Old Man Wizard Go On Musical Journey In Debut Record Unfavorable – Review

“While there’s a certain heaviness to Unfavorable, it’s not an overpowering element – it rides side-by-side, if you will, with a litany of some of the prettiest melodies ever committed to tape.” Old Man Wizard is about to unleash their debut record Unfavorable on the world and Three B Zine Podcast Co-Host Dustin Lothspeich has something to say about it.

Written By : Dustin Lothspeich

So, let me make this clear right off the bat: my band, Boy King, is playing Old Man Wizard‘s record release show Friday, Nov. 8 at the Tin Can Alehouse. I suppose that fact alone would imply that I’m promoting their record because – hey, my band is playing the show too so let’s spread the word, right?

But the fact is: I could give a fuck about that.

Sure, I’d like you to come to the show. But the entire reason I’m writing this review is because Old Man Wizard’s debut album, Unfavorable, is so enthrallingly unique that if I can persuade even a couple folks to check it out, then I’ll have done my job. San Diego isn’t particularly known as a prog/doom/metal stronghold. It caters to a primarily-mainstream sound — the Mumford Sons of the world, and whatever ’60s garage-pop sound hipsters are drenching with reverb. Hopefully, this record will turn some heads.

Let’s be honest, with a name like Old Man Wizard, I expected their music to be extremely heavy, slow, and doom-y. Magick played on the slopes of Mordor while wearing Jedi robes, or some shit. Try again. While there’s a certain heaviness to Unfavorable, it’s not an overpowering element – it rides side-by-side, if you will, with a litany of some of the prettiest melodies ever committed to tape.

One of the album’s strongest cuts, “If Only” (played live on Three B Zine’s podcast with OMW – check out the video HERE), sounds like Pink Floyd’s acoustic epic “Wish You Were” sung through the hopeless voice of a weary soul held captive in a dark dungeon by some devilish creature in the middle of the earth: “If I never return, my story will be lost…if only I could see.” Gollum would be proud.

In all seriousness, one of the cool things about the band’s debut album is the drastic difference between each of its six tracks (and one of the disappointing things about Unfavorable is it’s only GOT six tracks). It varies between the driving, Motorhead-influenced “Nightmare Rider” to the harmony-laden, thematic “Traveller’s Lament” (that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of the quieter, more ethereal sections of a Mastodon album), to the prog-metal gallop of “Forevermore,” complete with shredding wah-wah solo.

I woke up this morning with the urgent opening refrain from Unfavorable‘s second single “The Bearded Fool” racing through my brain. Inevitably, that means a song is really great, or incredibly bad (thankfully, this one’s the former). I’ve also seen the video for it, and it’s one of the best videos I’ve ever seen come out of San Diego, period. No joke. It had me laughing the entire time. Do yourself a favor and tune into NBC’s SoundDiego at 1 a.m. this Saturday (Nov. 2) when it gets its big TV premiere.

Either way, I can’t wait to see these songs played live. The whole album is a dense, complex sampling of whatever genre these guys could dream up. It’s hard for me to imagine how they’ll even pull them off. But they will, I’m sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if Old Man Wizard has some tricks up their sleeve.

Tin Can. Nov. 8. Be there. – By : Dustin Lothspeich