hard rock / progressive
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Desertfest Belgium 2016 has been about a week ago and I'm already knee deep in suggestions and recommendations for next year's festival. Of course, receiving a bunch of albums by Heavy Psych Sounds always helps to get me in the mood for some serious old school rocking. However, this time, the album seemed confusing at first and it needed several journeys through my cd-player before I decided to get this review done.
Glitter Wizard is an American band, influenced by Hawkwind, Deep Purple, Motorhead and the Young Ones episode with an appearance by The Damned. So it shouldn't be a real surprise that this band gently flows along the currently highly acclaimed wave of vintage rock and old school psychedelics. With fingerlicking riffs, often epic synths and a nag for experimentation, Glitter Wizard certainly delivered something interesting.
So why did it need several listens before I was finally ready to write this thing? Well, mostly because it's not an easy digestible piece of work. True, from the very first riffs of 'The Smokey God', they drag the listener back to the seventies. However, they do it with an experimental touch, which results in some strange sounds and jam-passages. The drums in 'Mycelia' certainly are something you need to get used to but it's worth it.
My favorite tracks are the 'Stoned Odyssey Part 1, 2, 3', a brilliant rocker that combines Hawkwind with 'Driver's Seat' by The Carrs and the party rocker 'UFOLSD'. Well, pretty much all the songs here are party rockers, sometimes even reminding me of the whole glam rock scene with bands like Motley Crue and even Iron Maiden in their early days. Hey, now I know why this collective is called Glitter Wizard, because they're a glammed up version of vintage hard rock.
In the end, this album is an interesting journey through the childhood days of the hard rock industry. It seems to contain a number of songs the big names from back in the day forgot to write, and that is exactly why I welcome these heavy psychedelic bands nowadays. So while the album closes in a folky way with 'Sightseeing with Admiral Byrd', followed by the brilliant 'Death Of Atlantis', I'd like to close my review by recommending this to all you stoner rockers out there. This definitely is something up your alley.
Serge
Glitter Wizard is an American band, influenced by Hawkwind, Deep Purple, Motorhead and the Young Ones episode with an appearance by The Damned. So it shouldn't be a real surprise that this band gently flows along the currently highly acclaimed wave of vintage rock and old school psychedelics. With fingerlicking riffs, often epic synths and a nag for experimentation, Glitter Wizard certainly delivered something interesting.
So why did it need several listens before I was finally ready to write this thing? Well, mostly because it's not an easy digestible piece of work. True, from the very first riffs of 'The Smokey God', they drag the listener back to the seventies. However, they do it with an experimental touch, which results in some strange sounds and jam-passages. The drums in 'Mycelia' certainly are something you need to get used to but it's worth it.
My favorite tracks are the 'Stoned Odyssey Part 1, 2, 3', a brilliant rocker that combines Hawkwind with 'Driver's Seat' by The Carrs and the party rocker 'UFOLSD'. Well, pretty much all the songs here are party rockers, sometimes even reminding me of the whole glam rock scene with bands like Motley Crue and even Iron Maiden in their early days. Hey, now I know why this collective is called Glitter Wizard, because they're a glammed up version of vintage hard rock.
In the end, this album is an interesting journey through the childhood days of the hard rock industry. It seems to contain a number of songs the big names from back in the day forgot to write, and that is exactly why I welcome these heavy psychedelic bands nowadays. So while the album closes in a folky way with 'Sightseeing with Admiral Byrd', followed by the brilliant 'Death Of Atlantis', I'd like to close my review by recommending this to all you stoner rockers out there. This definitely is something up your alley.
Serge