With the record on for the first time as I write this, I’m kind of doing the stages of grief with Old Man Wizard‘s Kill Your Servants Quietly. Nah, it won’t really be their last album. Well fuck that. Maybe just one more after this. It’s a bummer they’re done. And maybe they really are.

Set to release Nov. 5, Kill Your Servants Quietly follows 2018’s Blame it All on Sorcery (discussed here) and 2013’s Unfavorable (review here) and will indeed reportedly be the final long-player from the San Diego progressive rock trio. And yeah, Francis Roberts has plenty of other stuff going, between King Gorm and making synth soundtracks to videogames both real and imagined, but to find Old Man Wizard still pushing their sound forward in the disco-rocking “Today” after the acoustic-led “Your Life,” lush melody pervading all the while to tie it together just emphasizes how individual what they did was and, at least until November, is. Back to being bummed I go.

You’ll note the artwork here in conversation with Unfavorable. Valin Mattheis also did the second record, though it was in a different style.

Album info came down the PR wire:

Old Man Wizard – Kill Your Servants Quietly – Nov. 5, 2021

Kill Your Servants Quietly is the third and final studio album from Progressive Heavy Rock outfit Old Man Wizard. It follows the release of two full-length LPs: Unfavorable (2013) and Blame It All On Sorcery (2018).

Guitarist/Vocalist Francis Roberts writes:
“This is my favorite album I’ve ever made. I love the songs I wrote for it, I loved working on it, and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with everyone. The plan was to record it in a very old school way: guitar/bass/drums live in the same room together with only eight inputs for the band, edited and mixed down to backing tracks, and adding vocals and other stuff as overlays. We got through the live recording part with eight of the songs just before the pandemic hit, so we had to track vocals, overlays, and two of the songs (“Live Forever” and “Your Life”) remotely. All three of us have decent home recording abilities, so I think it turned out sounding really cool. I hope you love it as much as I loved making it.”

Kill Your Servants Quietly escorts you on a fantasy-fuelled journey with a mixture of high-energy tracks and emotional performances. The theatrical thunder and soaring melodies of “I Prayed” opens the album with dramatic effect. The overdriven guitar of the title track provides a heavy grounding to the soaring vocals and harmonies. With lyrics balancing on the line between fantasy and reality, the narrative explores dark ideas whilst aptly suiting the musical arrangement.

From the eerily dark instrumentation and lyrics of “God Is Your Friend” to the serene “Your Life” and dynamic “Live Forever”, Kill Your Servants Quietly is an excellently crafted album. Old Man Wizard have cultivated a distinctive sound that delivers epic drama and delight with every track.

Album Credits:
Music and Lyrics by Francis Roberts
Produced by Francis Roberts
Artwork by Valin Mattheis
Additional vocals by Mark Calabio, Drew Peters, Reece Miller
Voiceover by Bill Roper

Tracklisting:
01 I Prayed
02 Kill Your Servants
03 God Is Your Friend
04 I Wanna Know
05 Your Life
06 Today
07 Soldier’s Winter
08 Parasite
09 Falling Star
10 Live Forever

Old Man Wizard is:
Francis Roberts – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Synth, Samplers
Andre Beller – Background Vocals, Bass Guitar, Violin
Kris Calabio – Background Vocals, Drums, Percussion

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Old Man Wizard, Blame it All on Sorcery (2018)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Francis Roberts of Old Man Wizard, King Gorm, etc.

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

It’d take awhile to itemize it, but when I boil it down I basically look for new ways to have fun, and one of my favorite things to do is writing music. Right now I’m working on a new Old Man Wizard album (the songs are recorded! Now for the boring business side lol) and the first full-length Yaga-Shura album (that one is further away from being done). I’m toying with ideas for a second King Gorm release but that’s not really past the ideas phase. I’m focusing a great deal of my energy on my YouTube channel at the moment, too. I scored a portion of the upcoming film “The Spine of Night” which is the first feature-length film with my name in the credits!

Describe your first musical memory.

