Portugese heavy psych trio The Black Wizards drops new single »Wishing Well«; »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« LP out September 4th on Hassle Records!
Porto, Portugal based heavy psych trio The Black Wizards drops new single and visualiser video »Wishing Well« taken from their forthcoming album, »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God«, set to release on September 4th, 2026 via Hassle Records.
Tracklist:
01. Ain’t Talking
02. Loose
03. Killing The Buzz
04. 9 To 5
05. Beat
06. Wishing Well
07. Ain’t Joking
08. Caffeine
09. Elevator 15
10. Astrophile
Courtesy of Stereo Sanctity:
Three integral members of the thriving rock scene in Northern Portugal, The Black Wizards present their first album for nine years, »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« – a tongue-in-cheek title for an album whose creation was cursed by an endless stream of unforeseen problems. Produced by Cooper Crain of CAVE and Bitchin Bajas, the album sees them shedding previous stoner-rock genre tags for something more poised – an album of freewheelin’ exhilirating rock’n’roll laced with dark humour. When the world is so absurd, there’s nothing left to do but connect with friends, laugh through the chaos and let music be a means of catharsis.
There’s a dark humour to »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God«. The fourth album from The Black Wizards takes its name from the legal phrase used to describe uncontrollable circumstances: the kind of clause buried deep in contracts, waiting for everything to go wrong. After the years the band had trying to make this record, it felt strangely appropriate.
Still, there’s something knowingly tongue-in-cheek about a band called The Black Wizards naming their album after bureaucratic disaster terminology. That tension between absurdity and confrontation runs throughout the record itself: funny, sharp, politically charged and constantly pushing forward. Written as political landscapes across the world spiral into disarray, »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« channels frustration and urgency without ever sinking into hopelessness. “The world is going the way that if you finish writing a song about something that deeply touches you, by the next day there is new shit happening,” says bassist José Gomes.
Photo credit: Sérgio Monteiro
While compiling lyrics for the record, frontwoman Joana Brito had been reading books on politics, gender and toxic masculinity, including Grayson Perry’s The Descent of Man, and those ideas bleed through songs that take aim at hollow leadership, social tribalism and the performance of power. »Killing The Buzz« in particular cuts through the noise with a sharp sense of humour, mocking political spectacle while refusing to surrender to it.
Musically, »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« feels like a decisive break from the band’s past. “We still love banging our heads to some heavy riffin’,” says Brito, “but that heavy psych-rock world was too dude-oriented, and that’s not us.” The doomy haze and sprawling stoner-rock tag that once followed the band has been stripped back in favour of something leaner and sharper. These songs don’t lumber forward so much as lunge. There’s garage rock swagger in the bluesy stomp of »Loose«, frantic proto-punk energy coursing through »Wishing Well«, and a wiry tension running through the entire record.
At the centre of it all is Brito herself, whose vocals veer between feline purrs, jagged sneers and bullish, commanding chants. Across the album, her spitfire delivery volleys off Gomes’ gravelly replies over chugging, serpentine grooves, while drummer Helena Peixoto drives the band with relentless force. On tracks like »Beat«, the trio deliberately reversed their usual writing process, building songs around rhythmic patterns rather than riffs. “Normally you have a riff and then build things around it,” Brito explains, “but it’s nice to do the opposite as well.”
That spirit of reinvention shaped the entire record. »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« is the first album written and recorded fully as a trio, with Gomes only joining the band shortly before the pandemic stalled years of momentum. Rather than layering the songs with studio excess, The Black Wizards focused on immediacy and physicality, writing with the live show constantly in mind. “We wanted to make sure we could deliver the record on stage without relying on gimmicks,” says Brito.
The recording process itself became its own exercise in chaos management. The band had originally planned to record in Sweden with Cooper Crain of CAVE and Bitchin Bajas, but after a sudden health emergency forced them to abandon the sessions and return to Portugal, they improvised. Instead, Crain flew from Chicago to Porto, where the band cut ten songs in just five intense days at Arda Recorders. Long hours, barely any breaks, constant pressure. They initially planned to record to tape, with Crain even flying over with reel-to-reel machines from the US, before technical problems forced a last-minute pivot to digital recording.
Still, the urgency works in the album’s favour. Nothing here feels overly polished or ironed flat. The rough edges remain intact, giving the record a volatile energy that mirrors the instability that inspired it. “It’s kinda nice to see imperfections these days when everything evolves into AI-based,” says Brito.
For all its anger, though, »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« is ultimately driven by connection rather than nihilism. Long embedded within northern Portugal’s fiercely independent rock community, The Black Wizards remain committed to collaboration, grassroots creativity and building spaces for outsiders like themselves. “We want to encourage kids to get off their smartphones and pick up a guitar, paint, or just be creative,” says Brito. “We want to make the world a safer place for all the freaks like us.”
In the face of chaos, The Black Wizards choose movement, noise and each other. There’s magic in that.
Pre-order »Force Majeure & The Acts Of God« on limited vinyl & CD at THIS LOCATION.
The Black Wizards live dates (more to come):
30 July – Guimarães, PT – L’Agosto Festival
7 August – Madrid, ES – Wurlitzer Ballroom
8 August – Benalua, ES – BenaRock Festival
2 October – Karlsruhe, DE – PsyKA Festival
3 October – Pratteln, CH – Up in Smoke Festival
3 February – Porto, PT – Mouco *
4 February – Lisbon, PT – República da Música *
5 February – Madrid, ES – Copernico *
6 February – Barcelona, ES – Wolf *
* w/ SLIFT
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well