UMUR "Supercoven" is an EP release by UK stoner/doom metal act Electric Wizard. The EP was originally released in 12" vinyl format through Bad Acid in 1998. "Supercoven" was remastered and re-released on CD by Southern Lord Recordings in 1999 featuring two bonus tracks. The two bonus tracks boost the full playing time to over 50 minutes. "Supercoven" bridges the gap between the band´s second and third full-length studio albums "Come My Fanatics... (1997)" and "Dopethrone (2000)".

The two tracks on the original release are both pretty long tracks. The 13:13 minutes long "Supercoven" is a slow building and heavy track with both structured and more jamming sections while the 18:38 minutes long "Burnout" is predominantly a long jam, featuring ultra heavy riffing and beats, and loads of psychadelic tinged guitar soloing. Jus Oborn´s vocals are aggressive, distorted, and at times feature and almost desperate tone.

The sound production is organic, brick heavy, and suitingly raw, and the music is delivered with both passion and conviction. Sometimes Electric Wizard are able to transport me to a hypnotic trance like state with their repetitive heavy riffing, but fortunately it´s never a dull experience, because the band always retain aggression in their music, even when they are most tripped out or stoned. I prefer the two album releases that bookend "Supercoven", but the EP is still a great listen if you enjoy the more jam packed side of Electric Wizard and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Warthur On Supercoven Electric Wizard treat listeners to a little preview of the approach they would refine and perfect on the almighty, all-conquering Dopethrone album: crushingly heavy fuzzed-out riffs, desperate shouted lyrics, and a pungent scent of weed about the proceedings. On the whole, I think the title track is a bit stronger than Burnout, but both are wonderfully psychedelic and spacey doom workouts which set the stage for the coming album wonderfully. Supercoven is truly the missing link between Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone, and is highly recommended to all doom metal and stoner metal fans along with those two classic albums.

Doomster Electric Wizard are my favorite band ever, and I worship all of their albums like I would a God. Of course, this little EP here, "Supercoven", is no exception.

"Supercoven" is a short(er) EP by English stoner doomsters Electric Wizard right before they recorded their magnum opus, "Dopethrone". "Supercoven" acted as sort of a preparation for their masterpiece, and does a damn good job of it.

The guitars that make up the four songs (51 minutes) on "Supercoven", aswell as their "We Live" album that came out later, are alot more spacey, and more "hypnotic" and pyschedelic than on other releases, and like other releases by the band, the songs will you usually explode into a massive wave of sound. The bass is still audible, heavy as hell, and tripped out. The drums are pretty much the same, though you can hear them alot better than on the band's other albums.

The opening and title track, "Supercoven" is one of my favorite Wizard songs, if not the. It kicks off with a spoken word followed by a long spacey intro, and then the first fuzzy riff comes in, and damn is it crushing. Jus Oborn's vocal work here is incredible. They sound exhausted, distorted and seriously pissed off, but in a good way. You can just feel the emotion dripping from his mouth as he shouts lines like "YOG SOTHOTH IS THE GAAATE!" and "TURN TO THE SUNNNN!" as if it was his last time he would ever hold the microphone, gripping onto it for dear life. The song is chock full of kickass guitar solos, stellar drum work, seriously heavy bass, and the whole song is just a whole fuckin' diamond. A highlight of this song would be the final minute, with a huge (HUGE) wah guitar riff with Jus shouting "SUPERCOVEN!" over and over as the riff and vocals build intensity, and then it's just Jus' lone vocals, and the song ends. Talk about exhilerating!

I've spent alot of time on "Supercoven", but what's the rest of the EP like? Well, it follows in a similar fashion. "Burnout", one of the band's longest songs (19 minutes), has some seriously groovy riffage, and "Wizard of Gore" is almost unbelievably heavy, and with some interesting drum work, kind of tribal sounding, not used before in the Wizard's catelouge. It also includes a cover of the band's self-titled track from their (also self-titled) debut album.

All in all, if you like the Wizard, listen to this record, hail Satan.