Spanning from cult champions like Bolt Thrower, Possessed and Amon Amarth, to heavy music trailblazers like Death, High On Fire and Darkthrone, the specialists at Gimme Metal have assembled an essential education in heavy music under their Vinyl Club anthology.
Starting in 2020 and now moving into their third year, the collective is beginning 2022 with the addition of a formative doom metal must in the 1997 opus from Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics.
Credited with implementing a much more aggressive, less theatric approach to the genre, the album bridged Lovecraftian themes, vintage horror and an accent of outlaw biker culture to create a universe that was both dark and intriguingly dangerous.
Regarded as a watershed moment for the genre, a revitalization of sorts in the space, Come My Fanatics was lauded as an instant classic and since has been regarded as required listening among the doom contingent.
For the January entry of the Gimme Metal Vinyl Club, fans can get their hands on a limited edition pressing of the album on an exclusive colorway - a great addition to any metal fan's record collection.
Gimme Metal Program Director, Brian Turner offered his insight on the importance of the sophomore album from the Dorset doom metal outfit.
One second into the subsonic rumble of opener "Return Trip" on Electric Wizard's second LP, 1997's 'Come My Fanatics', and you are immediately set adrift on a raft in a sludge-crusted River of Styx. Woofer-flapping tones awkwardly punctuate a formless intro before that nausea-inducing RIFF seesaws in, flanked by weird samples and a voice sounding like it's trapped inside a cardboard box. Hence is the allure of the sound of this record, both cosmos-revealing and claustrophobic as hell.
While Jus Oborn isn't a man of many words during this track, the few tortured phrases he tosses into the mix languish as one of the elements of the whole stew: sickening bass, phasing effects, plodding drums, and a guitar tone that heaps on hissing elements of suffocation, changing the air itself into cottage cheese. It's Sabbath-worship without doubt, but Electric Wizard are not content to just let their amps bury you over lyrics of hopeless despair. Instead they churn you around some kind of sick washing machine and spit you out at the end. The motion is relentless from hereon, all the way through the finale/instrumental "Solarian 13" where the band's crawl eventually picks up tempo just long enough to lift you then plop you into a vat of acid, returning you to square one of hopelessness where it all began. Despite the steadfast vision of the record, it's amazingly colored and varied with samples to mark the journey, Mark Greening's minimalist-but-effective drumming knocking down each step of the way for you to take yet another labored footstep. A doom classic beyond words.
This special edition release will be pressed on exclusive Gimme Metal Purple, Red & Black Splatter vinyl. The final day to sign up for the January entry of the Gimme Metal Vinyl Club offering is December 31st, 2021.
