Album Review: Old Man Wizard – Blame It All On Sorcery (Self Released)

California’s Old Man Wizard return with their new release, Blame It All On Sorcery, a tour-de-force that blends progressive, hard rock and metal into a 10 track album. The album will be released on May 11th 2018.

Guitarist/Vocalist Francis Roberts commented “This album is the result of a years-long winding (and fairly bumpy) road. I started writing it before we released our first record (I think “Never Leave” actually almost made it onto Unfavorable), after which my old band, The Dread Crew of Oddwood, devoured a great deal of my creative attention and time for a few years (and I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have to Old Man Wizard).

We actually almost recorded Blame It All On Sorcery at some point in 2014 or 2015, but Kris developed pretty bad tendonitis and we had to replace him on drums for a couple of shows. We all wanted him on the album so we decided to take a break until he was able to play again. I think that at the end of the day, all of those hurdles led to a more creative display of the songs, which have been on the back of my mind the whole time. I didn’t change any of them too much, but the time away from the band allowed me to really think about production choices and the presentation of the songs as a cohesive album.

We went out on a limb with the whole Kickstarter thing, but enough people came through that we got the money to finish putting the album out on our own, and I can’t thank everyone enough for that. To the few of you who have been patiently waiting years for this, I apologize for the delay, and to everyone else, I really hope you love this thing as much as we do.”

The soft melody and guitar strumming that introduces Old Man Wizard’s new record is comforting, even when picking up pace in Beginnings and Happenstance.

The soft rock stylings of Blame It All on Sorcery is some of the most addictive music to be released this year. The morose vocal efforts of Andre Beller really completing a record that is packed with great riffs, hooks and melodies.

It’s easy to draw links to the likes of Ghost and modern Opeth but Old Man Wizard stand out on their own thanks to a clever rhythms and some decent variation between tracks. The contrast between the up-tempo Innocent Hands and the slow, methodical melody of The Last Ride of the Ancients is so impressive.

A very unique listen closes out with a deeper bass sound as The Long-Nosed-Wiseman shows off the imagination that makes Old Man Wizard such a force.

Old Man Wizard – Blame It All on Sorcery Full Track Listing:

1. Beginnings and Happenstance
2. Sorcerer
3 The Blind Prince
4. Never Leave
5. Cosmo
6. Somehow
7. Innocent Hands
8. The Last Ride of the Ancients
9. The Vision
10. The Long-Nosed-Wiseman

You can order the album now via Bandcamp and check out the Kickstarter here. Find out more/keep up to date with news by liking Old Man Wizard’s Facebook Page, following them on Twitter and subscribing on YouTube.