Electric Wizard

Biography

Electric Wizard (1993-present): a Doom Metal band from Dorset, UK.

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ften considered a 'stoners stoner band', Electric Wizard started in Wimborne in Dorset, England in 1993 featuring Jus Oborn (guitar), Tim Bagshaw (bass) and Mark Greening (drums).

The origins of the band go back to 1988 with Jus Oborn's former band Lord of Putrefaction. Under this configuration they put out three demo tapes from 1989-1991 as well as one split with Mortal Remains. In 1992, they changed their name to Thy Grief Eternal after Adam Richardson left the band. Under that name they released one demo, On Blackened Wings. In 1993, James Evans left and they once again changed their name, shortening it to just Eternal. Once again they released demos, two to be exact. It was when former member, Gavin Gillingham left that Oborn started Electric Wizard; a name contrived from a merging of the titles of two Black Sabbath songs: Electric Funeral and The Wizard.

Signing to 'Rise Above Records' they would release their eponymous debut album. The album came across as something you'd nod out to than simply chill on by featuring monolithic sludge riffing like they had collectively inhaled an entire greenhouse before entering the studio. Nonetheless, it met approval of critics. The follow-up album, Come My Fanatics... (1997), pushed this sound to its maximum high that has come to define their style.

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'Man's Ruin Records' released their Chrono.Naut EP in 1997. The Supercoven EP on 'Bad Acid Records' followed in 1998.

Dopethrone followed in 2000, an album often considered the band's best performance.

It was here, and for the next three years, that Electric Wizard encountered a series of setbacks; some of them honest accidents and others were honest stupidity:

  • Oborn suffered a collapsed eardrum during a concert and later severed a fingertip while laying a carpet. Trying to out-do these events, he also got himself arrested for arson to a car - get this - while the car was parked outside a police station!!
  • Mark Greening broke his collarbone in an accident. Oh, but that wasn't enough because soon after he found himself arrested for robbing a liquor store by smashing the window and grabbing a bottle of whiskey; the police found him sitting outside the shop drinking it!
  • Tim Bagshaw tried to steal a crucifix off a church roof to use it onstage as a prop, but while engaging in the theft you might say that God was 'in the house' that day because while doing so he slipped, fell through a window and sliced his arm open and subsequently got community service.
Let Us Prey followed in 2002 and was considered their most experimental record to date. The band then embarked on a North American tour that saw tensions raise between band members. It was announced that the band was breaking up after the last concert of the tour, but a UK tour with Cathedral soon after, with Justin Greaves (of Iron Monkey) on drums, put that plan on hold.

April 2003 saw Greening and Bagshaw leave the band.

In August 2003, Oborn revealed the new line-up: drummer Greaves (drums), Liz Buckingham (second guitar), and bassist Rob Al-Issa (bass); in 2004 this line-up recorded We Live.

Greaves left the band in 2006 and was replaced by Shaun Rutter; the parting was not amicable.

Witchcult Today (2007) was recorded entirely using vintage audio equipment from the 1970s. It proved to be the band's most well-received album since Dopethrone. In 2008, Rob Al-Issa left to be replaced by Tas Danazoglou.

November 2010 saw their next album Black Masses released.

Time to Die (2014) was released on their own label 'Witchfinder Records' via 'Spinefarm Records'.

Electric Wizard commenced on a US/Canada tour in 2015, their first US shows since 2012 and full tour of the US since 2002; tickets sold out within a month. The band now featured Jus Oborn (lead vocals/), Liz Buckingham (guitars), Clayton Burgess (bass) andSimon Poole (drums/percussion).

In 2018 the line-up would change again with Haz Wheaton assuming bass, but not before the release of Wizard Bloody Wizard (2017).

A single titled L.S.D. (Lucifers Satanic Daughter) was released in 2021, specifically for the film Lucifers Satanic Daughter. A book titled Come My Fanatics: A Journey Into The World Of Electric Wizard written by Dan Franklin arrived in 2023.

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Electric Wizard performing at Tuska Open Air 2011
Photo by: Cecil
(CC BY-SA 3.0)

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