Wizard Tattoo - One of These Knives

 

Released:  November 1

It may only be four tracks long, but One of These Knives is an entertaining, wide-ranging, and partially hilarious EP from Bram the Bard’s Wizard Tattoo project. Bram puts together a fun assortment of stoner rock, doom metal, psychedelia, and just a touch of sludge with varying vocal techniques throughout. The first track, “Varsak of Man,” leans very heavily into the the direction of stoner doom metal with buried vocals and repetitive riffs that accompany the periodic guitar solo. The second track, “A Wizard’s Blade,” slowly things way down with minimal to no distortion and a vibe that feels almost shamanic. Gently plucked guitars and tribal-esque percussion lead us down a weirdly spiritual path with softly sung vocals. It kind of threw me off a bit as I was expecting more heavy riffs but I appreciated the vibe of the song with its gentle psychedelic qualities. 

Now, the third track, “My Second Knife Fight,” is the track I really enjoyed most of all. The vocals, the guitars, the pace - everything is absurd in a hilarious way. The vocals more or less just narrates a wild scene in a bar as two wizards get ready to break out into a knife fight - for the second time, a second wizard knife fight. The track has this awesome and kind of weird rockabilly vibe for much of it and inexplicably breaks down into a Spanish-style guitar solo, feeling very Desperado for a second. But it’s altogether a fun and wild little experience that precedes a rather calm and ambient end to the album in “Edge of Reprisal.” This album is just so all over the place, but it still manages to work as a cohesive whole, despite the madcap nature of it.