Why does the combination of witchcraft, heavy metal, doom metal and blues work so well? Anyway, here’s a kick-ass album, with all the best parts of the genres it’s inspired by.
The album wastes no time on an intro and kicks things off with the heavy riffs, powerful verses and infectiously catchy choruses of “Catharsis”. The verses are loud, almost screamed vocals over heavy/doom/groove riffs but the chorus has more melody, nice singing, and a very nice bluesy flavor. It’s heavily contrasted with the groove metal riffs and yells of “Burn! Burn” on the bridge. With this track alone, you get all the different styles used on the album. The rest is a similar brew of metal and blues, heaviness and melodies.
You get more occult rock and doom metal in the appropriately titled “The Witch” where the singer seems to chant an incantation over sinister riffs that often sounds like screams of terror. You get “Watch Me Die” and the desperation in its singing and screaming. And then, there’s the best of the darker songs, “Why”, where the singing sounds even more desperated and troubled, resonating over a creepily distorted bass.
But you also get tracks that mix fun with heaviness. For example, “Blood” alternates between a catchy but eerie vocal melody and screams over a heavy but also kind of catchy riff. “Monster” has heavier riffs, which get a little repetitive, but it does some really interesting things with the vocals. The singer goes from screaming to sounding like a blues or goth rock singer, and occasionally like a classic rock singer.
The band has actually two vocalists, one man who handles lead vocals and one woman who mostly sings back-up, but she is the lead singer on the melodic but sinister “Eternal Night”. Although her voice is very different from her male counterpart, she has the same ability to sing catchy melodies while adding a sort of evil depth to her voice. Their combined catchy and evil vocals work best on “Sanctuaire”, where they both sing and whisper with a strangely dark tone, until he starts screaming on the bridge. And then, on the completely opposite end, they sing a very nice melancholic and dark ballad on “To The Grave”, which isn’t nearly as sappy as my description makes it sound.
Basically, this album goes through a lot of different moods and sounds. It can get a little repetitive at times, but it’s never boring. To answer the first question, why does it work so well? Because there’s a lot of variety to the album, it’s inspired by a lot of different metal subgenres, by both classic and modern rock, and it manages to make it feel unique. There’s a lot of personality and a real strange, eerie, almost magical feel to the music. The riffs are just as heavy and distorted as I like, and the melodies have a way of sticking in your brain, like old blues song or incantations that have always been around. It’s the perfect heavy/doom to awaken your inner witch.
Order Vinyl HERE.
Promo: Grand Sounds PR
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