Album Review: Glitter Wizard - Opera Villains

One thing I've come to learn in the years I've been doing this is that when a band and/or label has a hard time telling you what an album sounds like, it usually isn't a good thing. They are either covering up for the fact they know the release is weak, and they don't want you to see their tepid descriptions and realize it, or they themselves have no idea how to describe it, which can mean it's largely an experimental mess that doesn't come together whatsoever. So when Glitter Wizard arrived, complete with talk about not knowing it it was glam, hard rock, psych rock, or any number of other genres, I became hesitant. Throwing that much stuff in one album rarely leads to good results.

The album opens on "A Spell So Evil", with fuzzy 70s guitars, and echoing vocals that sounds a bit like a worn-out Deep Purple vinyl, minus the songwriting. The riff is scratchy, and the vocals cycle through some flat lines without any sort of hook to them. The sudden shift to a more punk sound in the middle doesn't do the song any favors. That section isn't particularly strong either, and it sounds rather out of place. In one song, my concerns about the record were quickly realized.

"The Toxic Lady" is far better. It stays focused on being more of an occult rock song, where the riff is slow enough the lousy guitar tone doesn't blur the notes into a mess of noise, but most importantly the song has the kind of 'mystical' melody that has real appeal. This direction is one that, if the band kept at it, could lead to some very good results. It proves, entirely on its own, that the band and their sound can absolutely produce great results.

They don't, however, stay on that path. They shift straight into an acoustic dirge that slows the momentum to a crawl, and is pretty much a waste of two minutes. They then shift into a "Highway Star" styled burner of a track, which gets back to highlighting the shortcomings of this production, as the fuzz obscured most of what the band is trying to do. As you can tell, I was rightly frustrated by the band's constant shifting of their sound. With everything sounding so different, there's no cohesion to the record, no identity to tell me who Glitter Wizard are.

You would think if that's your band's name, and you mention glam in the press materials, you would have a clear identity as a pompous, glam rock band. That could work, but the band doesn't commit to that, or anything else. There is absolutely a space right now for a band that takes "Rocket Man" style Elton John, and pumps it up with huge guitars into an overblown orgy of cheesy delight. Glitter Wizard does nothing of the sort. Several of the tracks here aren't even what I would call full songs, but rather rough sketches that serve more as segues. But segues between what? The 'core' songs aren't long or engrossing enough to require a breather in between, nor do the segues serve as connective tissue to smooth the shift from one sound to another. They exist, I assume, to fill out the running time to a full-length.

Glitter Wizard reminded me of something I want to see from a rock band, but they didn't deliver it themselves. The record I wanted to hear would be amazing, but the one we're given is deeply lackluster. They feel like they're caught between being serious and being campy, and they fall flat on their face trying to straddle the divide. Sorry, but "Opera Villains" is a poor man's, poor man's Queen.