I may have it mixed up, but my parents either got me a toy guitar in Tijuana as a kid, a toy keyboard as a kid. After that it was recorder in school and then clarinet, and then generally not liking music for years before discovering the electric guitar as a teenager.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I have a few that are pretty close to a tie:

-hearing my songs on an LP for the first time (it’s cool every time, one of the best feelings).

-being told I have created someone’s favorite song or album (also amazing every time it happens).

-watching a theater of people who (mostly) didn’t speak my language trying to sing along with a song I wrote.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

When I was growing up I always firmly believed in the power of good, and that even the worst people can find ways to redeem themselves. Although I’m still an optimistic person, I no longer believe that.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

When executed purely, I think it leads to true honesty.

How do you define success?

Are you able to experience happiness regularly? You’re successful.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I typed out my answer, but even looking at it written down made me physically uncomfortable, so I’ve decided I’d rather not force you to read about it. Let’s just say that I’ve seen exactly one thing so fucking vile that I’d probably choose to erase the memory completely, given the choice. I guess it’d also be nice to unsee the entirety of whatever disgusting images people showed me in the early 2000s on rotten.com and other old internet nightmares like tubgirl.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

A hobby I come back to from time to time is creating video games. At some point I hope I make one that I feel good enough about to share publicly.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To inspire the imaginations of others (ideally leading to the creation of more art).

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Spending time with my friends. Visiting my dad’s new home when it’s safe to travel by plane.

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Francis Roberts, Story From Another Time (2020)

King Gorm, King Gorm (2020)

Old Man Wizard, Blame it all on Sorcery (2018)

Being released exclusively as a tape and a download on Nov. 6, Story From Another Time is not at all the first 2020 release from Old Man Wizard and King Gorm guitarist/vocalist Francis Roberts to be put out under his own name. To trawl through his Bandcamp is to fine a swath of recent live and home-recorded offerings based around weaving soundscapes from synth and electric guitar, but the prolific nature of Roberts‘ work is befitting the form of what he’s doing — as well as someone with home recording capability stuck this year in a pandemic lockdown — and the atmosphere in which he’s operating is cinematic enough that he’s doing actual soundtracks and scores at this point.

Dude keeps busy though — and if you didn’t hear the King Gorm self-titled (review here) earlier this year, you should do that too — but one of the two 18-minute tracks on Story From Another Time is streaming now, and tapes are limited to 33 copies, so as far as I’m concerned, this is a good time.

Word came from the PR wire thusly:

FRANCIS ROBERTS TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM

Known for his work in Old Man Wizard and King Gorm, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Francis Roberts will release the cinemtatic album Story From Another Time on November 6th in digital and cassette formats. The two tracks, each over eighteen minutes long, are described as ” a film score for your imagination” — and they do indeed transport listeners to “another time.”

Roberts said of the album, ” I wrote and recorded this a few months ago, inspired by additional material and concepts that didn’t make it into my score for a portion of the forthcoming film The Spine of Night. I was so pleased with the result that I decided I had to let it sit while I planned a more proper release. I did this to push the limits of my ability to compose campy 1970s style cinematic music. It’s one of my favorite recordings I’ve created.”

“I used pretty much all of my synthesizers and samplers to record it, with the basis of side one being a heavily edited and resampled guitar improvisation and the basis of side two being seemingly endless string loops and bizarre Berlin school style sequences. The album artwork is from a painting called Slayer of the Old Wyrm by Valin Mattheis, one of my favorite currently active artists (whose work you may recognize from my releases with Old Man Wizard). The album will be available digitally and as a very limited cassette (33 copies).”

