Bad Wizard: Sky High

Bad Wizard is the greatest contemporary rock and roll band that no one is talking about. If you take the stage presence and energy of the Tight Bros From Way Back When, fuse it with a band that takes itself completely serious in its quest for big, loud stadium rock and threw in the best absolute influences like Led Zeppelin, ACDC, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, you’d have Bad Wizard.

Onstage they are larger than life, and recorded they deserve nothing less than rock and roll fame. If you get excited listening to classic rock, you will swoon under the power of this New York band. Oh, what’s that you say? You need a ballad to soothe the onslaught of rock? Good thing that “Black Navigator” is possibly the best ballad since “November Rain”, which was the best since “I’m On Fire”.

As with every one of their releases, Sky High has upped the production value, the intensity and the quality of the songs from their previous releases. Essentially, every time this band put out a record, it becomes their best yet. Honestly, if listening to this record does not make you want to buy a firebird with T-tops down and drive along backwoods roads pumping your fist in the air while driving the fucker off a cliff with a beard full of whiskey, then we as a society have all died a little inside.

- Chris Smith
Bad Wizard (Howler Records)