White Wizzard
Over the Top
Earache

White Wizzard (double Z!) are a throwback denim n’ leather LA outfit hellbent on resurrecting chugging NWOBHM riffs, soaring melodies, and the Dungeons & Dragons (or is it World of Warcraft now?) culture of 666′s, evil witches, and mindless fun. You know the score: METAL must triumph over everything else and the only way that will happen is if you throw on your three-quarter sleeve Judas Priest shirt, crank it up to twelve, and party harder than you ever have before. You have to puke lightning, soldier! You have to bark at the moon! Go find a goddamn parking lot and a girl in stone wash named Tammy and make it happen! You have to live the album title, got it?

Funny story, but some time after recording their High Speed GTO EP last year (I don’t know the exact details on the time line), bass player and WW founder, Jon Leon, fired everyone in the band. So what we get here on Over the Top, WW’s full-length debut, is a brand spankin’ new band, but fret not, disciple of metal, because one thing you do not do when you’re leading a heavy metal cabal like this is fuck with its fireproof formula. So yeah, new band but same SOUND, and history looks kindly on situations like this because Maiden didn’t start out with Dickinson either, and they turned out okay. That sound, of course, is majestic motorcycle madness, all Dio deviltry and Helloween power, forged on an Anvil of iron and sculpted from Saxon steel. With all the screaming solos, flaming falsetto, twin guitar noodling, arena ambiance, and marching rhythm, this album is as genuinely old skool as anything you once banged your mulleted head to, trust me. Offer your allegiance to the White Wizzard, metal warrior!

Perhaps their greatest asset is making wonderfully cheesy videos. Check out the video for the title track from Over the Top!