Preorder the album on bandcamp: https://francisroberts.bandcamp.com/album/story-from-another-time

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http://instagram.com/francisroberts

Francis Roberts, Story From Another Time (2020)

The story goes like this: Four years ago, San Diego weirdo-fantasy-proggers put out a video from their first album, Unfavorable (review here), for the track “The Bearded Fool.” Their second album, the even-more-weirdo-fantasy-prog Blame it all on Sorcery, came out earlier this year and is comprised of 10 tracks for a 42-minute voyage into lush arrangements and melodies led by the folkish vocals of guitarist Francis Roberts and backed by the inventive rhythms and creative play of bassist Andre Beller and drummer Kris Calabio, both of whom also contribute backing vocals. Classic-style harmonies abound on songs like “Never Leave” with a patience in their delivery that reminds of peak-era Opeth while still other tracks like “Innocent Hands” (video premiere here) delve into extreme metal riffing and near-blastbeats before chugging out a still-melodic verse and 10-minute closer “The Long-Nosed Wiseman” holds doomly tension in a keyboard-laced build toward a sweeping finish.

And despite covering this swath of stylistic ground, front to back, the album is one that flows together and makes sense both in terms of narrative and actual sound. So, great, right? But what the hell does that have to do with the video for “The Bearded Fool?”

Well, glad you (I) asked. The thing is, Old Man Wizard have a new video for “The Blind Prince” from Blame it all on Sorcery, and it’s a sequel to the “The Bearded Fool” video. A four-years-later foll0w-up. It has the same would-be VHS static at the bottom of the screen and everything, and it picks up to find our trio of heroes encountering the titular Blind Prince and doing battle with a gaggle of witches in the woods only to be trapped and, finally, to win not with swords and battle-axes, but with the power of — wait for it — a Flying V and a fuzz pedal. Duh.

Obviously there’s some winking happening in line with the homage to classic low-budget fantasy filmmaking, but it’s all in good fun. Some things to watch for: radical perspective shifts, a burrito, a wrestling mask, an actual wink — the list goes on. There’s plenty to watch for, and they also leave it open to yet another sequel. Could it be a trilogy in the works?

Fingers crossed:

Old Man Wizard, “The Blind Prince” official video

We are pleased to share with you our newest music video for “The Blind Prince”, a track from our latest album “Blame It All On Sorcery”.

Official music video for “The Blind Prince” by OLD MAN WIZARD

Directed by Jessie Rudolph
VFX and Editing by Jessie Rudolph
Backgrounds and sound design by Francis Roberts

CAST:
Villager – Teemu Kaiponen
The Blind Prince – Reece Miller
Francis – Francis Roberts
Andre – Andre Beller
Kris – Kris Calabio
Witch Leader – Becky Campbell

The Witches:
Michelle Pannell
Kyle Bob
Michelle Louden
Carlos Zamora
Alexander Simsay
Zachary Simsay

Enjoy, and we hope to see some of you out on the road! Again, our tour with Worshipper [is on now]. Here are the [remaining] dates:

Fri 7/27 – GRANTS PASS, OR – The Haul – $10ADV/ 21+
Sat 7/28 – PORTLAND, OR – Tonic Lounge – $7ADV / $10 DOS / 21+ *
Sun 7/29 – SEATTLE, WA – Funhouse – $10 ADV / $12 DOS / 21+
Tues 7/31 – BOISE, ID – The Shredder – $8 ADV / ALL AGES
Wed 8/1 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Club X
Thurs 8/2 – DENVER, CO – Streets of London Pub – $5 ADV / 21+
Fri 8/3 – ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Moonlight Lounge – $5 ADV / 21+
Sat 8/4 – TEMPE, AZ – Time Out Lounge – 21+

Old Man Wizard is:
Francis Roberts – Guitar, Vocals
Kris Calabio – Drums, Backing Vocals
Andre Beller – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals

Old Man Wizard, “The Bearded Fool” official video

Old Man Wizard on Thee Facebooks

Old Man Wizard on Instagram

Old Man Wizard on Twitter

Old Man Wizard on Bandcamp

In just over a week’s time, Boston heavy rockers Worshipper will head west to join San Diego progressive weirdos Old Man Wizard on a tour of the West Coast. The stint begins July 19 and goes till Aug. 4 and finds both acts supporting new releases. For Old Man Wizard, it’s their second long-player, Blame it all on Sorcery, which they released in May, and for Worshipper, it’s a new covers EP, Mirage Daze, which they issued in June. Both offerings are streaming in their entirety at the bottom of this post, so, you know, dig in and make an afternoon of it. If you had other plans, they can wait.

