Electric Wizard | 2002 | Let Us Prey

Psychedelic | Stoner | Doom Metal
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Link | mp3 | 320 Kbps

Jus Oborn (guitar, vocals), Tim Bagshaw (bass), Mark Greening (drums, piano) and Paul Sax (violin on "Night of the Shape")
During September and October 2001, Electric Wizard faced a huge challenge: to record the successor to Dopethrone, considered by many as the band's masterpiece, and the album that, undoubtedly, earned them the moniker of "the heaviest band in the universe". Indeed, Dopethrone marked the milestone of a formula that, within its transition that started with their self-titled debut, had reached its pinnacle: a sound in perfect equilibrium between psychedelia and density, and lyrics rich in misanthropy and hatred towards a miserable world in which there's nothing else to do but to escape.
In that sense, it was already evident that there was nothing else to do within the same spectrum, so something had to change. And although change is never wanted by conservative and stubborn fans, Electric Wizard took that sidestep; they ventured into that "no" that translated into a "fuck it", into a risky twist, into a sound that didn't have to prove anything and that, experimental, undertook the trip towards another dimension. Let Us Prey is exactly that: a statement, an adventure without frontiers. Electric Wizard lost fans, but thanks to their liberation, managed to record one of their best albums.
As is clear in its sound, the band's fourth LP turned the old misanthropy into schizoid, transformed it into a furious roar and, at the same time, into a cosmic blast-off, into a rampant allucination, into a lethargic and incoherent vociferation made by someone who already began a one-way trip, with no return. The twitch was so powerful that it weakened the trio's own foundations, as if no such turbulence were possible without losing sight of the experiment itself. After a tour throughout North America, Tim Bagshaw and Mark Greening left the band in 2003 and Electric Wizard would redefine their course, leaving behind Let Us Prey as an indelible testimony of the narcotic vehemence of those last days. —IMF

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