Electric Wizard / Church Of Misery / Conan (live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire)

London
17 October 2019

“Crom! How do the Four Winds get in here?” one might be forgiven for thinking, stepping into the Shepherd’s Bush Empire through clouds of weed smoke from the pavement outside. And it would be entirely appropriate, as the first band to take the stage this evening are Liverpudlian “caveman battle doom” merchants Conan. And they are mighty indeed. Truly music for crushing one’s enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of “de vimmin”. It’s barbaric, it’s brutal, and it’s thoroughly exhilarating.

Then it’s time for Japan’s masters of the macabre, the serial-killer-obsessed Church Of Misery. Hailing from Tokyo, they are definitely one of the seemingly never-ending stream of excellent Japanese guitar bands. All the doom staples are present and correct — the crushing riffs, the howls and groans of vocalist Hiroyuki Takano, the macabre subject matter — but unlike a lot of doom bands, they remember that Sabbath always had a groove. And underpinning their none-more-black gloom and despondency is the real star of the show, core member and bassist Tatsu Mikami, holding his instrument like Peter Hook, practically resting on the floor.

And while there probably isn’t much competition in the field of “funkiest bassist in doom metal”, he’s definitely a shoo-in for the top spot. In astounding interludes, those doom riffs are recast as immense talkbox solos, though it’s hard to tell whether his bass is speaking Japanese or English. Yet somehow this doesn’t detract from the utter darkness and squalor their music conjures. It’s really quite astounding. Rather alarmingly, Electric Wizard‘s gear all being shrouded behind them gives the uncanny impression than drummer Junichi Yamamura is actually resting on a huge bean bag, which seems at odds with the far-from-relaxed way he punishes his kit.

But soon those shrouds come off as Church Of Misery leave the stage to be replaced by tonight’s headliners, the mighty Electric Wizard, the heaviest thing to come out of the West Country since, oh, I don’t know, someone’s award-winning enormous cow or something.

Electric Wizard still look like some biker-ass variant on the Firefly family from Rob Zombie‘s House Of 1000 Corpses (yeah, yeah, AND The Devil’s Rejects AND 3 From Hell) but the bass drum skin reads “The Electric Wizard” and looks like it belongs to a 60s psych-band (if you’ve seen the “See You In Hell” video you’ll know what I mean). And this juxtaposition is perfect for the mighty beasts of Satanic stoner sleaze. Without further ado they kick straight into “Witchcult Today”, and the place goes wild. Slowly wild, of course, but wild nonetheless.

Over the next hour and a half they give is a run-through of their career, the newer stuff like “See You In Hell” and “Hear The Sirens Scream” sitting (un)comfortably with the older material, the sound of bad acid and good weed. Behind them, as is their wont, they play the sleaziest of horror B-movies — Satanism, blood and gratuitous nudity are the order of the day.

But it’s the ending of the show that really raises the roof. Suddenly the horror movies are replaced by a biker flick, and it’s time for “Satan’s Slaves”. And it’s a long ride, culminating in several minutes of Jus Oborne soloing like he’s Neil Young in Hell. Where the fuck do you go after that, I wonder?

And then that familiar descending riff kicks in and oh yeah, “Funeralopolis”. THAT’s where you go after that. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them play it better. When the thrash passage kicks in towards the end, it’s almost unbearably intense. The bikers are gone, replaced by psychedelic (magic?) mushroom clouds. The whole thing culminates in a ground zero of feedback. They leave without an encore. There is no need. Everyone is dead.

-Words: Justin Farrington-
-Pictures: Dave Pettit-