The Red Wizard

Kult of the Wizard's three EPs are unified in their naming convention centered around color wizards, but each one offers a different take on doom metal than the others. Their first EP, The Red Wizard, made an immediate impression thanks to its heavy apocalyptic sound. The guitar and bass tones make for some extreme amp worship, the former exerting near constant feedback while the latter brings the bottom end of the Mariana Trench, and the drums consist of disjointed, hard hitting patterns. The vocals are considerably sparse, only popping up as distant shouts on the bookending "Destroyer of Worlds" and "Red Sky."

Unfortunately, this power rarely translates to proper songwriting. The structures are loosely defined, which makes sense given the recording was essentially jammed out live, but tracks like "Wounded Hunter" end up wearing out their welcome by virtue of their excessive lengths and lack of memorability. It gets to be especially egregious with "4JSC," which just amounts to meandering around with the riff set from Soundgarden's "4th of July" for five and a half minutes. Fortunately, "Destroyer of Worlds" does what it can with its Dopethrone-style layout and "Red Sky" is a manageable closer coming off the noise experiments on "The Binding of the Sorcerers."

Despite being considered Kult of the Wizard's first EP, The Red Wizard basically amounts to a glorified demo. While the raw presentation in combination with a few promising ideas could make it an endearing listen for hardcore sludge doom fans, there's nothing here that couldn't be done better or heavier by any other Electric Wizard acolyte. It's the sort of approach that probably made for some intense live experiences, but doesn't have the atmosphere, stylistic flourishes, or coherency to allow for any further distinction.

Highlights:
"Destroyer of Worlds"