Come My Fanatics

Upon its release, Electric Wizard's excellent debut carved a Titanic-sized swathe through the heavy metal landscape, burying much that had come before under an avalanche of amp distortion, detuned riffs, and billows of marijuana smoke. And yet, impossible as it may seem, the band's absolutely colossal second effort, Come My Fanatics..., while somewhat less immediate than its predecessor, somehow upped the sonic ante through a wall of sludge so thick that even the most experienced of metal heads couldn't help but be overwhelmed by its power. Opening number "Return Trip" is quite simply a heavy metal landmark, from its sudden, feedback-induced (and bowel-releasing) opening chord to the anguished screams of main man Jus Oborn through to its final coughing denouement ten minutes later. The barely discernible lyrics to second track "Wizard in Black" (another monster at eight minutes) gradually emerge from the trio's cyclopean grind, intoning "I am a God...I am the One" -- and by gum if by now you're not ready to believe just that! Ensuing acid-metal behemoths like "Doom-Mantia" and "Son of Nothing" (the album's shortest track at almost seven minutes) will test the patience of uninitiated listeners before drifting into focus through billowing clouds of smoke, but the ultimate religious experience is well worth the lengthy conversion process. And though less memorable, instrumentals like "Ivixor B/Phase Inducer," (a full-fledged space rock feedback freakout) and closer "Solarian 13" slot right into the album's imposing mass. Essential doom. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia