ghost - opvs eponymovs

i am back from wacken and back in shape to write some new words. this year's festival was a blast! personally i gazed at the best line-up of all my four participations in the world largest all-metal festival. i witnessed fantastic shows of converge, gojira, dimmu borgir, madball, mantar and of course ghost. this time i didn't find any vinyl in the many small booths (i wish back that big merchandise tent) at the retailer area and so i was looking if i had any record at home not written about, which might be apt for the topic.

so here we are with ghost's debut "opvs eponymovs". the band played on friday, or better saturday morning at 1:45 a.m. man, that was a tough time slot for me. i was around for quite a few hours and watching cool bands and because i am old i really felt torn watching ghost. on the one hand i was really enjoying it because they were that good but on the other hand i secretly wished it to be over soon because my back hurt. anyway, it was worth the little pain. check out this video of some dude who stood almost at the same spot as me.

so, what does "opvs eponymovs" sound like? well, i don't have to tell you because most probably you know that already. i am the one who is alarmingly late to this band here. it is just the right mixture of doom/stoner rock with occultism and pop music. there is more emphasis on the doom/stoner part on this early record but it doesn't seem too far from the recent stuff. great music all the way through. i am in love with ghost. this is a recent re-press by rise above records on lovely opaque turquoise vinyl out of 500 copies. bought at nuclear blast. rise above. 2010/2018.

astra - the weirding

after i was totally blown away by astra's sophomore full length called "the black chord", i was anxious to get their first album. entitled "the weirding" from 2009. it was released quite some time ago and so i wasn't too hopeful to get some coloured vinyl for the retail price. i searched the internet nevertheless and actually found a shop with some copies left in stock. i spoke of them in the last astra post, the name is white dwarf mailorder from germany.

i was quite happy to get a copy hassle free and without the bitter aftertaste of high international shipping rates. the guys from white dwarf rock packed the record superbly and here we are with astra's debut released on rise above records. musically this a bit different to the second record. the first difference that immediately struck me after the first complete listen is the pace. "the weirding" is way calmer than its younger counterpart.

it has a lot more atmospheric parts and gives the listener more breathing space. at first i found this to be a bit boring but after more spins i really came to like it. the tension that is building throughout the faster parts is more intense and "the weirding" has a distinct conceptional feel to it. the duration of almost eighty minutes add to that feeling. at the end of the day i still prefer "the black chord" but "the weirding" has really grown on me.

rise above records from the u.k. did a few pressings for this album over the years. four all in all. there are quite a few cool colour varaitions out there and i probably would have made my decision towards a different colour, if they came for reasonable money but under the circumstances i am happy with my 180gr clear blue double vinyl. the artwork is really nice. it matches the album title quite well with its weird trippy/spacey images. fourth pressing out of 250 copies with a poster. some still available at white dwarf. rise above. 2009/2012.

astra - the black chord

astra is not only the name of a famous beer from hamburg, it is also the name of a prog rock band from the united states, which i managed to overlook in the past. when i listen to "the black chord" now, i cannot say how this happened. these guys are that good. i stumbled upon them via a video link over at youtube. i don't know what i was listening to in the first place but i saw the thumbnail with the cover art in the side bar and it looked appealing.

i clicked it and before the first song "cocoon" ended, i knew that i had to have a hard copy in my possession. after i informed myself of the release date, label and vinyl versions, i came to the conclusion to not waste any time. rise above released this already four years ago and due to the reputation of the label i figured it might be difficult to still get a copy from a mailorder. furthermore i fell in love with the splattered brown vinyl edition of the first press and all these factors together seemed like i was doomed to drop some serious cash.

in the end it wasn't that hard to get my desired copy. i found a few german d.i.y. stoner/doom metal shops like white dwarf that still carried second press copies and finally one, cyclone empire, that had one of the brown splatter copies to offer. i bought it via their discogs account but if i had known that they had their own mailorder metal-recycler.de, i would have gotten the record for one euro less. ok, i think i'll survive this.

