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Come My Fanatics: A Journey into the World of Electric Wizard
'Electric Wizard is heavy, man - we don't sing about love and flowers.' Jus Oborn
In 1993, in the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England, the heaviest band in the world was born.
Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, Electric Wizard began as an untameable power trio. They inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesising the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics. In 1997 they released their revolutionary second album, Come My Fanatics... Then, after triumphant and calamitous tours of the USA and following the release of arguably the heaviest rock album ever recorded, 2000's Dopethrone , Electric Wizard all but imploded, destroyed by the very reality they were fighting against.
However, when guitarist Liz Buckingham joined Oborn on guitar for We Live , they drew a magic circle around themselves in a new line-up that went on to explore deeper occult horrors on modern doom classic Witchcult Today onwards.
Come My Fanatics is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the subculture the band has absorbed and, in turn, created. From seventies exploitation cinema, through the writers of Weird Tales magazine and a panoply of the marginal and downright sinister, to the band's own live ceremonial happenings - this is Electric Wizard's world. We're just dying in it.
In 1993, in the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England, the heaviest band in the world was born.
Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, Electric Wizard began as an untameable power trio. They inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesising the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics. In 1997 they released their revolutionary second album, Come My Fanatics... Then, after triumphant and calamitous tours of the USA and following the release of arguably the heaviest rock album ever recorded, 2000's Dopethrone , Electric Wizard all but imploded, destroyed by the very reality they were fighting against.
However, when guitarist Liz Buckingham joined Oborn on guitar for We Live , they drew a magic circle around themselves in a new line-up that went on to explore deeper occult horrors on modern doom classic Witchcult Today onwards.
Come My Fanatics is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the subculture the band has absorbed and, in turn, created. From seventies exploitation cinema, through the writers of Weird Tales magazine and a panoply of the marginal and downright sinister, to the band's own live ceremonial happenings - this is Electric Wizard's world. We're just dying in it.
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343 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 22, 2023
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July 20, 2023
This is unadulterated literature. Here's a preview of the upcoming review that will appear in the next issue of Funeralopolis (Goodreads won't allow me to publish the whole thing due to a word limit (bastards) so its mainly just an intro to the Wizard on here and barely takes into account how much I rate what Franklin has done, if you want the full thing you'll have to wait til the next issue is out at the end of the month) and it'll be the first b**k review because even though we're a film magazine, it is everything we stand for:
"It's mad to think that people still make music after the year 2000, as though it didn't peak as an art form with Electric Wizard's magnum opus Dopethrone. It's mad to think that Electric Wizard even still make music after 2000 for that matter. Yet, on they go and so our witchcult grows. Had they packed it in we'd never have got the Lovecraftian Witchcult Today or the colossally heavy Black Mass. They are simply laughing at us at this point, as if to say we came, we saw, we conquered and no one's come anywhere near close to reaching those heavy heights again but us and only when we feel like it. Living proof that unlike The Beatles or Spinal Tap that you can bring your wife in, let her kindly set on an amp, lose all the original members and still advance your sound. They are indisputably the greatest and by far the heaviest sound to emerge from our pathetic planet.
You heard it, they're the best and they always will be. Not just the kings of doom or stoner, no that would be thinking too small, but of everything in this universe. You'll find pieces of every genre and medium currently existing smoothly in their work and that's what makes it so damn good. The genius is the way they bend all that lies before them in to their own particular sound time and time again without fail. The dubbed up dance of Ivixor B/Phase Inducer. The punky grunge of Weird Tales. The creepy Carpenteresque church organs of Night of the Shape. All twisted to this cosmic narrative of a dying planet brought about by our own despicable behaviours. It's hard to put in to words what the band mean to me, they are the beating heart and soul of this critical cesspit that lies before you. Exactly why when it came to choosing the name of this monthly magazine opting for Funeralopolis was the easiest choice ever made. Sounding both journalistic and apocalyptic. Everything this magazine is unapologetically about.
So rare is it to see and hear that which expresses everything you want to express. To the point you wouldn't even think to ever make music because they make it exactly the way you want it. As the overly quoted face of edgy nihilism Tyler Durden once said, "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable and most importantly I'm free in all the ways that you are not". What could Jacob Kelly possibly ever add to the playing field that the Wizard already haven't? Well knowing me there'd be a few more sections incorporating electronics and leaning in to Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. But I'm an idiot and would only fuck it up so no chance I'd be picking up a guitar and synth any time soon. No interest at all. I'm a fucking film guy anyway. However, I bow to my musical kings who occupy the Dopethrone.
