Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The thought of being alone in the dark, whether in the physical world or the memories that lay heavy as you tuck your blanket over your head, can be a world in which some never come back from fully intact. The dark is somewhere in which the guide books never tell you how to behave or what to do. To alleviate the problem, the only thing to do is place the earphones over the head and fall completely for arguably one of the best British Doom Metal merchants around and their eighth studio album, the stunning Time To Die.

Time To Die by Electric Wizard is a glorious example of just how the genre can be when allowed to breathe, when it is encouraged to leave behind the detractors and the often insufferable. No genre should have to play politics to those that suggest hate towards it, whether pop, rock, opera or anything else, if someone doesn’t like it, leave them behind, you are never going to change their minds but you can become beautifully resplendent in the eyes of those you do captivate.

Captivate is exactly what Electric Wizard have done with Time To Die, they live up to the expectation that you would expect from a group that grinds away with enthusiastic vigour and part of that may be down to the returning Mark Greening on drums who somehow catches Jus Oborn, Count Orlof and the tremendous Liz Buckingham giving performances on the album that would cause other bands a headache in which they would relish being part of.

From the opener Incense for the Damned, the feeling of truth and obvious hurt in I Am Nothing, the convincing desecration of Funeral of Your Mind and Lucifer’s Slaves and the Alice Cooper thought inspiring of We Love The Dead, boot down the door of conservative indifference and snide remarks and the trivial interpretations of those who profess to explain with annotated diagrams why the genre only appeals to the desperate and the disillusioned. A fan can always do what the band does and walk away from the hatred and just concentrate on the interesting Metal observations on offer. Time to Die? Time to listen and thrust into the hands of those whose minds are open to change, Electric Wizard offer that in spades.    

Ian D. Hall