Glitter Wizard - Hollow Earth Tour (Hard Psych. Rock US 2016)

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Bitrate: 320
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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San Francisco glam weirdos Glitter Wizard have signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for the release of their next album, Hollow Earth Tour. The alliance continues the label’s successful run of Californian hookups — see also: Wild Eyes SF, Farflung, Hot Lunch, Fatso Jetson, etc. — and when it comes to Glitter Wizard, they strike me as the kind of band who are way too busy writing the next album by the time the current one has been released to worry about the particulars. 

Nonetheless, their strange, vaguely subversive and often catchy heavy rock and roll was most recently heard from on the earlier-2016 7″ Life Under Traffic/Circle of Kings, neither song from which will be featured on Hollow Earth Tour, which is out Oct. 21 with preorders going live Sept. 30.

Glitter Wizard is an American band, influenced by Hawkwind, Deep Purple, Motorhead and the Young Ones episode with an appearance by The Damned. So it shouldn't be a real surprise that this band gently flows along the currently highly acclaimed wave of vintage rock and old school psychedelics. With fingerlicking riffs, often epic synths and a nag for experimentation, Glitter Wizard certainly delivered something interesting.

So why did it need several listens before I was finally ready to write this thing? Well, mostly because it's not an easy digestible piece of work. True, from the very first riffs of 'The Smokey God', they drag the listener back to the seventies. However, they do it with an experimental touch, which results in some strange sounds and jam-passages. The drums in 'Mycelia' certainly are something you need to get used to but it's worth it.

My favorite tracks are the 'Stoned Odyssey Part 1, 2, 3', a brilliant rocker that combines Hawkwind with 'Driver's Seat' by The Carrs and the party rocker 'UFOLSD'. Well, pretty much all the songs here are party rockers, sometimes even reminding me of the whole glam rock scene with bands like Motley Crue and even Iron Maiden in their early days. Hey, now I know why this collective is called Glitter Wizard, because they're a glammed up version of vintage hard rock.

In the end, this album is an interesting journey through the childhood days of the hard rock industry. It seems to contain a number of songs the big names from back in the day forgot to write, and that is exactly why I welcome these heavy psychedelic bands nowadays. So while the album closes in a folky way with 'Sightseeing with Admiral Byrd', followed by the brilliant 'Death Of Atlantis', I'd like to close my review by recommending this to all you stoner rockers out there. This definitely is something up your alley.

This has to be one of the records I was most looking forward to this year and it does not disappoint. It is great to see the band grow with each release. The main things you love about this band are intact but they have grown a bit more progressive. Still strange and funny lyrics and stories, great guitar riffs, bass lines and solos mixed with some spacey sounds at times. The album starts off with the Smokay God. Drums and a bass line start things off before the guitar line kicks in, followed by vocals and then a great groove. A sparkling of synths adds to the stew and then a longish instrumental part and a great guitar solo! 

Mycalia has some cool lyrics and this sort of epic rock tone to it! The Hemtar is a more punky rocker with a sound going back to the bands early records but then becomes more classic hard rock, prog… Scalas has you banging your head and a great organ line and phased out guitar. The mid-end section is really intense and psychedelic the way the keyboards are mixed. Far out and included a bong hit at the end!  Stoned Odyssey is a long 3 part track.  Part one is slow and spacey and then kicks into high gear right away and off we go. I like the more laid back vocal with some delay on it. 

3rd album from this San Francisco band who play hard psychedelic rock with some brilliantly raging guitar licks and heavy throbbing chords. Organic keyboards and rock ‘n’ roll vocal harmonies help give the songs a clean, heavy retro-thump of power. Blistering chug-a-lug riffs rip around the cranked-up melodies like the God of auto-fire spitting bullets through a kaleidoscopic sound tunnel. 

The music flexes a dramatic muscle of accessible grit; it rocks hard through prog-jams and tripped-out tangents. Recalls bands like Deep Purple, The Sword, Uriah Heep, Sea Of Green, Muse, Stray, Opeth. There’s a definite 60s/70s potency here that locks onto a groove and kicks out in multiple directions. “Hollow Earth Tour” delivers a metallic old-school punch with class & guts. Recommended for those who get “the rock”.

Apolgd is another uptempo fast track, actually every song on the record is a fast rocker! It ends with some nice violin! Sightseeing with Admiral Byrd is a short instrumental track. The CD ends with the great Death of Atlantis, which the band played on their European tour. A totally killer track..  CD only lists 8 song but there are 9 on the CD…  I look forward to see the gatefold vinyl for this one. I hope they include the lyrics. I miss that in the CD wallet. A very cool album…

01. The Smokey God 05:33
02. Mycelia 03:21
03. The Hunter 04:08
04. Scales 07:13
05. Stoned Odyssey Pt.1 Pt.2 Pt.3 (Fungal Visions) 05:45
06. UFOLSD 04:37
07. Death of Atlantis 09:56

Bonus Tracks:
01. Abaca (2011)  03:29
02. Sacrifice (2011)  06:03
03. I Don't Like You (2011)  03:03
04. Mirror Man (2011)  07:21
05. Warsawng (2011)  07:19
06. Summertime (2011)  06:03
07. Blood of The Serpent (2012)  04:06
08. Motörider (2012)  03:31
09. Space (2012)  07:57
10. Ragdoll Deux (2012)  05:07
11. Wizard Wagon (2012)  03:04
12. Sunlight Wolves (2012)  02:51
13. Big Sur (2012)  08:45

Part 1: Glitter 1
Part 2: Glitter 2
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Part 1: Glitter 1
Part 2: Glitter 2
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Part 1: Glitter 1
Part 2: Glitter 2