THE BLACK WIZARDS final pre-release single from new album ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’, out Sept 4th on Hassle. Hear "Beat"

THE BLACK WIZARDS - Pull punches on new single "Beat" - 'Force Majeure & The Acts of God'   album out Sept 4th on Hassle Records

Photo credit: Patricia Brito    The Black Wizards have shared the final pre-release single from their forthcoming new album ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’, set for release on September 4th via Hassle Records.  The only song on the record to be built drum beat-first, "Beat" starts mysterious and shadowy, creeping and sneaking, before erupting into a crescendo of muscular desert-rock riffs. "It’s a song on fragility, a song about standing in the corner, feeling alone, with nowhere to go" says front woman Joana Brito. "Everyone keeps telling you who you should be or how you should act, but that’s bullshit. There’s beauty in diversity, there’s love in equality and that’s all that matters."   "Beat” official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7wVvblUhvo Other ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ links: http://blackwizards.ffm.to/force-majeure "Beat" follows the proto-punk energy of “Wishing Well”, garage rock swagger of “Loose” and dead-pan humour of “Killing The Buzz”, giving a glimpse at the many facets of new album. ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is named after the legal phrase used to describe uncontrollable circumstances, reflecting both the chaotic conditions surrounding the record’s creation and a sense of dark humour and defiance that runs through the album's ten tracks.   The Porto-based trio of Joana Brito (guitar/vocals), José Gomes (bass/vocals) and Helena Peixoto (drums) present their fourth album and their first since 2019’s ‘Reflections’, marking a decisive break from their past. The doomy haze and sprawling stoner-rock tag that once followed the band has been stripped back in favour of something sharper and more poised, deftly traversing a wider sonic palette. These songs don’t lumber forward so much as lunge. 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 José. 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, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is ultimately driven by connection rather than nihilism. In the face of chaos, The Black Wizards choose movement, noise and each other. There’s magic in that. The Black Wizards live dates: 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 ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ track list: 1. Ain't Talking 2. Loose - video 3. Killing The Buzz - video 4. 9 to 5 5. Beat - visualizer 6. Wishing Well - stream 7. Ain't Joking 8. Caffeine 9. Elevator 15 10. Astrophile Links: Bandcamp | Instagram