Being a man of cinema, I've always been attracted to music that I can see. If it doesn't have a visual appeal it isn't for me. About a casual head bop and sneaky toe tap is the most you will get from me. It's a story that lulls me in to the music. This is where most local bands bore me. They make the mistake of thinking I came to be wowed by their incredible musicianship. I didn't rock up to the boozer for technical virtuosity. Who cares if you strum your strings like it's a vagina? There's plenty of people who can play out there. If that's where your heads at, be a fucking session guitarist or something for it’s the best you'll ever reach. I came for the vision. Everything else is secondary. It doesn't matter if you can hit notes or play complex chords. As Joe Strummer said, "I don't like music, at all. Music isn't the point". He's right music isn't the point, music is the means. I want to see the album cover, hear the music and be transported. Location, location, location. There has to be a location. If I don't come out thinking I need I need to up the old reading list and see about a million more movies then it has failed. Everything else is background noise.
In my life, I'm lucky to say I have encountered 3 groups that I really gave a shit about at every level from the manufacture to release. Namely, The Wu- Tang Clan, The Nine Inch Nails and The Wizard. Going back to the beginning, my first love was the Wu. As a young boy, I was raised on a steady diet of Bruce Lee movies. Cheesy sound effects and endless fist fights made up my world. Therefore to see RZA applying that to his own working class world was wonderful to me. New York transforming itself in to Shaolin Island and getting lost in this man's vision running counter to Nas's strict cinema verité realism (which has it's place too). Above all RZA's a man with vision. Goes down as a legend for bringing 9 gangsters in a studio to record his silly kung fu nonsense. How he did it, we'll never know but we shall be forever grateful.
My second love was the Nin. There's a point when everyone comes to realise and accepts there's some really pathetic teenage angsty lyricism there. Even Trent would agree, which is probably why he seems to be distancing himself from the band as much as possible these days. I'll be a fan of the Nin 'til I die because in truth I never really cared for the lyrics anyway, I was more enamoured by their cinematic soundscapes. Hence, why Trent and Atticus are killing it in the film industry now and have Oscars to their name. 2 things here though as to why my interest has slightly dipped over the years. Fincher has fully realised their sound as the score to the digital age. It had to be done and he was the one to do it. It's done. Be arsed copying? Also, they've expanded their musical knowledge now to include all sorts of belting stuff like jazz making them serious guns for hire. Even Disney are ramming Pinocchio's lying wooden nose up their arses. There'd be nothing interesting about using Nine Inch Nails music for cinema these days, as it has already become music for cinema. Their marriage to kino is so established that all your getting is sloppy seconds.
Ladies and gentlemen, the future is The Wizard. I present my third and current musical obsession that has only grown over the last decade. Initially, I came across these guys in university around the time the underrated Wizard Bloody Wizard was flooding on to the unapproving streets back in 2017. In a bizarre coincidence, I was formerly well acquainted with someone who's lecturer was Simon Poole down at Falmouth University. How he matches up with the usual demand for a drummer in Electric Wizard I'll never know. By all accounts, he was pretty chilled rather than the usual manic bastard who could barely crash his kit in time. On multiple occasions, I asked this former acquaintance of mine to hook me up so I could meet my hero and fellow Jess Franco fan, the bands mainstay, Jus Oborn, but she never would.
Anyway, putting that utter disappointment to one side, university is a place where even more so than attending 9am lectures and handing in assignments, you first start meeting people from all different backgrounds. Meaning you're exposed to all different kinds of music. Regular go-to's synthpop and post-punk had been worn to death. Instead of goths, the metal heads begun slipping in, affecting my tastes, forcing me to listen to that stuff and bending me in all new directions. They came armed with their best. The thrash big 4 and all that 80s yer da metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden that was fucking silly. Alright riffs being violated by theatrical singing nutcases like Rob Halford. I didn't understand it. The only way I could enjoy it was ironically and laugh at it but it meant nothing to me, however much I tried to embrace it. Eventually, I'd come around and appreciate it but it still doesn't mean much in truth other than mild historical recognition. Humorously primitive perhaps today but worthy of their place like Grandmaster Flash or Sugar Hill Gang are to Hip Hop.
One metal band would eventually change all that. It wasn't long until Black Sabbath got recommended. Considering I'd only really hard Paranoid as a kid, I was intrigued by what these Brummie fellas had to offer. Of course, Black Sabbath are just objectively the greatest so I was like yeah, whatever this is, I want more of this. Wait you can actually play this slow? You're allowed to do that? You can keep that fast playing show offy shit, serve them slow and thick please, bar tender. And for a long time that was the motto. At least until I heard black and death metal. So I delve around doom alleys and funeral playgrounds, taking a liking to Sleep, Fu Manchu and Boris. Great bands by the way. But Electric Wizard? Those guys hit me like a freight train.
