Review: Wizard Tattoo – Fables of the Damned

In the early 00’s, I became friends with my good friend Dave. His dad had the coolest old wizard tattoo. I always loved it and said we should all get one to match it. His dad eventually got the tattoo covered up and it bummed me out a bit. He got it covered up with a rooster, so now that leg is the cock of the walk, but I should still get that wizard tattoo. Anyway, that brings me to this band. When I saw the name I was immediately interested and hoped their music would be as awesome as the name. Thankfully, it is, and then some!

Hailing from Indianapolis, Wizard Tattoo is a doom-based rock band. Seems it’s all done by one multi-instrumentalist going by the moniker of Bram the Bard. The man is a riff wizard. This stuff is catchy and will stick in your head. Fables of the Damned continues the story from their debut EP of a man that gets a tattoo of a wizard and slowly begins losing his mind, as one does with a wizard tattoo.

Fables of the Damned sees Bram uniquely blending doom, classic rock, and 90’s alternative. Think of it as a heavy progressive mix of Conan meets Smashing Pumpkins in the 90s while listening to Zeppelin. It’s impressive that one person is pulling this all off considering the amount of work that goes into writing albums.

The full length is 39 minutes of driving riffery. It’s hard to pin it down to just one genre, which I love. It could really appeal to fans of many of rock’s sub-genres. If you enjoy doom, 70’s prog/classic rock, and 90s grunge, you really should stop reading this now and go check out Wizard Tattoo’s breath of fresh musical air. Your head will be bobbing along to the magical riffs in no time. Fables of the Damned releases June 23, 2023. 

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