DARK MOFO 2018

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ELECTRIC WIZARD

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Mona’s winter festival, Dark Mofo, has announced the first artist for its June 2018 festival – the exclusive Australian performance of ‘legendary Acid Kings’, ELECTRIC WIZARD (UK), at the Odeon Theatre in Hobart, Tasmania, on Thursday 21 June.

England’s Electric Wizard are the heavy metal innovators of downturned, grinding, monolithic esoteric doom, consistently redefining the preconceived thresholds of detuned guitar chords for the past quarter of a century.

Formed in 1993 in darkest Dorset, Electric Wizard is now comprised of Jus Oborn (guitar, vocals), Liz Buckingham (guitar, feedback), Clayton Burgess (lead bass) and Simon Poole (drums). Over the decades, their ‘devolved’ sound has matured from low-fi fuzzy doom to a raw yet refined crushingly hard blues stomp.

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Electric Wizard’s name conflates the titles of two Black Sabbath songs – ‘Electric Funeral’ and ‘The Wizard’ – and the four-piece’s sound essentially elaborates on similar slow, deeply reverberating riffs, drum-beats like a heavily inebriated stumble into the basement, and deeply recessed vocals, as if emanating from a chasm in the ground.

Their ninth studio album release, Wizard Bloody Wizard (2017), mixes Detroit garage sleaze with droning, drug-laced funereal metal and acid rock. Co-produced by Oborn and Buckingham, Electric Wizard recorded the album in their own Satyr IX studio, labeling the resulting release in 2017 via witchfinder/Spinefarm Records a “21st century funeral boogie”.

If sacrilege, occult themes, low-end riffs, H.P. Lovecraft, B-grade horror movies, drug-crazed heavy rock, and performing Satanic rituals on a triple dose of LSD are your thing, Electric Wizard is the band for you, sicko. And this June, Hobart’s Dark Mofo is the place to be.

Dark Mofo is a project of Mona, supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania.

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ABOUT ELECTRIC WIZARD

Electric Wizard formed in Wimborne, Dorset, UK in 1993 in homage to vintage amplification, marijuana and Black Sabbath. Initially conceived as 1970s styled doom metal the sound quickly developed a more aggressive and heavier style drawing influences from early black metal, detroit garage, acid rock, hardcore punk and even electronic music.

The band has recorded nine studio albums, two of which are now considered genre landmarks: Come My Fanatics… (1997) and Dopethrone (2000). Electric Wizard’s brand of doom metal incorporates stoner and sludge traits, with lyrics focusing on the occult, witchcraft, H.P. Lovecraft, horror films and cannabis. In 2014 they formed Witchfinder Records, an imprint of Spinefarm Records, on which they plan to release all future albums.

Electric Wizard is Justin Oborn (Guitar & Vocals), Liz Buckingham (Guitar & Feedback), Clayton Burgess (Lead Bass), and Simon Poole (Drums), and discography includes: Electric Wizard (1994, Rise Above Records), Come My Fanatics (1996, The Music Cartel), Dopethrone (2000, JVC Victor/Import), Let Us Prey (2002, The Music Cartel), We Live (2004, The Music Cartel), Witchcult Today (2007, Metal Blade), Black Masses (2010, Rise Above Records), Time to Die (2014, Witchfinder/Spinefarm Records), Wizard Bloody Wizard (2017, Witchfinder/Spinefarm Records).

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ABOUT DARK MOFO

Dark Mofo is a winter solstice festival based in Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia. Created by Mona and led by Leigh Carmichael and a curatorial team, Dark Mofo delves into centuries-old rituals to explore the links between ancient and contemporary mythology, humans and nature, religious and secular traditions, darkness and light, and birth, death and renewal.

Since its inception in 2013, the festival has grown to attract more than 420,000 people to events across the city and farther afield, including the Nude Solstice Swim, a seven-night Bacchanalian-style Winter Feast, an art park in an abandoned shipping yard, large-scale light and sound works, and music ranging from doom and drone to orchestral art-pop, ambient and noise, plus late-night events, exhibitions, installations, and more.

Dark Mofo artists have included Australian exclusive shows from Antony and the Johnsons (UK) with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Hermann Nitsch (Austria), Einstürzende Neubauten, Ulver (Norway), Marina Abramovic (Serbia), United Visual Artists (UK), Ryoji Ikeda (Japan), The Irrepressibles (UK), Chris Levine (UK), Chelsea Wolfe (USA), David Lynch presents Chrysta Bell (USA), along with Pussy Riot (Russia), Alfredo Jaar (Chile), Sunn O))) (USA), Diamanda Galás (USA), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico), Yo Gabba Gabba! (USA), Lustmord (UK), Cult of Fire (Czech Republic), ZHU (USA), the Presets (Australia), Itchy-O (USA) and more.

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