They were everything I wanted The Cramps to be in my earlier gothic departures. Around the same time, randomly I had a course on my film degree that was covering soft porn trashy auteurs like Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger. I exploded on that and just became a full time porn head. Godard's all well good and but I'd done all that shit back in school. I didn't need to know any more. Auteur theory flowed through my veins. This drug addled student of cinema needed the rough lo-fi like the isolated need shoegaze and these exploitationers knew how to deal it out. Ended up doing my dissertation on exploitation, which looking back was more an excuse to investigate the subject further and unravel its true meaning. So, to hear Electric Wizard talking about the same directors was a total blessing. The two jus' went hand in hand. Perfect timing. Opportune. I went on the psychedelic trip through them both and this journey knows no ends. Extremity gives way to further extremity. I am not satisfied 'til I've seen, heard and felt it all. We've seen the other world and now we cannot stop. Not even Dom Cobb and his nifty Inception tricks can bring us back to reality. On we go until breaking point. Beyond the safety blanket of sanity. Unable to stop for the only fear greater than continuing through this filth is stopping. Anything less than everything is simply nothing.
Biker gangs. Give them to me. Sadomasochist freaks. Give them to me. Devil worshippers. Give them to me. Barbarian warriors. Give them to me. I want them all. All the thrills and I want them now. Unlike the majority of people, I found a real home in exploitation cinema. Guaranteed, it's not for everyone but given a particular upbringing you might just find there's nothing that satisfies quite like it. Where others grimace, you run to it. It provides truth when all else fails. At some point, it began to occur to me that all the Bruce Lee movies and Mad Max mayhem I found lying around the house on dodgy DVDs my father brought home from his time working in the Philippines (let's not forget how many good movies were shot out there by New World Pictures) were all the same. Whether it be kung fu, apocalyptic action or sadistic torture it all falls under the same roof of grindhouse, baby! All those Friday night thrills. That's why it appealed to me. It's what I remember and where I feel most comfortable to work within. Where I can simultaneously entertain and hide pieces of my mind. And here was Electric Wizard fusing all that together. Taking inspiration from film, sampling as freely as the Wu and creating something new in the process. Not quite music and not quite film but Electric Wizard".
"It's mad to think that people still make music after the year 2000, as though it didn't peak as an art form with Electric Wizard's magnum opus Dopethrone. It's mad to think that Electric Wizard even still make music after 2000 for that matter. Yet, on they go and so our witchcult grows. Had they packed it in we'd never have got the Lovecraftian Witchcult Today or the colossally heavy Black Mass. They are simply laughing at us at this point, as if to say we came, we saw, we conquered and no one's come anywhere near close to reaching those heavy heights again but us and only when we feel like it. Living proof that unlike The Beatles or Spinal Tap that you can bring your wife in, let her kindly set on an amp, lose all the original members and still advance your sound. They are indisputably the greatest and by far the heaviest sound to emerge from our pathetic planet.
You heard it, they're the best and they always will be. Not just the kings of doom or stoner, no that would be thinking too small, but of everything in this universe. You'll find pieces of every genre and medium currently existing smoothly in their work and that's what makes it so damn good. The genius is the way they bend all that lies before them in to their own particular sound time and time again without fail. The dubbed up dance of Ivixor B/Phase Inducer. The punky grunge of Weird Tales. The creepy Carpenteresque church organs of Night of the Shape. All twisted to this cosmic narrative of a dying planet brought about by our own despicable behaviours. It's hard to put in to words what the band mean to me, they are the beating heart and soul of this critical cesspit that lies before you. Exactly why when it came to choosing the name of this monthly magazine opting for Funeralopolis was the easiest choice ever made. Sounding both journalistic and apocalyptic. Everything this magazine is unapologetically about.
So rare is it to see and hear that which expresses everything you want to express. To the point you wouldn't even think to ever make music because they make it exactly the way you want it. As the overly quoted face of edgy nihilism Tyler Durden once said, "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable and most importantly I'm free in all the ways that you are not". What could Jacob Kelly possibly ever add to the playing field that the Wizard already haven't? Well knowing me there'd be a few more sections incorporating electronics and leaning in to Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. But I'm an idiot and would only fuck it up so no chance I'd be picking up a guitar and synth any time soon. No interest at all. I'm a fucking film guy anyway. However, I bow to my musical kings who occupy the Dopethrone.
Being a man of cinema, I've always been attracted to music that I can see. If it doesn't have a visual appeal it isn't for me. About a casual head bop and sneaky toe tap is the most you will get from me. It's a story that lulls me in to the music. This is where most local bands bore me. They make the mistake of thinking I came to be wowed by their incredible musicianship. I didn't rock up to the boozer for technical virtuosity. Who cares if you strum your strings like it's a vagina? There's plenty of people who can play out there. If that's where your heads at, be a fucking session guitarist or something for it’s the best you'll ever reach. I came for the vision. Everything else is secondary. It doesn't matter if you can hit notes or play complex chords. As Joe Strummer said, "I don't like music, at all. Music isn't the point". He's right music isn't the point, music is the means. I want to see the album cover, hear the music and be transported. Location, location, location. There has to be a location. If I don't come out thinking I need I need to up the old reading list and see about a million more movies then it has failed. Everything else is background noise.
In my life, I'm lucky to say I have encountered 3 groups that I really gave a shit about at every level from the manufacture to release. Namely, The Wu- Tang Clan, The Nine Inch Nails and The Wizard. Going back to the beginning, my first love was the Wu. As a young boy, I was raised on a steady diet of Bruce Lee movies. Cheesy sound effects and endless fist fights made up my world. Therefore to see RZA applying that to his own working class world was wonderful to me. New York transforming itself in to Shaolin Island and getting lost in this man's vision running counter to Nas's strict cinema verité realism (which has it's place too). Above all RZA's a man with vision. Goes down as a legend for bringing 9 gangsters in a studio to record his silly kung fu nonsense. How he did it, we'll never know but we shall be forever grateful.
My second love was the Nin. There's a point when everyone comes to realise and accepts there's some really pathetic teenage angsty lyricism there. Even Trent would agree, which is probably why he seems to be distancing himself from the band as much as possible these days. I'll be a fan of the Nin 'til I die because in truth I never really cared for the lyrics anyway, I was more enamoured by their cinematic soundscapes. Hence, why Trent and Atticus are killing it in the film industry now and have Oscars to their name. 2 things here though as to why my interest has slightly dipped over the years. Fincher has fully realised their sound as the score to the digital age. It had to be done and he was the one to do it. It's done. Be arsed copying? Also, they've expanded their musical knowledge now to include all sorts of belting stuff like jazz making them serious guns for hire. Even Disney are ramming Pinocchio's lying wooden nose up their arses. There'd be nothing interesting about using Nine Inch Nails music for cinema these days, as it has already become music for cinema. Their marriage to kino is so established that all your getting is sloppy seconds.
Ladies and gentlemen, the future is The Wizard. I present my third and current musical obsession that has only grown over the last decade. Initially, I came across these guys in university around the time the underrated Wizard Bloody Wizard was flooding on to the unapproving streets back in 2017. In a bizarre coincidence, I was formerly well acquainted with someone who's lecturer was Simon Poole down at Falmouth University. How he matches up with the usual demand for a drummer in Electric Wizard I'll never know. By all accounts, he was pretty chilled rather than the usual manic bastard who could barely crash his kit in time. On multiple occasions, I asked this former acquaintance of mine to hook me up so I could meet my hero and fellow Jess Franco fan, the bands mainstay, Jus Oborn, but she never would.
Anyway, putting that utter disappointment to one side, university is a place where even more so than attending 9am lectures and handing in assignments, you first start meeting people from all different backgrounds. Meaning you're exposed to all different kinds of music. Regular go-to's synthpop and post-punk had been worn to death. Instead of goths, the metal heads begun slipping in, affecting my tastes, forcing me to listen to that stuff and bending me in all new directions. They came armed with their best. The thrash big 4 and all that 80s yer da metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden that was fucking silly. Alright riffs being violated by theatrical singing nutcases like Rob Halford. I didn't understand it. The only way I could enjoy it was ironically and laugh at it but it meant nothing to me, however much I tried to embrace it. Eventually, I'd come around and appreciate it but it still doesn't mean much in truth other than mild historical recognition. Humorously primitive perhaps today but worthy of their place like Grandmaster Flash or Sugar Hill Gang are to Hip Hop.
One metal band would eventually change all that. It wasn't long until Black Sabbath got recommended. Considering I'd only really hard Paranoid as a kid, I was intrigued by what these Brummie fellas had to offer. Of course, Black Sabbath are just objectively the greatest so I was like yeah, whatever this is, I want more of this. Wait you can actually play this slow? You're allowed to do that? You can keep that fast playing show offy shit, serve them slow and thick please, bar tender. And for a long time that was the motto. At least until I heard black and death metal. So I delve around doom alleys and funeral playgrounds, taking a liking to Sleep, Fu Manchu and Boris. Great bands by the way. But Electric Wizard? Those guys hit me like a freight train.