the whole album is the shit. i hear some between the buried and me and cynic influences, especially in those crazy, quirky synth-laden prog parts. then they have these really nice and easy-going seventies rock parts with flutes and all that topped with richard vaughan's lovely voice make "the black chord" a beast which sinks its claws into you to not ever let go. check it out here. the presentation is hot too. the gatefold comes with an integrated booklet with pictures of each band member and houses this nice 180gr brown splatter beauty. excellent! 500 copies made. rise above records. 2012.

electric wizard - black masses

the sixth month in a row with a electric wizard record on display. this time it's about their sixth full length 'black masses'. i bought this baby around the same time i ordered 'let us prey' and 'we live'. at one point early last year, nuclear blast carried some copies of this 'black masses' tri-coloured vinyl. they sold out pretty quickly and i didn't snag one because i wasn't into the wizard's work at that time.

when their music clicked with me while listening to 'dopethrone', i was looking out for any available album on vinyl. shortly after that nuclear blast took pre-orders for a not otherwise specified tri-colour vinyl version. i was wondering if it was the same that was available a few months ago but definitely didn't care enough to wait for detailed information which i actually didn't need to know i would like it.

hey, it was a tri-colour split so there wasn't a chance that i let this pass me by. in the end it was the same version they already offered. can't really find a sensible explanation as this is actually the most limited colour-way of the second press. these were probably some forgotten copies from the vault or something. whatever the reason was, i am happy with it as they look pretty awesome.

musically this is the very own electric wizard sound with which they started since 'we live'. 'we live' will stay as my favourite second line-up electric wizard record, still 'black masses' is a damn strong album. heavy, gloomy, catchy - all this with this sleazy seventies sound. what more can you ask for. especially when 'black masses' has this slightly erotic, occult artwork. worship the wizard on your phono altar under a moonlit sky. 275 copies made. rise above records. 2010.

electric wizard - witchcult today

my fifth electric wizard record is the band's sixth studio album called 'witchcult today. it was the first one that wasn't as easily available as the ones before. no german store was carrying a coloured vinyl version of this album. so i had to search for them on second hand market places. the first i seek in such cases is usually discogs. when i looked to find what specific colour way would take my fancy, there was one that definitely got me hooked.

a lovely pink vinyl pressing which i had to make mine. fortunately i found a seller from germany who offered it for a price that i could live with. listening to this record, i am not to 100 percent sold on it. it's the second album with the new line-up and the dirty, melodic rock side to their doom metal sound is more prominent here. don't get me wrong, it's a real good album. i simply prefer their earlier work, is all. but i unconditionally recommend 'witchcult today' to any electric wizard fan.

for this record the band recorded the songs entirely on seventies vintage equipment. i mean, if i didn't read this somewhere, i wouldn't hear the difference but the fact is pretty cool on its own. the artwork ties in seamlessly. the pictures must have been taken with seventies camera equipment as well or been at least reworked to look like pictures of that time. they have that specific grainy look. the hot 180g pink vinyl is definitely a winner. don't know how much have been made. rise above records. 2007/2010.

electric wizard - we live

'we live' marks electric wizard's fifth album and leads me to the conclusion that the band is unable of producing a bad album. although this wasn't the same band i knew from the previous records. for 'we live' only founding member and vocalist/guitarist jus oborn remained and three new members joined the electric wizard. by a mysterious incident oborn fell out with tim bagshaw and mark greening.

rumour has it that the north american tour to promote 'let us prey' from 2002 raised a lot of tension between the band members. shortly after that tour even the break-up of the wizard was announced. however, in 2003 bagshaw and greening left the band and founded ramesses later on. liz buckingham on second guitar, rob al-issa on bass and justin greaves on drums were the new names in the game.

remarks to that change in line-up are that the band refers to itself as the electric wizard on the cover for the first time and within the booklet as electric wizard II. furthermore, statetments such as 'my enemies, i fear not... but god save me from my friends' printed in the booklet or the whole album title can be considered as raised middle fingers to the former band-members.

anyway, the songs are great. check out the title song and 'flower of evil a.k.a. malfiore' and get your wizard's fix just like you need it. i ordered this one together with the 'let us prey' record from high roller. it's a copy of the 2014 re-press on clear green with black marble. my second disc came out pretty dark, so i held it up to the light. looks lovely. third pressing. 500 copies made. rise above records. 2004/2014. 

electric wizard - let us prey

the third electric wizard record to appear on my blog and the fourth in the electric wizard discography. after i bought 'dopethrone' on a whim at the nuclear blast shop and was blown away by it i set out to get the wizard's back catalogue on my beloved vinyl. a fun task because there are eight full lengths on numerous colours, so a lot of searching and seeking to get the best possible option.

in this case i had to make a compromise. when i was buying this record i had the following reasonable options. the clear/black smoke re-press from nuclear blast, a few discogs options and a gold re-press from high roller records. as you can see, i opted for the solid gold version from high roller because i was able to order a 'we live' copy along and save on shipping, although other colours looked cool, too.

the record was initially released in 2002 by rise above records. back then, rise above didn't go for a vinyl version. dark times for vinyl. only the u.s. label, the music cartel, released a black vinyl edition for the north american market. five years later rise above did the second pressing on a variety of colour-ways. seven years later the third pressing came around with my golden copy being part of it.

musically this record has a gloomier feel to it. i read in some interview that the band really tried to push the boundaries of their sound in the studio. experimenting with guitar layers and trying to give 'let us prey' an old horror movie feel. works for me. i really love this one. the artwork is a bit strange, though. can't say what it depicts. looks still good. 500 copies made. rise above records. 2002/2014. 

electric wizard - come my fanatics...

the wizard is back again. after i fell in love with their 2000 masterpiece called 'dopethrone', i set out to collect all their releases on coloured vinyl. so this is my second find. the band's second full length 'come my fanatics...' from 1997. luckily rise above records did a lot of re-presses for their electric wizard back catalogue recently, and so this was relatively easy to obtain.

i was checking german distros carrying electric wizard titles and i stumbled upon high roller records, which had a fair amount of copies up for sale. among others they got copies of 'come my fanatics...' on purple/gold vinyl in stock recently. seeing them, i didn't hestitate to order even though i already blew my monthly vinyl budget. but man, you know how it is, being late means paying even more in the future. this logic will always justify my dirty deeds, haha.

i like what rise above does with those electric wizard re-presses. for 'come my fanatics...' they changed the art work, which was absolutely in favour of the all around look. check the original here. aside from my love for vinyl, i am also a big comic book enthusiast. i recently read 'fatale' by ed brubaker and sean phillips. it has a lovecraftian theme and is partly about a cult worshipping the cold, alien gods known as the great old ones.

the dudes from the cover remind me of those cultists. check out an excerpt here. musically this is great stoner/doom metal of that special electric wizard kind, that i came to love on 'dopethrone'. the only song i find a bit useless is the instrumental 'ivixor b/phase inducer', the rest is doom perfection. check out 'wizard in black' and 'son of nothing'. 500 pressed on that gold marbled purple vinyl. rise above records. 1997/2015.

electric wizard - dopethrone

i heard of electric wizard a thousand times before because they are the big thing in their genre. i even listened to them at some point, but you know how it is, it just wasn't the right time for me and the wizard. when i was browsing through the nuclear blast eu shop recently i came upon a re-press of 'dopethrone'. nb always has some good stuff of rise above records through a distribution deal of the two labels.

i pretty much liked the cover art. it's kind of ominous and with its blurriness it seems to fit whatever the horned man on the cover is doing. i don't know about things like these. so i hit the tube and checked some tunes and lo and behold, i really liked what i heard. great fuzzed out doom worship with a distinctive stoner edge. nice stuff. check out 'we hate you'. probably my favourite song of the record.

therefore it was a no-brainer to add a copy to my cart. after some listens i only grew to like it more and more. 'dopethrone' often gets praised as electric wizard's crowning achievement. of course with only knowing this album i can't be sure about this statement, but it's definetely a hell of a good doom record. understandable that rise above keeps cranking out re-issues of the wizard's work.

good for the fans and especially good for me. this re-press looks real lovely. gatefold sleeve with all lyrics on the inside, black poly-lined dust sleeves and this nice 180g semi-translucent, white marbled vinyl makes it looking sharp! electric wizard has eight albums in their back-catalogue. it's going to be fun to collect them. the hunt is on! can't say how many were pressed of these, though. rise above records. 2000/2015.