Not to sidetrack or anything, but one of the things I’ve found most interesting/disconcerting since my laptop got ripped off in May has been rediscovering albums that were on my desktop waiting for review that disappeared with that computer. Both Old Man Wizard and Worshipper‘s new releases were right there in that bunch. Sucks. Don’t get me wrong, the situation turned out toward the positive with the new computer and camera and all, but yeah. Things like this are still kind of a bummer to find. “Why didn’t I write about that? Oh yeah…” and so on.

Don’t want to bring the room down so I’ll end by saying it’s awesome to see Worshipper make their way to the Pacific. They’re such outliers when it comes to East Coast heavy in that their approach, at least thus far, is heavy without necessarily the same kind of aggression one so often gets, especially in the Northeast. I’d think they’d be welcome out there where it’s a little more chill, generally speaking.

Hope the run goes well all around:

Worshipper & Old Man Wizard West Coast tour:

Thurs 7/19 – COSTA MESA, CA – Tiki Bar – $10ADV / 21+
Fri 7/20 – SAN DIEGO, CA – Til Two Club – $8ADV/$10DOS/ 21+
Sat 7/21 – OCEANSIDE, CA – Oceanside Sports Bar – 21+
Sun 7/22 – LOS ANGELES, CA – Five Star Bar – 21+
Tues 7/24 – SAN JOSE, CA – The Caravan Lounge – 21+
Wed 7/25 – SACRAMENTO, CA – Blue Lamp – $10ADV/ 21+
Thurs 7/26 – OAKLAND, CA – Golden Bull
Fri 7/27 – GRANTS PASS, OR – The Haul – $10ADV/ 21+
Sat 7/28 – PORTLAND, OR – Tonic Lounge – $7ADV / $10 DOS / 21+ *
Sun 7/29 – SEATTLE, WA – Funhouse – $10 ADV / $12 DOS / 21+
Tues 7/31 – BOISE, ID – The Shredder – $8 ADV / ALL AGES
Wed 8/1 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Club X
Thurs 8/2 – DENVER, CO – Streets of London Pub – $5 ADV / 21+
Fri 8/3 – ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Moonlight Lounge – $5 ADV / 21+
Sat 8/4 – TEMPE, AZ – Time Out Lounge – 21+

Old Man Wizard is:
Francis Roberts – Guitar, Vocals
Kris Calabio – Drums, Backing Vocals
Andre Beller – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals

Worshipper is:
Alejandro Necochea (guitar)
John Brookhouse (vocals / guitar)
Dave Jarvis (drums)
Bob Maloney (vocals, bass)

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http://teepeerecords.com

Worshipper, Mirage Daze (2018)

Old Man Wizard, Blame it all on Sorcery (2018)

To be sure, the progressive metal stylings of Old Man Wizard make them an outlier among San Diego’s crowded heavy underground, which is overflowing with sunny Californian heavy psychedelia and even at its proggiest seems to maintain some loyalty to ’70s-style boogie rock, but the truth of the matter is one would be hard-pressed to find somewhere the three-piece wouldn’t stand out from the crowd. And that is very much part of the appeal. After touring to support their 2013 debut LP, Unfavorable (review here), guitarist/vocalist Francis Roberts, bassist/vocalist Andre Beller and drummer/vocalist Kris Calabio receded somewhat, but their new single Innocent Hands arrives this month in time for another stretch of West Coast dates and finds their quirk-laden prog-doom at a welcome next stage of its development.

