As Deep Purple's Roger Glover once said, "Heavy isn't about volume, it's about attitude." And no band better illustrates this statement than England's Electric Wizard -- the reputed heaviest band in the universe -- whose every album has managed to push the boundaries of down-tuned, grinding, monolithic doom metal to unprecedented depths. Sure, they pack plenty of volume as well, but none of it could possibly work without the band's uncompromising worship of weed and all things gothic and malevolent. After a long hiatus (during which they were no doubt traveling the cosmos without ever leaving their parent's basements or putting down their bongs), Electric Wizard finally returned to action in the year 2000. The resulting dirge masterpiece, Dopethrone, delivers walls of sound so dense that at first they seem too big to fit into your ears. At a paltry three minutes, the opener "Vinum Sabbathi" may be the Wizards' first true candidate for an actual "single," but it really serves as a teaser for what's to come. Introduced by short spoken intros taken from B-movies a la White Zombie, extended riff-monsters like "Funeralopolis," "I, the Witchfinder," and the three-part colossus "Weird Tales" are vintage Electric Wizard. Though they never exceed a snail's pace, they somehow manage to build in intensity, from single note guitar lines to huge power chords with deliberate, maddening certainty. First-time listeners will find it easier to cope with more compact offerings like "Barbarian" and "We Hate You," but with time, they'll see the light and embrace the obscenely heavy title track, with its patented "Iron Man" oscillating riff. In short, with Dopethrone, Electric Wizard has raised the bar for doom metal achievement in the new millennium -- good luck to the competition. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Dopethrone is the third full-length album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard. It was released in 2000 through Rise Above Records and re-released by the same label in 2004 and 2007 with an extra song.
Dopethrone, along with Come My Fanatics..., is often cited as Electric Wizard's seminal release and the highpoint of their career. Reviewers have described it as "some of the absolute slowest, heaviest doom imaginable" [1], and have said "it may well be the finest record to emerge from the whole British stoner-rock scene".[2]
On this album, Electric Wizard's very slow, heavy and psychedelic sound became more abrasive and aggressive. Jus Oborn's vocals are heavily manipulated and low in the mix and the guitars are extremely fuzzy.
"Dopethrone" – 20:48 (10:55 on versions featuring the song "Mind Transferral")
"Mind Transferal" – 14:54 (reissues only)
Silence and sound-clips
Silence
"Dopethrone" ends at 10:26 (on both issues) and is followed by silence; to the end of the track on the reissue and until 19:52 on the original. On the original, the ending features a 55 sec. sound clip from 20/20 in which two adults can be heard talking about whether or not a parent should take action if their child is being negatively influenced by heavy metal music by becoming depressed and doing things like writing '666' on their school notebooks. The reissue negates the sound-clip from "Dopethrone" and has it end in only 30 seconds of silence and moves on to the bonus track which, in this essence, makes it a hidden track. Now the band had decided to move the sound clip to the end of the bonus track "Mind Transferal" which ends at 9:36 followed by silence until 14:00 where the sound-clip is now placed and leads to the end of the album.
Sound-clips
"Vinum Sabbathi," "Mind Transferal," and "Dopethrone" contain sound clips from the May 16, 1985 episode of 20/20, discussing Satanism.
"Barbarian" contains a sound clip from a scene in the film Conan the Barbarian.
"I, The Witchfinder" and "Dopethrone" contain sound clips from the film Mark of the Devil.