They were everything I wanted The Cramps to be in my earlier gothic departures. Around the same time, randomly I had a course on my film degree that was covering soft porn trashy auteurs like Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger. I exploded on that and just became a full time porn head. Godard's all well good and but I'd done all that shit back in school. I didn't need to know any more. Auteur theory flowed through my veins. This drug addled student of cinema needed the rough lo-fi like the isolated need shoegaze and these exploitationers knew how to deal it out. Ended up doing my dissertation on exploitation, which looking back was more an excuse to investigate the subject further and unravel its true meaning. So, to hear Electric Wizard talking about the same directors was a total blessing. The two jus' went hand in hand. Perfect timing. Opportune. I went on the psychedelic trip through them both and this journey knows no ends. Extremity gives way to further extremity. I am not satisfied 'til I've seen, heard and felt it all. We've seen the other world and now we cannot stop. Not even Dom Cobb and his nifty Inception tricks can bring us back to reality. On we go until breaking point. Beyond the safety blanket of sanity. Unable to stop for the only fear greater than continuing through this filth is stopping. Anything less than everything is simply nothing.
Biker gangs. Give them to me. Sadomasochist freaks. Give them to me. Devil worshippers. Give them to me. Barbarian warriors. Give them to me. I want them all. All the thrills and I want them now. Unlike the majority of people, I found a real home in exploitation cinema. Guaranteed, it's not for everyone but given a particular upbringing you might just find there's nothing that satisfies quite like it. Where others grimace, you run to it. It provides truth when all else fails. At some point, it began to occur to me that all the Bruce Lee movies and Mad Max mayhem I found lying around the house on dodgy DVDs my father brought home from his time working in the Philippines (let's not forget how many good movies were shot out there by New World Pictures) were all the same. Whether it be kung fu, apocalyptic action or sadistic torture it all falls under the same roof of grindhouse, baby! All those Friday night thrills. That's why it appealed to me. It's what I remember and where I feel most comfortable to work within. Where I can simultaneously entertain and hide pieces of my mind. And here was Electric Wizard fusing all that together. Taking inspiration from film, sampling as freely as the Wu and creating something new in the process. Not quite music and not quite film but Electric Wizard".
July 16, 2025
Electric Wizard are the band Tipper Gore and the PMRC thought Black Sabbath were: openly satanic, proudly drugged-out, and totally unconcerned with being commercial in the conventional sense of the term. Not the most violent or depraved band out there, but easily one of the most theatrical and convincing. Their success is built on being louder, slower, and grimier than anyone else and they became the kind of band no one ever really gets over.
They make it OK to keep smoking weed and worshipping Satan at 40, but they make it OK to start doing so then too.
Dan Franklin’s Come My Fanatics is a passionate, fan-first biography that gave me new context on the band. I didn’t know Liz was American and only joined on the fourth album. I didn’t realize how deep the cult went around Dopethrone. And I definitely wasn’t prepared for how absurdly heavy Return Trip sounds when you actually listen to it. The book’s a bit long-winded once the band stops combusting, but Franklin’s perspective helped me better understand and appreciate Electric Wizard.
Dan Franklin if you read this, let's be friends on Facebook.
They make it OK to keep smoking weed and worshipping Satan at 40, but they make it OK to start doing so then too.
Dan Franklin’s Come My Fanatics is a passionate, fan-first biography that gave me new context on the band. I didn’t know Liz was American and only joined on the fourth album. I didn’t realize how deep the cult went around Dopethrone. And I definitely wasn’t prepared for how absurdly heavy Return Trip sounds when you actually listen to it. The book’s a bit long-winded once the band stops combusting, but Franklin’s perspective helped me better understand and appreciate Electric Wizard.
Dan Franklin if you read this, let's be friends on Facebook.
August 29, 2023
I love Electric Wizard. I celebrate their entire discography. They are heavier than heavy. They sing about genre films, transgressive literature, occultism, and cosmic oblivion. What's not to love? That's probably a question better answered by my wife, to be honest, but let's not bring her into this.
I jumped at the chance to order this book from the U.K., as it won't be available in the States til early next year. I devoured the content. Author Dan Franklin toes the line of journalistic integrity and Electric Wizard fandom with ease, as far as I can tell.
Electric Wizard has always had an aura of mystique, and while this book offers a peek into the window of the world of Wizard, the mystique remains intact, which is a good thing, in my opinion. Franklin culls information from the band themselves, as well as old interviews, and delves into the influences that brought forth the band and their songs. He writes in sufficient detail about the horror films, books, and true crime that garner influence and connects the dots within Electric Wizards output.
