weeding out what I wanna use and what I don't wanna use. And there's a huge library of metal riffs for other bands and stuff. That's one of the things we're looking forward to too, as I go off into another phase of my career, is doing some co-writes.
"Eyes Wide Open", the new video from Gus G. — well known in rock and metal circles for his work as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist and as leader of his own band FIREWIND — can be seen below. The clip was once again produced by Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others.
"Eyes Wide Open" is taken from Gus G.'s debut solo album, "I Am The Fire", which entered the official chart in Greece at position No. 27. The CD sold around 700 copies in the United States in its first week of release.
"I Am The Fire" track listing:
01. My Will Be Done (featuring Mats Levén)
02. Blame It On Me (featuring Mats Levén)
03. I Am The Fire (featuring Devour The Day)
04. Vengeance (featuring David Ellefson)
05. Long Way Down (featuring Alexia Rodriguez)
06. Just Can't Let Go (featuring Jacob Bunton)
07. Terrified (featuring Billy Sheehan)
08. Eyes Wide Open (featuring Mats Levén)
09. Redemption (featuring Michael Starr)
10. Summer Days (featuring Jeff Scott Soto)
11. Dreamkeeper (featuring Tom S. Englund)
12. End Of The Line (featuring Mats Levén)
The cover artwork, pictured below, was designed by Gustavo Sazes (ARCH ENEMY, KAMELOT, DREAM EVIL).
Gus handles all guitar, bass and keyboards on "I Am The Fire", and is joined by a roster of friends and guests that help bring his vision to fruition: drummers Jeff Friedl (A PERFECT CIRCLE, PUSCIFER, DEVO) and Daniel Erlandsson (ARCH ENEMY), bassists David Ellefson (MEGADETH), Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, DAVID LEE ROTH) and Marty O'Brien (TOMMY LEE, WE ARE THE FALLEN, LITA FORD), and vocalists Mats Levén (CANDLEMASS, ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, THERION), Blake Allison (DEVOUR THE DAY), Michael Starr (STEEL PANTHER), Alexia Rodriguez (EYES SET TO KILL), Tom S. Englund (EVERGREY), Jacob Bunton (ADLER) and Jeff Scott Soto (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, TALISMAN, ex-JOURNEY, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN).
"I Am The Fire" was mixed by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STONE SOUR, STEEL PANTHER) and was recorded between Los Angeles and Gus' home country of Greece through the latter half of 2013. A few of the album's tracks include "Eyes Wide Open", "Redemption", "End Of The Line" and "Blame It On Me". The album showcases a well-balanced mix of active rock, classic hard rock, traditional metal and guitar-driven instrumentals, taking listeners on a diverse journey and opening doors to Gus G.'s soulful playing.
Gus G. has had an amazing rise within the worldwide rock and metal scenes and has amassed an impressive body of work, both in studio and touring. He emerged as an up-and-coming talent with the groups DREAM EVIL (Sweden), MYSTIC PROPHECY (Germany) and NIGHTRAGE (Greece), but it is his work with his own band FIREWIND (who have released seven studio albums and two live releases) and as a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band that have helped him emerge as one of the world's top metal and rock guitarists. His work on Ozzy's "Scream" album led to a Grammy nomination in 2010, and his list of accolades includes Guitar Player magazine's "Best Metal Guitarist," the "Dimebag Darrell Shredder" award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, and Metal Hammer Greece "Best Guitarist" on four separate occasions.
"Eyes Wide Open" video:
"I Am The Fire" track-by-track breakdown:
"I Am The Fire" video:
"I Am The Fire" album EPK:
"My Will Be Done" video: