In September of this year doom metal legends Electric Wizard will release their eighth full length album entitled "Time to Die" on Spinefarm Records. As they tend to do nowadays, the 'Wiz have dropped a teaser of a single called "I Am Nothing" today to entice their groggy stoner zombies to put the bong down long enough to remember to buy the new record in the Fall. If only the song lived up to the hype.
Simply put, "I Am Nothing" is a fitting title for this new song, it's nothing special and certainly pales in comparison to the band's early recordings despite a concerted effort to revive the spirit of said material. "I Am Nothing" has a fairly heavy opening riff, plenty of feedback, fuzz, and distortion ala, say, "Supercoven," but simply fails to create the same dark, turbulent aesthetic that the trio of Greening, Bagshaw, and Osbourne seemed to effortlessly bring to life. This has been the Wizard's problem for a number of years now and personally I think they should have continued in the more psychedelic rock / proto-doom style prevalent on "Black Masses." "I Am Nothing" is not a bad song, Electric Wizard are too talented to fall to those depths. The song attempts to remind fans new and old alike that Electric Wizard were pioneers and among the first in this genre to take it to new, exciting, and dangerous places. Unfortunately, listening to the song's shortcomings remind us of something we already have known for a long time, this kind of material exists already in the band's back catalog and will never be made the same way again. That's fine, I for one support the Wizard's progression and have abandoned any hope of the original three piece joining forces once more. Perhaps rumors of Greening's rejoining the band inspired this new material? Perhaps this is the band's way of enticing him to return to the fold? If it is, I'm sure he's as bored as the rest of us.
- Joe