Rebel Wizard released their first demo in 2013 and then went on a rampage in 2015 releasing 5 EPs of heavy black/speed metal. A band this new going this fast at the beginning of their career can sometimes run into problems down the road, but for now they seem to be going at a steady pace and show no signs of stopping. The best way to describe it is if you were to combine Tank and Megadeth with a dash of black metal, mostly present in the vocals.
The band is really driven and that is great, but listening through all of their EPs in 2015 gets very repetitive. The production sounds the same on all of them. If you were to shuffle through all the songs at once you would think they were from the same album. Which begs the question as to why Rebel Wizard didn’t just write one big full length. It would be have been much more accessible to fans, instead of spreading out the releases into condensed albums. But there are no rules to music. To each his own.
Musically speaking it isn’t bad. It could be more eventful, but I think the main focus was just writing heavy and catchy riffs while putting screeching black metal vocals over all of it. It does seem in a lot of spots that the music could have gone further, as if there is some kind of missing piece to the puzzle. Being that Invocation of the Miserable Ones is only 18 minutes long, it leaves the listener kind of unsatisfied. Again the riffs themselves are good, but there wasn’t much texture to go along with them. No unexpected flavor or twists. What we can hope from Rebel Wizard in 2016 is a proper full length. This style of music has the potential to go far, especially considering there is a signature sound to the band at this point.
Check out Invocation of the Miserable Ones here on their official bandcamp!
