Witchsorrow - Witchsorrow
Holy Crap, this is one heavy album from UK's Witchsorrow, after delivering a interesting but patchy demo in 2008, they have got all their Doom Metal elements together for this beast of crawling, seething monolithic Doom Metal. The line-up of Nick "Necroskull" Ruskell on guitar and vocals, Emily Witch on bass and Morrellhammer on drums have all the passion and doomed intensity required to play Doom Metal in all its stripped down, raw, bare-boned glory. This album is out on Rise Above Records and i don't know how much Lee Dorrian has to do with the actual recording but its very similar in mood to the first Cathedral album. Influenced by the true greats of Doom Metal like Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Black Sabbath, Reverend Bizarre and Trouble, the band sound closer to Electric Wizard more than anyone else but even the Wizard would struggle to come up with this crushing.
Opening track "The Agony" is indeed the pure musical meaning of agony. The bass-driven sound that Witchsorrow has is the perfect backbone for producing this kind of depressive sloth-rock. It barely moves along at all, rather it crawls along like a drunken snail. There is no real change of pace at all throughout its 9 minutes but there is a killer riff and mood change 6 minutes in with some real sick moaning lead work from Ruskell. The comparisons with Electric Wizard don't just end with the music, the vocals are also in the vein of EW but this is not a recycled effort in any way at all. "The Trail Of Elizabeth Clarke" opens with a riff not too far removed from Sabbath's Iron Man etc etc but its played at such a slow tempo, not even Sabbath could play this slow even if they were on heroin with broken arms. Needless to say, i crave this kind of Doom Metal. The monotonous tempo is truly hypnotic, capturing the true essence of what Doom Metal is about but wait for the mid-paced tempo change at the 6 minute mark in the song. Catchy, infectious while remaining 100% heavy, these type's of grooves give you goosebumps...magical.
The shortest track at a measly 6 minutes is called "Gomorrah" and for the first time on the album, you are greeted with a mid-paced burner for a while at least. Again its a infectious rhythm showing they have more than one trick up their collective sleeves. A great, fuzzy solo in the middle of "Gomorrah" pushes the track to a new level of grooved based hippie rock before it winds its way back to the monolithic, grinding Doom Metal that is heard on the start of the CD. "Thou Art Cursed" continues in its very orthodox style, true to say Witchsorrow are not reinventing anything or doing anything original but its played with real heart and a obvious passion for this genre of music we love so much. "Thou Art Cursed" has a more of a Psychedelic Doom edge compared with the rest of the album, maybe in the way the song takes you to a peak and holds you there in anticipation for something. That something doesn't happen till the 10 minute point in the song where they launched in another one of their mid-tempo doom grooves, again the result is a stunning piece of infectious neck-wrenching axe-swinging.
"Impaler,Tepes" is the final track on this monster of a album and its a killer tune. More drawn-out Sabbath riffs played with the Electric Wizard down-tuned level of heaviness are what is on show here and they keep up for over 9 minutes. They could have made it 60 minutes and i would be sitting, listening with jaw dropped to the floor. "Impaler,Tepes" is split into three separate parts of Stoner Doom wonderment, the first is the mid-tempo groove they have obviously perfected, the second is a atmospheric, medieval passage and then the final section turns into a seething, swampy dirge of colossal proportions. When the final fade comes to be, you are left with a album that will stand the test of time in the minds of the Stoner Doom fan. With slow, pummeling riffs, catchy mid-tempo shifts and lyrics about medieval witch trials, the question remains - what more could you ask for?
Opening track "The Agony" is indeed the pure musical meaning of agony. The bass-driven sound that Witchsorrow has is the perfect backbone for producing this kind of depressive sloth-rock. It barely moves along at all, rather it crawls along like a drunken snail. There is no real change of pace at all throughout its 9 minutes but there is a killer riff and mood change 6 minutes in with some real sick moaning lead work from Ruskell. The comparisons with Electric Wizard don't just end with the music, the vocals are also in the vein of EW but this is not a recycled effort in any way at all. "The Trail Of Elizabeth Clarke" opens with a riff not too far removed from Sabbath's Iron Man etc etc but its played at such a slow tempo, not even Sabbath could play this slow even if they were on heroin with broken arms. Needless to say, i crave this kind of Doom Metal. The monotonous tempo is truly hypnotic, capturing the true essence of what Doom Metal is about but wait for the mid-paced tempo change at the 6 minute mark in the song. Catchy, infectious while remaining 100% heavy, these type's of grooves give you goosebumps...magical.
The shortest track at a measly 6 minutes is called "Gomorrah" and for the first time on the album, you are greeted with a mid-paced burner for a while at least. Again its a infectious rhythm showing they have more than one trick up their collective sleeves. A great, fuzzy solo in the middle of "Gomorrah" pushes the track to a new level of grooved based hippie rock before it winds its way back to the monolithic, grinding Doom Metal that is heard on the start of the CD. "Thou Art Cursed" continues in its very orthodox style, true to say Witchsorrow are not reinventing anything or doing anything original but its played with real heart and a obvious passion for this genre of music we love so much. "Thou Art Cursed" has a more of a Psychedelic Doom edge compared with the rest of the album, maybe in the way the song takes you to a peak and holds you there in anticipation for something. That something doesn't happen till the 10 minute point in the song where they launched in another one of their mid-tempo doom grooves, again the result is a stunning piece of infectious neck-wrenching axe-swinging.
"Impaler,Tepes" is the final track on this monster of a album and its a killer tune. More drawn-out Sabbath riffs played with the Electric Wizard down-tuned level of heaviness are what is on show here and they keep up for over 9 minutes. They could have made it 60 minutes and i would be sitting, listening with jaw dropped to the floor. "Impaler,Tepes" is split into three separate parts of Stoner Doom wonderment, the first is the mid-tempo groove they have obviously perfected, the second is a atmospheric, medieval passage and then the final section turns into a seething, swampy dirge of colossal proportions. When the final fade comes to be, you are left with a album that will stand the test of time in the minds of the Stoner Doom fan. With slow, pummeling riffs, catchy mid-tempo shifts and lyrics about medieval witch trials, the question remains - what more could you ask for?
1. The Agony
2. The Trail Of Elizabeth Clarke
3. Gomarrah
4. Thou, Art Cursed
5. Impaler, Tepes
Rise Above Records
Reviewer: Ed
May 19, 2010
May 19, 2010
Next review:
Soul Remnants - Plague Of The Universe
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