I loved this book. If you disagree, I don't care.
I jumped at the chance to order this book from the U.K., as it won't be available in the States til early next year. I devoured the content. Author Dan Franklin toes the line of journalistic integrity and Electric Wizard fandom with ease, as far as I can tell.
Electric Wizard has always had an aura of mystique, and while this book offers a peek into the window of the world of Wizard, the mystique remains intact, which is a good thing, in my opinion. Franklin culls information from the band themselves, as well as old interviews, and delves into the influences that brought forth the band and their songs. He writes in sufficient detail about the horror films, books, and true crime that garner influence and connects the dots within Electric Wizards output.
I loved this book. If you disagree, I don't care.
December 16, 2024
I love Electric Wizard so much man I wish stoners were real.
September 13, 2024
Think this made me realise Electric Wizard might actually be my favourite band??? Totally totally excellent - highlight was the comparison of Jus to an "insurrectionist Rodney Trotter"
April 9, 2025
1st Read (2023): This was an absolutely wild ride, The Wizard definitely enthralled me with their story and I can't believe that they were formed in the West Country. An exciting, grimy and fascinating read that I recommend to all fans of doom!
2nd Read - Audiobook (2025): Second time round and the Wizard's story still continues to amaze me. From the sleepy town in Dorset to dominating the world of Doom Metal, there's a reason why they're one of my favourite bands, they just embody everything I love about the genre.
2nd Read - Audiobook (2025): Second time round and the Wizard's story still continues to amaze me. From the sleepy town in Dorset to dominating the world of Doom Metal, there's a reason why they're one of my favourite bands, they just embody everything I love about the genre.
January 9, 2025
First book read in 2025!
First off, before anything else: this book has one of the best book jacket quotes I can remember reading: “Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, the band inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesizing the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics.” Count me in.
This book was obviously a labor of love, and it was very enjoyable to read. If you love the Wizard’s music, or even type of music, you will be into this. Even if you’re not so much, I feel like this is a really interesting example of how artists manage “retro” (don’t get mad—retro in that Saint Vitus “born too late” type of way) while continuing to evolve.
The first six or seven chapters do an admirably innovative job of describing life growing up in a small British town. Franklin goes well beyond the surface—of course there’s the “they were long haired outsiders who didn’t fit in” aspect, but he doesn’t dwell on it excessively. We get lots of interesting history about the area, as well as the media that Jus and Co were consuming (especially the films, whose shortcomings are often acknowledged along with their more appealing aspects) and the table is set for their musical careers to take off.
From 1997 onwards, the rest of the book is more straightforward music journalism. Which is fun, very informative. I learned loads about some of my favorite albums, and this has convinced me to check out their post-2010 output, which I had previously ignored (that time period, to me, felt like the pinnacle of bands who “channel Blue Cheer and the spirit of the days when hard rock was evolving into heavy metal,” and I decided to take a break from retro-sounding doom). Franklin’s album reviews are well done—he’s obviously a fan, but they’re not too long. It also jumped out at me how he connected specific lyrics across albums and how the same words took on different meanings across the years.
The combination of these elements are what make it stand out among the other band bios I have read. I, as well as the Wizard in Black, strongly recommend reading it.
First off, before anything else: this book has one of the best book jacket quotes I can remember reading: “Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, the band inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesizing the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics.” Count me in.
This book was obviously a labor of love, and it was very enjoyable to read. If you love the Wizard’s music, or even type of music, you will be into this. Even if you’re not so much, I feel like this is a really interesting example of how artists manage “retro” (don’t get mad—retro in that Saint Vitus “born too late” type of way) while continuing to evolve.
The first six or seven chapters do an admirably innovative job of describing life growing up in a small British town. Franklin goes well beyond the surface—of course there’s the “they were long haired outsiders who didn’t fit in” aspect, but he doesn’t dwell on it excessively. We get lots of interesting history about the area, as well as the media that Jus and Co were consuming (especially the films, whose shortcomings are often acknowledged along with their more appealing aspects) and the table is set for their musical careers to take off.
From 1997 onwards, the rest of the book is more straightforward music journalism. Which is fun, very informative. I learned loads about some of my favorite albums, and this has convinced me to check out their post-2010 output, which I had previously ignored (that time period, to me, felt like the pinnacle of bands who “channel Blue Cheer and the spirit of the days when hard rock was evolving into heavy metal,” and I decided to take a break from retro-sounding doom). Franklin’s album reviews are well done—he’s obviously a fan, but they’re not too long. It also jumped out at me how he connected specific lyrics across albums and how the same words took on different meanings across the years.
The combination of these elements are what make it stand out among the other band bios I have read. I, as well as the Wizard in Black, strongly recommend reading it.
January 6, 2025
About as good of a book as you can write about Electric Wizard, where it uses biography to move beyond the form into a web of connections to film, music, literature, etc. situating the Wizard within a larger context of horror and cult classic art. They're a band that embraced drugs, b-movies, and heaviness as their aesthetic, the genre name "doom metal" reflecting their songs and their worldview. It's Electric Wizard-as-philosophy, while also giving us insight into the band's history and some of their songwriting process.
The title of the book, lifted from their second best album (unpopular opinion, but Witchcult Today steals it for me) indicates the writing style with which Franklin approaches this. It is fanatically written, hagiographic even, in its idolization and idealization of the band and their music. The author is upfront about this from the beginning. While it does lead to some clunkers in the writing, I think it serves the book well because it explicates exactly what made Electric Wizard life-changing for us superfans. In some sense, Electric Wizard is the heavy-metal, horror-version of the Wu-Tang Clan: an aesthetic and philosophy and obsession derived from unusual sources, molded into a cohesive form.
The only true problem of the book I'd argue is the problem that plagues all music writing: It's mostly descriptive instead of evaluative. Most music writers do not have a compositional background or a background in theory that would allow them to explain on a technical, precise level what makes the music great; instead, most music writing becomes purple prose-y when describing the music itself. There's only so many metaphors that can be used to describe the heaviness of something. I do not really fault Franklin for this, just something that makes music criticism mostly descriptive instead of actual criticism.
I would recommend this book to fans and even newcomers alike who are interested in Electric Wizard.
The title of the book, lifted from their second best album (unpopular opinion, but Witchcult Today steals it for me) indicates the writing style with which Franklin approaches this. It is fanatically written, hagiographic even, in its idolization and idealization of the band and their music. The author is upfront about this from the beginning. While it does lead to some clunkers in the writing, I think it serves the book well because it explicates exactly what made Electric Wizard life-changing for us superfans. In some sense, Electric Wizard is the heavy-metal, horror-version of the Wu-Tang Clan: an aesthetic and philosophy and obsession derived from unusual sources, molded into a cohesive form.
The only true problem of the book I'd argue is the problem that plagues all music writing: It's mostly descriptive instead of evaluative. Most music writers do not have a compositional background or a background in theory that would allow them to explain on a technical, precise level what makes the music great; instead, most music writing becomes purple prose-y when describing the music itself. There's only so many metaphors that can be used to describe the heaviness of something. I do not really fault Franklin for this, just something that makes music criticism mostly descriptive instead of actual criticism.
I would recommend this book to fans and even newcomers alike who are interested in Electric Wizard.
October 1, 2024
I like Electric Wizard. I've listened to them for years. But I don't love Electric Wizard the way many of the reviewers of this book do. Although I know all their albums, I've never had one that I thought was great from start to finish, although The Witchcult Today comes close. As a result, my review is going to be a little less enthusiastic than others.
This is a very in-depth view of the band. It covers a lot of what I wanted to know, but it also includes a ton of plot summaries of movies that EW draws on when writing their music. Now, I like EW, but I'm not really a big fan of horror/bike/cult films. I know there are lots of people who are, but I've never seen the appeal. So reading summaries of what appear to be bad movies doesn't do much for me.
Franklin finishes with an epilogue which is pure crap. He could have ended the book with the chapter concerning Wizard Bloody Wizard, but instead he went one chapter further and ruined it. There were a couple of interesting tidbits that he put in this chapter that one wonders why he didn't mention earlier in the book - Jus Oborn as a teen being held up by some other kids at gunpoint and put in a shed to be attacked by geese, and also how completely overwhelming Oborn found living in London - that provided some interesting insight, but otherwise, it was a chapter of pure dreck.
Overall, the book filled in some of the gaps in the EW story, especially as to the comings and goings of the various members, and how each member fit into the EW saga. It's a fairly lengthy book, but not a really revealing one, and I don't think it's going to bring me a greater appreciation for their music, which is something I've occasionally had from other band biographies.
This is a very in-depth view of the band. It covers a lot of what I wanted to know, but it also includes a ton of plot summaries of movies that EW draws on when writing their music. Now, I like EW, but I'm not really a big fan of horror/bike/cult films. I know there are lots of people who are, but I've never seen the appeal. So reading summaries of what appear to be bad movies doesn't do much for me.
Franklin finishes with an epilogue which is pure crap. He could have ended the book with the chapter concerning Wizard Bloody Wizard, but instead he went one chapter further and ruined it. There were a couple of interesting tidbits that he put in this chapter that one wonders why he didn't mention earlier in the book - Jus Oborn as a teen being held up by some other kids at gunpoint and put in a shed to be attacked by geese, and also how completely overwhelming Oborn found living in London - that provided some interesting insight, but otherwise, it was a chapter of pure dreck.
Overall, the book filled in some of the gaps in the EW story, especially as to the comings and goings of the various members, and how each member fit into the EW saga. It's a fairly lengthy book, but not a really revealing one, and I don't think it's going to bring me a greater appreciation for their music, which is something I've occasionally had from other band biographies.
July 27, 2024
This was clearly written with love, or more appropriately, the hate befitting a true fanatic. My first foray into Electric Wizard was in my 20’s. They were quite literally my “war music,” forever in my memory alongside images of Afghanistan. Now, much older and marginally wiser, I’ve rediscovered them, diving into the sonic chaos with a different perspective. There’s nothing quite like it.
I don’t see why anyone would choose to read this without already being familiar with the band, but if you aren’t, go listen now. It will obviously make the reading experience much richer. Dan Franklin provides some beautiful critiques, describing songs in ways that make you say, “Yes! That’s it! I just didn’t have the words.”
The history of the settings and the descriptions of the band’s formative experiences are well-written and honestly researched. I highly recommend this to any fan of the Wizard.
I don’t see why anyone would choose to read this without already being familiar with the band, but if you aren’t, go listen now. It will obviously make the reading experience much richer. Dan Franklin provides some beautiful critiques, describing songs in ways that make you say, “Yes! That’s it! I just didn’t have the words.”
The history of the settings and the descriptions of the band’s formative experiences are well-written and honestly researched. I highly recommend this to any fan of the Wizard.
January 28, 2025
(3.5)
good history of electric wizard, with lots of information about the band - though it was hampered a lot by the amount of references to film and music and the lengthy digressions into criticism about media that influenced them. that could have been fine but it felt like it took up way too much of the text, and was especially annoying considering the epilogue stating there was more to talk about but the band didn't want to include that stuff - read like there wasn't enough material to go off of band-wise, that could be due to them being private people, whatevs
good history of electric wizard, with lots of information about the band - though it was hampered a lot by the amount of references to film and music and the lengthy digressions into criticism about media that influenced them. that could have been fine but it felt like it took up way too much of the text, and was especially annoying considering the epilogue stating there was more to talk about but the band didn't want to include that stuff - read like there wasn't enough material to go off of band-wise, that could be due to them being private people, whatevs
October 17, 2024
Although I have some minor nits to pick with this one (namely how Franklin's tendency to try to shoehorn the band's experiences into the plots of grindhouse flicks and the odd thing tossed into the prologue about how this book might not be the "truth" without really following up on that), it was still fun to read about Electric Wizard and particularly about the genesis of the band with regards to their Dorset surroundings.
June 24, 2024
I love EW. This book really does them justice and takes you on a ride from their beginnings until the current day. It's chock full of references to the occult, movies,esoteric knowledge,and other influences. I love B movie and Grindhouse horror so it was awesome to read about how many films I like influenced them and I also learned a lot along the way.
August 11, 2023
This will now be the standard reference point for all things Electric Wizard. It is a great work of music journalism, and an awesome in-depth study of the band’s history, aesthetic, and philosophy.
Keep your headphones close by!
Keep your headphones close by!
October 9, 2023
I will wax poetic about what The Wizard means to me another day on another platform.
Look, I imported this book from England so I could read it a couple months before the US release date. You didn't think I would give this a 5??
Look, I imported this book from England so I could read it a couple months before the US release date. You didn't think I would give this a 5??
December 14, 2023
I love the Wizard and like Dan’s journalism and this is pure joy. The writing on Come My Fanatics (THE LP itself) is one of the best music critiques I've read in a long time.
August 4, 2024
Good account of the history of the band as well as the movies/literature that inspires their lyrics and aesthetics; required reading for all fans of the Wizard.
October 22, 2024
when you get into one of these groups
there's only a couple ways you can get out.
one is death,
the other is... mental institutions
there's only a couple ways you can get out.
one is death,
the other is... mental institutions
January 23, 2025
A interesting look at this very compelling band but it wasn’t that compelling from a direct “straight from the band” perspective
February 12, 2025
The wizard!
June 12, 2025
This reads like a long essay, delving deep into each album's references. It's a must read for any fan of Electric Wizard.
December 22, 2025
wizard walk the walk
sacrifice the sacrifice
drug all of the drugs
sacrifice the sacrifice
drug all of the drugs
May 10, 2024
Great insight into the band, tours, gigs. Written like a fanatic
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