Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard

Electric Wizard's Wizard Bloody Wizard comes in a gatefold jacket on 140-gram vinyl, six tracks of fuzz-soaked doom from the Dorset band that made heaviness a way of life.

Their ninth studio album, released in 2017, was recorded at the band's own Satyr IX studio, with Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham producing. The aim was to keep as little as possible between the musicians and the tape, and the result is leaner and more rock-rooted than some of their earlier, more cavernous records, with the grooves pushed to the front and the riffs left to do the talking.

"See You in Hell" opens with a filthy, swaggering riff that sounds like it crawled out of an early seventies biker film. "Necromania" and "The Reaper" keep the tempo at a menacing crawl, Oborn's voice buried in distortion and dread, while the sprawling closer "Mourning of the Magicians" stretches out into a hypnotic, smoke-filled finale that rewards patient listening.

It is the sound of a band completely at ease with its own legend, worshipping at the altar of vintage heavy rock while keeping the occult horror imagery cranked to the maximum.

Best played loud, late and in a dimly lit room, this is a record for doom devotees who like their riffs slow, thick and drenched in fuzz.