The Psychic Circle : Wizards of the Watchtower

The Psychic Circle is the U.K. psych/prog project of Tom McDowell(compositions/synths/organs) and Jack Harris(guitar/bass). Since 2020 the band has released three LPs ranging from acid-tinged psych rock to proggier tendencies, as well as touches of the 70s Giallo scores of Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. All of those elements come together into something quite unique, singular, and sinister.

With the band’s third and newest release with Library of the Occult Records, McDowell and Harris bring the guitar heft of the NWOBHM. Wizards of the Watchtower has Gothic elements, as well as touches of grainy horror scores, heavy metal heft, and of course the psychedelic elements that have followed the band’s sonic footprint since the beginning. This is for fans of Goblin, horror movies, psych rock, and heavy metal equally.

If you haven’t listened to The Psychic Circle then I highly suggest you give their previous albums a listen. View From The Magicians Window and Seven Colours of the Psychic Circle, while not an imperative to listen to before you hit their new album, will give insight into the development and evolution of their sound over the last 5 years. All have elements of psychedelia -in-particular Italian psych rock- but none have leaned into the metal chug of bands like Scorpions, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden quite like Wizards of the Watchtower. The tattered tie dye has been replaced with leather and studs.

“Veil of Enchantment” opens the record with mournful church organ, as if we’re entering a funeral service. It puts me in mind of the great 70s film Phantasm and that movie’s eerie, Gothic film score. Soon enough we’re in some great hall with the chugging “Shadow Realm”, a song built on tribal drums and a monstrous guitar riff that is as much doom and gloom as it is some kind of Gothic tragedy. A baroque quality takes over the song. “Forgotten Goblin” brings to mind bands like Windhand, Hawkwind, and White Hills. A motorik beat kicks in and the song is in cruising gear. 70s wizard rockers Uriah Heep come thru in McDowell’s organ parts.

This record plays like a soundtrack to some DnD fantasy score. You can almost imagine scouring some castle’s dungeon looking for treasure or some ancient sword with powers beyond the human mind. “Sword Against Sorcery”, “Mystic Metamorphosis”, and “Echoes of the Shadow Realm” tell a tale, and a dark one. And one with lots of killer riffs and dark magic. But also, killer riffs. And title track “Wizards of the Watchtower” might be the tightest, grooviest rocker on here with its killer psych strut. And if you close your eyes you’d swear you were hearing the great “Sails of Charon” by Scorpions. All that’s missing Uli Roth’s killer guitar solo.

Once again The Psychic Circle has gone out of their way to blow our minds. Wizards of the Watchtower check a lot of boxes here. Psych, metal, fantasy, with just the right amount of doom and gloom.