The ‘Wizard’ album is as rare ‘as’, and you would be doing well to find yourself a copy, Rush fans definitely check this out.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Wizard
ALBUM: Wizard
LABEL: Future Track
SERIAL: FT001
YEAR: 1979
CD INFO: Discogs Info List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Dave Walsh – all guitars, backing vocals * Bruffie Brigham – lead vocals, bass, keyboards * Brian Walsh – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Intro * 02 The Power Of Rock ‘n’ Roll * 03 So Glad To See You * 04 Renaissance * 05 To Walk The Night * 06 You Make Me So Happy * 07 Castle Of Night
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
I recently found this album after many years of searching it out. Wizard were a Rush inspired three-piece from Los Angeles. Now, depending on your musical taste, these guys will either be acquired or not.
If you thought Geddy Lee’s vocal pirouette’s were special, then check the vocal histronics of one Bruffie Brigham, a bass player too, so the Rush thing is exemplified yet again (I wonder if he plays a Rickernbacker??).
They leave the Ayn Rand sci-fi lyrics alone, and walk along the demons, dungeons and dragons pathway so lovingly applied by Ronnie James Dio, though I am sure the Wizard version of such topics will raise a few eyebrows, moving more toward the side of comical than anything else.
For me personally, I love this album. In much the same way as a band like Cirith Ungol were unduly handed the prize of ‘worst HM band in history’, the Wizardeers were vilified in much the same way. However, I have since discovered that there are a whole heap of Wizard fans out there, so I am not alone in the world on this subject, phew!
The Songs
Their brand of hard rock though under-produced (some would say poorly produced) adds to the charm of the album. The songs though are kinda cool, and the feeling you get is if the album had a huge budget to play with, then the whole thing might’ve sounded a zillion times better. The strength is in the quality of the songs.
The triumvirate of ‘The Power Of Rock N Roll’, ‘So Glad To See You’ and the wonderful ‘Renaissance’ could all do loop time on my mp3 player. The interspersing of quiet passages and rock out moments on ‘To Walk The Night’ gives us the contrast the band were obviously searching for. The guitar fury on the last track ‘Castle Of Night’ would give Frank Marino a run for his money. Yee-hah!
In Summary
The band give us seven tracks, which equates to 40 minutes of music, on average we’re looking at 6 minutes per track. If you see this lying around, then pick it up. The ‘Wizard’ album is as rare ‘as’, and you would be doing well to find yourself a copy. Rush fans definitely check this out.
Wizard on Video
Intro/Power Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
So Glad To See You
Click to go to YTM album page.
