The new era of traditional metal is still going, much to the delight and dismay of some folk. However, White Wizzard from California bring the melody and true feeling of good time metal back to the front. Earache records have once again picked up another band whilst the genre is riding the waves of popularity, but they never pick rubbish! At least all the bands thus far have been top notch. Having featured on the labels ‘Heavy Metal Killers’ compilation album, people may have already heard of these leather jacket clad chaps. This EP is released in July as a taster of things to come form their first full-length album.
‘High Speed GTO’ (the classic Pontiac GTO muscle car – as seen in the Dukes of Hazard, well that’s the model of vehicle I am thinking about even though there were many variants sold) opens this EP and also was the featured track on the aforementioned compilation album. All the metal clichés are here; fast cars etc…the track itself takes a lot from classic NWOBHM riffs; the melodies are indeed well put together and provide a cracking tune. James Luna’s vocals are a little nasal and whiny in places (although he has now left the band and Wyatt ‘The Screaming Demon’ Anderson is on Vocals), sometimes it gets on your nerves, but then the music cannot be faulted. The production in general is quite thin on the drums, but balanced great, I suppose you cannot expect booming bass from this style of metal, a very retro feel! Little flourishes of bass guitar fills make things sound authentic and give the impression that the band are jamming together and having fun. This continues with ‘Celestina’. Oh dear, ‘Into the Night’ sounds a little Lost Prophets in places, bloody hell, am I feeling ok, did I really say that, but yes, I feel in some parts the vocal melody sounds a little similar. But in saying this, its still proper metal with some chugging rhythms and shape-throwing guitar solos. The tracks on offer appear to be a re-release of their self-financed release from last year, but ‘Iraq Attack’ I assume is now called ‘Red Desert Skies’ (if this is the same track of course!).
‘March of the Skeletons’ continues with the stage front guitar waving and headbanging; it has a really good groove and ambles along comfortably until the time change kicks in a gives the track some more NWOBHM inspired life - this is more like it! With the band billed on next April’s Keep It True Festival, things are looking good. The two new tracks on their MySpace show improvement in their sound (especially the vocals!), but this EP is certainly worth picking up, not only because its pretty damn good, but these sort of bands quickly gain a ‘cult’ status sometimes rendering their releases hard to find and expensive. For their major label debut, this is a great start, a fine slab of metal. I look forward to their full-length debut album that is currently being recorded.
http://www.whitewizzard.com/
http://www.myspace.com/whitewizzard
http://www.earache.com
