Stoner/doom: den stora rekommendationstråden

Well, whaddya know? An Electric Wizard album I don't completely fucking hate. I didn't see that one coming. This is, believe it or not, the fifth full-length album from these Cathedral wannabes, and for once they have managed to produce an album that is at least not actively annoying.

Electric Wizard always had a good formula: Get really high, read a lot of Lovecraft, then write 10-minute Sabbath-tribute songs about being really high and reading a lot of Lovecraft. Did I mention getting high? Oh right, I forgot. Anyway, this is a good basic idea, but until this CD Electric Wizard have never made anything even vaguely interesting out of it, mostly because they seemed way more interested in feedback and the wah pedal than writing any good songs. After the 60-odd minutes of feedback that was "Dopethrone" I vowed to never subject myself to this band again, but here's this promo, and surprise, surprise – EW have gotten off the bong long enough to write some decent tunes. They still sound like a toked-up Cathedral pretty much, except with worse vocals, but at least there is something going on here, as opposed to the static crapfests of their previous albums. It's still too slow and boring for my taste, and perhaps if I was firing up a stogie-sized reefer while I listened to it I would dig it more. But as it is, this band has at last released a CD I will not throw in the trash. So I suppose that's a kind of accomplishment in and of itself.