Music

Album Review: Witchery ‘Witchkrieg’

Published

14 years ago

June 30, 2010

If you’re at all into Swedish metal, the line-up of Witchery has someone you’ve listened to before. Patrik Jensen from The Haunted? Martin Axenrot from Opeth and Bloodbath? Sharlee D’Angelo from Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars? Man, it’s an all-star cast! So with all this talent, the 5th studio album, ‘Witchkrieg’, should be something totally badass and incredible, right? Well, you’ll have to read after the jump to find out.

The album starts off with the title track, ‘Witchkrieg’. It’s thrash metal to the core that also has the air of being an arena rocker. The energy is high, the solo fast and frantic and the drumming tight and aggressive. The production is tight with some clever little effects thrown in to add some spice. It’s a fitting opener that lays the groundwork of what’s to come.

The production of ‘Witchkrieg’ is overall very solid. The drums are tight and focused, the bass provides a pleasant low end that does not create any muddiness, and the vocals can be deciphered with relative ease, although the volume difference between the deep, guttural growls and the higher pitched snarls is definitely off with the growls winning. Also, the guitars, as articulate as they are have a bit too much fizz to them for my taste: I would’ve preferred something a bit more thick for this type of album. However, considering that with this album I can easily see Witchery be a direct opener for Slayer, perhaps it’s the right sound.

‘From Dead To Worse’ stood out to me as a track that a crowd would have a great deal of fun singing along with. With a chorus of ‘Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead to worse! There are things worse than death/Far more worse than death!’ sung in a very staccato and rhythmic pattern, I can easily see a sea of hands pumping the air in time. Also, ‘Devil Rides Out’ has a very White Zombie feel to it.

Overall, ‘Witchkrieg’ is an album that took some time to grow on me. At first listen, the energy of the songs never seemed to go past 7. However, with each consecutive listen, I get more and more where the band is coming from and I appreciate the album better each time.

4 out of 5 skulls

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…