Wizard – Taste Of Wizard

Welcome to the world of Wizard! When a song begins with the lyric  ” Who is this mighty man outside? The one who killed the trolls, will he be staying here tonight or returning where the thunder rolls? “, then it’s a safe bet that you can expect some classic power metal. Love it or hate it, power metal never went away but has had a resurgence over the last few years with bands like Sabaton and Dragonforce giving the genre some well deserved acknowledgement. Wizard may be a new name to many metal fans but in 2009 they celebrated their 20 year anniversary and on August 3rd 2012 will be releasing a 14 track best of album on Massacre Records. It will be only available as a digital download via i Tunes, Amazon mp3, Musicload and other digital music stores. It will only be available until August 5th for the ridiculously cheap price of 5 euros as all 14 tracks are more overblown than a circus strongman’s hot water bottle!

The best way i can describe Wizard is if  Tim ” Ripper ” Owens was to sing with  Manowar, so basically with Wizard you have stratospheric vocals, corny song titles with even cornier lyrics with the rest of the band hammering away like Thor’s hammer! Album highlights are Witch Of The Enchanted Forest,it’s Manowar like grandiose spoken word intro followed by a galloping beat with ott lyrics to match, the Sabbath groove of Pale Rider has some of the finest guitar solos on the album with horn accompaniment, the huge ballad Children Of The Night has the band crashing in with the vocal on the chorus for added effect, Midgard’s Guardian comes across like an 80’s era Saxon anthem  and the Thor themed The Visitor, from which i quoted some of the lyrics at the start of this review. As Manowar would say, “this is true metal music, for true metal people! “. m/

Taste Of Wizard track listing :-

Witch Of  The Enchanted Forest.

Pale Rider.

Call To The Dragon.

Children Of The Night.

Sword Of Vengeance.

Utgard ( False Games ).

Midgard’s Guardian.

Resurrection.

The Visitor.

Of  Wariwulfs and Bluotvarwes.

Bluotvarwes.

Taste Of  Fear.

Messenger Of Death.

Sign Of  The Cross.

Wizard band line up :-

Sven D’anna – Vocals.

Dano Boland – Guitar.

Michael Maass – Guitar.

Volker Leson – Bass.

Soren Van Heek – Drums.

I award  Taste Of Wizard a Spinal Tap 11/10!