Electric Wizard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electric Wizard
(Left to right) Rob Al-Issa, Jus Oborn, Justin Greaves, Liz Buckingham
Background information
Origin	Bournemouth, England
Genre(s)	Doom metal Sludge metal Stoner Metal
Years active	1993-present
Label(s)	Rise Above
Associated acts	Ramesses
Members
Jus Oborn Rob Al-Issa Liz Buckingham (Shaun Rutter)
Former members
Tim Bagshaw Justin Greaves Mark Greening

Electric Wizard are a band from Dorset, England which formed in 1993. Among the more popular bands from their genre, they have a distinct sound which incorporates doom metal, stoner metal, and sludge metal. During 2003, founding members Tim Bagshaw and Mark Greening left Electric Wizard to form their own band, Ramesses. Electric Wizard are currently signed to Rise Above Records.

1 History
2 Members
- 2.1 Current line-up
- 2.2 Past members
3 Discography
4 References
5 External links

Often referred to as the "heaviest band in the universe"^[1], Electric Wizard were formed in 1993, when Jus Oborn left his then band Eternal/Thy Grief Eternal and joined with Tim Bagshaw and Mark Greening to record the split single Demon Lung with Our Haunted Kingdom (later to become Orange Goblin).

The band's self-titled debut album was released two years later to good reviews, but it was 1997's Come My Fanatics... that really cemented their place in doom metal history. Extremely downtuned and bass-heavy, the album is often described as one of the heaviest records of the nineties.

It was in the years that followed that a hiatus for Electric Wizard transpired. Following the release of Come My Fanatics..., all members were caught in a year of legal snares--Oborn was arrested for "having some pot," Greening was taken into custody after assaulting a police officer, and Bagshaw served a sentence for robbery. Despite these setbacks, the full length was followed up with the Chrono.Naut split EP with Orange Goblin, and then another EP, Supercoven, in 1998. The latter saw a rawer, more "stoner" Wizard, and featured an old demo and a live track, along with two new songs.

In the years that followed, the band was met with even more tribulations, as Oborn suffered a collapsed eardrum during a gig with Goatsnake, which required several surgeries. He later severed a fingertip while cutting hardboard for flooring, when he "slipped and the knife just slit the end off." Oborn was not the only member to suffer medical setbacks, as drummer Mark Greening broke his collarbone in a biking accident.

After recovering from said complications, the band finally recorded their third album, Dopethrone, in May/June of 2000, and released it in mid-October. To this day, many consider it to be their finest work. Overall less "spacey" than Come My Fanatics..., Dopethrone was still classic Wizard, with heavy, chugging riffs and fantastical, Lovecraftian lyrics. The album's success prompted an ill-fated North American tour and a quick follow-up, entitled Let Us Prey was released the next year. While this was Electric Wizard's most experimental release to date, incorporating piano and violin, and a hardcore punk song, it was paradoxically their most formulaic and predictable, and received mixed reviews from the press and fans alike. The lukewarm reception to Let Us Prey further soured already strained relations within the band, and drummer Mark Greening left in early 2003, with bassist Tim Bagshaw soon following suit. In August that year, Oborn revealed Electric Wizard's new line-up: Justin Greaves (ex-Iron Monkey) on drums, Liz Buckingham (also in Sourvein) on second guitar, and Rob Al-Issa on bass. We Live, the band's fifth album, was released in 2004, and featured a much tighter sound, with Oborn's vocals a lot higher in the mix. The general response from critics and fans has been mixed, with some Wizard fans being happy that the band has finally sorted out their notoriously shoddy live performances with a more professional line-up, while other fans miss the more jammed-out feel of the original lineup.

The band plans on releasing a new studio album and a DVD sometime in 2007, although recent news has confirmed that Justin Greaves had left the band in 2006.

Jus Oborn - Vocals, lead guitar
Rob Al-Issa - Bass guitar
Liz Buckingham - Guitar (also in Sourvein and ex-13), wife of Jus Oborn
Shaun Rutter - Drums

Tim Bagshaw - Bass guitar (now in Ramesses) (1993-2002)
Mark Greening - Drums (now in Ramesses) (1993-2003)
Justin Greaves - Drums (ex-Iron Monkey, Borknagar, Hard To Swallow, Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine) (2003-2006)

Electric Wizard (1995) Rise Above	Come My Fanatics... (1997) Music Cartel	Dopethrone (2000) Rise Above	Let Us Prey (2002) Rise Above
We Live (2004) Rise Above