Search - Wizard :: The Original Wizard

Strong underground hard rock

07/13/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wizard is another in a long line of unearthed underground hard rock being rereleased by GearFab and other like minded labels. With so much of this stuff out there it is very hard to decide what to take a chance on unless you have some knowledge about the band itself. Well, I took a chance on this CD and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by much of the material on the CD. I really dig the hard rock sounds present on "Freedom" and "Seance". The whole CD runs the gamut and many songs start slow and then explode into hard rock mayhem. There are a couple of tracks that just don't do it for me like the country fried "Ride". But I dig a lot more than I don't and I think if early 70's hard rock is your bag or interests you at all that you could do a lot worse than picking up this impressive CD."

If you like the sound of the band Widespead Panic...

Louis Schleier | Wilmington, MA USA | 10/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"then you'll be sure to love the sound of this band.
I bought this on vinyl years ago (I've never seen it since) and was shocked to see it available as a cd. Their singer sounds a lot like Widespread Panic's lead singer. The music, though, is a lot heavier while still remaining somewhat melodic (not that noodley heavy metal sound but, instead, a heavy garage band/fuzzy guitar sound with a lot of tearing, heavy lead riffs mixed in).
They pull it off real well on every song (even the slower ones - in my opinion) and with the second track's beginning with the melody of 'here comes the bride' then tearing into a heavy 60's psychedelic sounding number (at that point the song sounds a lot like a late 60's era pink floyd number) how can you lose?"