Last year my job allowed me my first opportunity to directly influence the music world. By some craziness I was asked to research some local Atlanta/Athens-area bands to add on a show with Thrones and Christian Mistress, and much to my offense this list did not include one of my new favorite bands Wizard Smoke. I spoke up, they got on the show.

They didn't actually get to perform - some dumbass went and broke his arm or something before the date. I thought that was funny in a sad clown kind of way.

Attempt number two to get them on a show happened recently but apparently I totally forgot that one of the guys in the band is also in Maserati. Maserati's currently on tour and I knew that because they'll be here April 18th and I'd thought about going. In any case, it seems this situation isn't simply my own personal roadblock - Wizard Smoke also had to turn down a mini-tour with Floor. Yes, THE Floor, the one that recently reformed with a whole new young, psychotic fanbase. That's smarts. You gotta feel bad for them. I mean, it's nice that Maserati's doing so well these days, and Wizard Smoke's name is at the very least circling around, but that's pretty harsh.

The good news for everybody else is that Wizard Smoke is two weeks away from releasing the follow-up to their 2009 EP Live Rock In Hell.

As you may already know, I listed that album as one of my top ten favorites of 2009, on the same list as Black Cobra, Sepultura, OM, and Masters of Reality. Here's what I said about it:

I researched this band simply because they were playing a show with Red Fang in another state. I was immediately impressed and, even, jealous because I'm sure that show was outstanding. Wizard Smoke has an overall sound that can be described as stoner metal, with vocals that are more black metal in style. Generally I don't care for the kind of vocals, but they're blended in with the music in a way that's, at the very least, tolerable. The first two songs on this EP stand out something awful, especially "I", but after a hundred listens I've grown to like "III" and "IV" nearly just as much. The fact that I had to hear of this band by chance exploration rather than by any supposed "authority" on stoner music makes me doubt these authorities' usefulness, as Live Rock In Hell is only a hesitation away from being my favorite of the year.

Wizard Smoke sent reminders to a ton of metal blogs about their upcoming album this time and therefore I'm not one of two or three people in my sphere enthusiastically discussing them anymore. Due my mild lateness in posting about them I've been able to see others' posts on topic of The Speed of Smoke, and it's "some good" (to quote my favorite Newfie) to see them get so much positive attention these days.

The music of The Speed of Smoke garners that. I'm not a reviewer and it takes me ages to process new music so I won't say too much about it, but you can accurately guess it sounds "graduated" over the previous release. All in all, it's musically more diverse - Live Rock maintains the same sort of doom/stoner sound throughout; Speed of Smoke has different moods per song, the songs are changed up a little more, and there's seemingly more going on. It depends on what kind of mindset you have about your music if you'll find that a better thing or not, but these are some fine songs as-is and I'll be testing the album out plenty over these next weeks and months.

I really have to wonder what the fuck is in Georgia's water that has resulted in so many amazing bands - Mastodon, Zoroaster, Whores, Maserati... I leave off Baroness and Kylesa when I discuss "amazing bands", but you may feel differently. Wizard Smoke seems like they're with good company. A more direct musical association would certainly be with Zoroaster and the ilk of Weedeater, In Return-era Torche, and Atolah. Again, good company to have.

As you may already know, The Speed of Smoke comes out March 29th as a download with a physical release to follow in late April. You'll be able to find it on their website or their facebook page.

In the meantime, here are two live videos of Wizard Smoke playing "Dead Wood" and "Weakling", the first and third songs on the album respectively. Now, is it just the poor lighting in the first vid or does their bassist look like he could be Aaron Beam's cousin?