Southern Lord Records: A Byword for "Bitchin'"
Electric Wizard: Supercoven EP- 1998
(reissued in 2000 by Southern Lord)
First of all, this was first released by some label called "Bad Acid Records", which only seems to have released four other recordings, one of which was a CD version of this album as the first was only 12" vinyl, so I'm assuming it was just some ****ty basement label or something that couldn't distribute poop.
I really shouldn't have to say anything about Electric Wizard, but if you're a total fleeb and don't know who they are, they're Sabbath x1000. If that's not helpful then I don't care. This is an overlooked piece of history merely because it was an EP, but it was released between
Come My Fanatics and
Dopethrone, right smack dab in the middle of their classic period, and it's as amazing as anything else they've ever done. No less a person than Jus Osbourne himself has declared the title track to be the definitive Electric Wizard song. Whether or not you agree, it sums up the band as much as any other song does: tar-thick walls of guitar distortion, psychedelic trippiness, and who really cares what else. If you dig the Wiz (not a thing), and you haven't heard this record, then please correct this oversight. Oh, and even though it's an EP, and even though there are only two songs, it's still over thirty minutes long, which is a full-size album for many bands. So this isn't just fifteen minutes of extra stuff you can afford to ignore.
This is also a great indicator of just how much you should pay attention to Southern Lord. Four records in and we already have Electric Wizard. Soon to come are Church of Misery, Goatsnake, Boris, Sunn 0))), Cathedral, Pentagram, Khanate, and that's just scratching the surface. So this is a pretty historic label.