That sense comes through quickly in the driving rhythm and melodic resonance of the titular cut. While it starts out with a blastbeaten thrust that feels derived from extreme metal, “Innocent Hands” is just as fast to set its foundation in Roberts‘ gentle vocals, giving a sense of contrast that lends breadth to what’s still a 7″-ready sub-five-minute runtime. A couple cycles through the verse leads to denser riffing that seems to play Opethian and Enslaved-style impulses off each other while filtering the result through a rocker’s urgency, and as Calabio and Beller join Roberts in the chorus line, “Rain falls on innocent hands,” the harmonies make the song a distinct highlight worthy of carrying its own release. That is, it stands up as a single, and with “The Blind Prince” as a complementary B-side, the vibe is reaffirmed in a post-Ghostly melodicism and tense instrumental progression. Shorter and in more of a rush, “The Blind Prince” nonetheless braces “Innocent Hands” with a like-minded rhythmic engagement and energized delivery. While they haven’t been putting out a slew of offerings in the four years since Unfavorable, clearly Old Man Wizard haven’t been wasting their time either.

They take to the hills in the clip for “Innocent Hands” that’s premiering below, or at very least to a hill, and with the sun behind them, and a hilariously unacknowledged druid walking past at about the two-minute mark and with at least Beller and Calabio in Witch Ripper t-shirts — Roberts might be as well, it’s kind of hard to see — they give a subtle sense of the tongue-in-cheek persona of the band, which does nothing to cut the progressive value of the songcraft at play. That is to say, just because they’re enjoying themselves doesn’t make Innocent Hands any less of an accomplishment.

Tomorrow they begin the alluded-to West Coast tour that will take them from Tijuana, Mexico, up to Washington State before coming to a close Aug. 23 with a hometown San Diego show. You’ll find the dates for that under the player that follows, which of course contains the video premiere.

To please enjoy:

Old Man Wizard, “Innocent Hands” official video

Progressive heavy rock band OLD MAN WIZARD return with their new single Innocent Hands. The track will be released on 7″ vinyl and will be sold on their upcoming tour in August. The “B” side will be “The Blind Prince”.

OLD MAN WIZARD TOUR DATES:
8/11 Tijuana, BC Mi Pueblito
8/13 San Francisco, CA The Hemlock
8/15 San Jose, CA The Caravan
8/17 Portland, OR The Highwater Mark
8/18 Seattle, WA The Victory Lounge
8/19 Anacortes, WA Kenelly Keys
8/20 Tacoma, WA The Valley
8/22 Los Angeles, CA The Lexington
8/23 San Diego, CA Soda Bar

Old Man Wizard is:
Francis Roberts – Guitar, Vocals
Kris Calabio – Drums, Backing Vocals
Andre Beller – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals

Old Man Wizard on Thee Facebooks

Old Man Wizard on Twitter

Old Man Wizard on Bandcamp

Call them the highwaymen. Inventive, progressive Southern California trio Old Man Wizard have announced a two-week West Coast run in support of their impressive late-2013 debut LP, Unfavorable (review here). The tour will begin next Friday in San Diego and wrap in Los Angeles — the band makes its home in both cities — on Aug. 2, with not a day off in between.

It’s an ambitious course for the three-piece to set as their first tour, but I’m sure they’ll come out of it with a few new friends made along the way and probably a good sleeping-on-the-floor kind of story to tell.

From their newsletter, which you can sign up for here:

Good day. If you’re new to this, welcome to the Tower of Stone. Our tower now stands high enough to oversee the western United States, which we will promptly visit to regale with our tales of heroes, travellers, and fools. If you live in or near any of the cities listed above, we hope to see you in the flesh, and we hope you bring your comrades to share the experience with.

Today I am writing for one purpose and one purpose alone: To tell you how important it is that we bring people to these shows. There is no such thing as an independent band that tours or sells records. We are dependent on you: Our friends and fans. Without you we would be an independent idea, hungry for people to share itself with. Let us burn with life and be content.

