4 out of 5

Label: self-released

Produced by: Wizard Must Die and Christophe Hogommat

Sometimes… you just know you’re in good hands.

Glancing – truly, just glancing – at Wizard Must Die’s ‘In the Land of the dead Turtles’ provides positive vibes. The artwork’s surreal but, like, consistent presentation, where all the symbology makes no sense in the real world but feels cohesive within the worlds of its front and back cover (calming reds and blues depicting oceanic imagery + Arthurian fantasy, sure); the balance of the psychedelic, bong-smoked band logo against the straight-laced typeface of the album and song titles; the loose narrative of those song titles, that stick to their lane and aren’t trying for some kind of mind-blowing epic… you can just feel this working. I know I’m amenable to music-forward stoner metal, but even when I’m not into a genre, when I can look at the packaging and presentation and acknowledge that the makers nailed the look, I kinda figure: this is probably a good record if you’re into what it’s selling.

I know that’s a completely ridiculous statement that can’t be vetted. Have I ever experienced that with stuff I don’t listen to, like idol bands? Great question.

While I’m thinking of examples, let’s put on ‘In the Land of the dead Turtles’ and understand a key factor to why this album is pretty damn amazing: opener / kinda title track ‘In the Land’ is essentially an intro track of acoustic guitars and calmly sung vocals and squiggly effects, leading to the bigger distortion and drum hits on From Their Blood to the Sea, but it is also a solid, gorgeous song that truly stands on its own. And this is a pattern that holds true whenever the group strays from the rocking and rolling riffage: the “inbetween” moments / tracks are treated with the same care, meaning there are no inbetween moments. I’ve also rarely listened to a psych / stoner group that’s as balanced with their spotlight as WMD: the compositions are tight; no one lags; but there’s this kind of brilliant handoff in the mix where everyone gets time to shine without taking shine from others. It’s a cool confidence, where the group never tries to blow our socks off with prog thrills are wildass time changes, nor do they amp up the fuzz unnecessarily to tell us how much they rock. They just goddamn do it, and in the perfect amounts, stretching tracks to 6+ minutes only as needed, a calculation that’s part of that balance – they only go back to the well to repeat a riff for as long as it takes to get us into it, then they move on.

There is, supposedly, a narrative going on here, but I’d say the lyrics and vocals are probably the weakest part. They’re not weak, but the singing can sometimes feel like an afterthought, included as a necessary component of this style of music. I don’t mean to imply they don’t fit, or that they’re without passion, or that you won’t sing along to some snippets, but – to me – they kind of amount to just words; just another layer of sound. Perhaps recognizing this, the vocals are kind of lower in the mix; maybe some ideal version has this bigger and more blown out – less charitably, Florent Michaud’s singing is aiming for some kind of emotional resonance that feels a bit hollow. But more charitably, man, I don’t care. Assessed as that layer of sound, it fits. Meaning from the moment of that first glance to when the first note hits and then through the last one, this record never lets me down.

soulDecision. That’s an example.