Misanthropic Alchemy

Despite their justly earned accolades as "the heaviest band in the universe," the early career of English doom titans Electric Wizard was marked by mysteriously long periods of inactivity, which were officially blamed on bad health and, unofficially, on catatonia-inducing weed consumption and just plain chronic laziness. By early 2002, the bandmembers were at each other's throats and they nearly broke up on-stage during an otherwise transcendent Brooklyn, NY performance when vocalist/guitarist Jus Oborn unexpectedly launched into a song ("Devil's Bride") that bassist Tim Bagshaw had not rehearsed, forcing him to turn down his volume and mime along unconvincingly, while casting deathly glares across the stage. So, when the breakup inevitably became official later that year and Oborn announced he would be moving Electric Wizard forward with new henchmen, the ousted duo of Bagshaw and drummer Mark Greening quickly unveiled their new group, Ramesses, completed by former Lord of Putrefaction and Thy Grief Eternal vocalist/bassist Adam Richardson (Bagshaw switched to guitar). Their first recordings would arrive in less urgent and very piecemeal fashion (several demos, singles, splits) before coalescing into 2005's We Will Lead You to Glorious Times EP and, two years later, the Misanthropic Alchemy LP, which confirmed the band's style as being somewhat more extreme than Electric Wizard's über-doom template. Indeed, as evidenced by the opening tandem of "Ramesses, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 3" ("Pt. 2" had already appeared on the aforementioned EP), the trio's sound consisted of a hyper-distorted, highly corrosive, and only partially doom-laden brew of sludge metal -- not unlike a pint of Guinness Extra Stout, come to think of it. Subsequent offerings brought a few additional surprises, like the convincing black metal twist (cold melodic guitar lines and a blastbeat conclusion) of "Coat of Arms" and pure evil atmospherics of "Before the Jackals." But others, like the doom 101 of "Lords Misrule" and the horror soundtrack experiment "Terrordactyl," simply resembled a poor man's Electric Wizard, if truth be told. Yes, at least Ramesses had the distinguishing factor of Richardson's glass-gargling growls, which crowned all of the above in a bloody halo of thorns and barbed wire, but the biggest impression left by Misanthropic Alchemy was that the new group still had some way to go before it could challenge its mighty nemesis, Electric Wizard. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia|