The Blue Wizard

On their second EP, Kult of the Wizard makes a full commitment to instrumental drone doom. This is made immediately clear with the awesomely titled "Summoning the Sea Beast," a near ten-minute track that isn't shy about its influence from early Earth as it consists entirely of drawn out guitar strums that are on par with plate tectonics. It's certainly a slow way to start things off, especially with such a long duration, but the gradually incorporated electronics and fluctuating soundscapes are enough to indicate a sense of progression.

Once the rest of the band kicks in, the rest of The Blue Wizard presents the style in a considerably more palatable fashion. While the compositions still have a certain looseness to them, they flow well within themselves and offer a fair amount of variation between them. "March of the Skeleton Crew" echoes the opener's drone with appropriately beefed up rhythms, "Poseidon's Wrath" offers up a more conventional stoner sludge bludgeoning, and "To The Depths" closes things with the EP's most melodic and somber sequence. The quirky "Black Atlantis" makes a midway slice of unnecessary mood whiplash, but it's barely a minute long.

It also helps that the lineup here has better chemistry than that on The Red Wizard, having gotten in a completely new bassist and drummer alongside guitarist Aaron Hodgson. While the focus remains on bone shaking amp worship than any overt flash, the guitars get to put in more climactic fluctuations while the bass provides a sturdy anchor and the drums are tight without getting too rigid. There's a part of me that wonders how these pieces would've turned out with vocals included but considering how they often felt like an afterthought on the last EP, dropping them for now was likely the smartest move.

While the drone style of The Blue Wizard can make for a tricky listen at times, the massive improvement over the blundering execution of its predecessor is absolutely undeniable. While it'd be easy to attribute to the heightened sense of purpose to the aquatic song titles, the atmosphere throughout justifies the theming. The varied styles at work really help give the loose compositions greater meaning and do a splendid job of making the EP seem like a fuller package than its twenty-seven minute runtime would suggest. As much as I prefer the direction that would come with subsequent releases, they do a pretty solid job here.

Highlights:
"Wrath of Poseidon"
"To The Depths"