On first sight of the cover for ‘Ablanthanabla’ it is frankly impossible not to think Electric Wizard. The font is right, the name is halfway there, and the Branca Studio style artwork (hey, it may even be Branca for all I know), is the type that has adorned any number of posters promoting that aforementioned band. I did wonder if Wizard Master was like any of the Hawkwind offshoots such as Hawklords or Hawkestrel, and featured former band members, but the biography tells me that they are in fact an Italian duo, and nothing to do with those Dorset doomsters. Well, enough of the visual first impressions, and on to the music.
If the art didn’t have you thinking of Jus Osborn’s crew, the music surely will. ‘Hell Riders’ opens with a quick sound bite before an awfully familiar combination of fuzzed out and evil riffage and slow pounding rythms kicks in. Even the snarling and sneering vocals, delivered as if through an echoing megaphone are remarkably familiar. Throw in a clip of dialogue from ‘The Devil Rides Out’, the Christopher Lee classic, and the impression is uncanny. This continues unabated into ‘Funeral Boogie’ that kicks off with an introduction from Bela Lugosi, and again it’s impossible not to compare Wizard Master to their electrified forebears. Things slow down further with the drag of ‘Acid’, and if you like your headbanging done at the pace of a stoned sloth, this is for you, the number only shaking itself awake for a final stumbling sprint in the last thirty seconds.
With an opening of a tolling church bell and backmasked vocals of a magical invocation, ‘Master of Wizardry’ goes full Hammer Horror before the instruments launch in and the music starts, and when it does, well, I’ll let you work out what it sounds like by referring you to the above paragraph. Almost as if to show they are modern and up to date ‘We Are Füd’ starts with a quote not from an old horror movie, but from the TV show ‘Severance’, something I had to use an on line search to identify as I’ve not owned a TV this century, let alone seen a show from 2022, but worry not, the music that follows the sound bite is nothing modern, and is a massive slice of Sabbath worship, as is album closer ‘Tested By Death’ with its drawn out combination of low tones, blues inspired guitars, and laconic vocal delivery.
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if that is the case Jus Osborn could well be massively flattered by ‘Ablanathanabla’, just as a young Tony Iommi and co could well be flattered by, for example, ‘Wizard Bloody Wizard’. Whilst this review looks like I’ve just been bashing Wizard Master, it’s a fact that there are very few unique and original sounds in music, and new acts are frequently the result of being influenced by those that come before them. Did I enjoy ‘Ablanathanabla’? Yes I did. If the duo put together a touring lineup, would I go and see them live? Hell yes. Are they capable musicians? Damn straight. It just remains to see if they’ll go on to discover their own sound, as if they don’t they could well be in danger of being seen as nothing but a tribute act. That said, given that it’s now six years and counting since anything new was heard from the Satyr IX studio, Wizard Master could well become the go to act for slabs of sleazy retro stoner doom in the future.
(7/10 Spenny)
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