Old Man Wizard’s Summer Tour Dates:
7/18/2014 – San Diego, CA – Tower Bar
7/19/2014 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
7/20/2014 – Tempe, AZ – Rogue Bar
7/21/2014 – Anaheim, CA – Doll Hut
7/22/2014 – Oakland, CA – Eli’s
7/23/2014 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock Tavern
7/24/2014 – Eugene, OR – Tiny Tavern
7/25/2014 – Portland, OR – East End
7/26/2014 – Tacoma, WA – TBA
7/27/2014 – Seattle, WA – Highline
7/30/2014 – Boise, ID – The Bouquet
7/31/2014 – Salt Lake City, UT – Shred Shed
8/01/2014 – Las Vegas, NV – The Divebar
8/02/2014 – Los Angeles, CA – Loaded

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Old Man Wizard, Unfavorable (2013)

It’s telling that the lyrics to two of the seven tracks on Old Man Wizard‘s Unfavorable debut LP talk about telling stories. In both “If Only” and “The Bearded Fool,” there’s a drive toward narrative, and as the majority of the songs included on the California progressive trio’s self-released first outing are ultimately character studies — from “Highwayman,” to “Nightmare Rider,” “The Bearded Fool” and “Traveller’s Lament” — with guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Francis Charles Roberts assuming the various characters in first-person (“Nightmare Rider” is in third), Old Man Wizard seem like a band destined to write at some point in their tenure a full story arc concept album. They haven’t done that with Unfavorable, but they’re not far off, and Roberts, who doubles as Ruba Jouba in pirate metal outfit The Dread Crew of Oddwood, comes by his theatricality honestly. Fortunately for anyone who’d taken on listening to Unfavorable — and this isn’t always the case — Old Man Wizard have the accomplished songwriting and progressive theory behind what they’re doing to back up that theatrical sensibility. Both bassist Andre Beller and drummer Kris Calabio contribute vocals alongside Roberts, and Minni Jo Mazzola, who also adds flute to “Traveller’s Lament,” makes periodic singing appearances, so it is a vocal-heavy album, but it’s with the distinctive harmonies and creative arrangements that Unfavorable sets its mood and forms its cohesive layers of aesthetic. Front to back, the album winds up gorgeous, accomplished, varied and well beyond the common expectation of a fumbling debut from a band feeling their way into a songwriting methodology. Old Man Wizard — and Roberts as the principle architect of their output on this LP — seem to have a firm grasp on what they want the band to be and how they want to realize that vision. Drawing influences from traditional and progressive metal — clean vocal Opeth are a big influence in both the vocal style and overarching melancholy of a song like “If Only” — and playfully marrying them with garage and other heavy rocks, Old Man Wizard showcase marked potential and stylistic nuance that seems beyond their still-nascent tenure, having only come together in 2012.

Both the music and lyrics of “Highwayman” feed into a sense of motion, and Roberts immediately assumes charge of the album as its narrator. It’s an initial rush, a quick gallop to get lost in that finds a mirror later with the push of side B’s bass-heavy opener, “The Bearded Fool.” Also working in “Highwayman”‘s favor, however, is its hook, which comes paired with jumpy transitions and a smooth running verse, the backing vocals in the chorus foreshadowing a nod to Ennio Morricone that comes to the fore with cello from Beller and harmonica from Roberts at the culmination. Already, Old Man Wizard have proven their ability to cull cohesive results from unlikely combinations of influence, and Unfavorable only gets more complex as the acoustic folk of “If Only” pulls off an easy sway and more Opethian harmonies. Electric guitar is gradually layered into the background, giving a sense of build to the song, but the peaceful, wistful air is maintained throughout, even as “If Only” comes as close to threatening as it gets with a volume swell at the 4:30 mark. Rather than take off into a heavier thrust, Old Man Wizard serve the song better by staying patient, knowing that everything has a place in the course of the album, and drop back to the sweet vocal melody and psychedelic folk acoustic guitar. If there’s a single arrangement on Unfavorable that demonstrates the band’s prog mindset, it might be this one, but “If Only” still works best in the context of the release overall, leading into the shortest track, “Nightmare Rider” (3:23), on which lyrics arrive in jabs and the guitars and bass go headfirst into a grungier riffing that’s hammered out somewhat by the production but still the dirtiest-sounding thing they’ve played yet on the record. Of course, the atmosphere is maintained, and one gets a Danny Elfman-esque vibe filtered through proto-metallic crunch and classic thrash as the shouts at the start of each verse line calling to mind Metallica‘s “The Four Horsemen,” seemingly with intent.

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