By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 25/05/2018
Label: Svart Records
The record can most certainly be filed amongst Witch Mountain's best and will slot right into the collections of doom heads alongside The Wounded Kings, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Castle and so on. This is slow and bluesy doom of the finest vintage with a vocalist who is fantastic.
“Witch Mountain” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Midnight
2). Mechanical World
3). Burn You Down
4). Hellfire
5). Nighthawk
The Review:
A doom institution of the last twenty years, Witch Mountain are back with their first full length post Uta Plotkin's departure. Kayla Dixon has stepped up to the mic and she absolutely delivers a vocal tour de force on this low, slow record. The bass is as deep as a mine shaft (supplied by another new addition to the line up- Justin Brown) and the whole sound consists of self assured performances alongside a very big sound.
Whether you will like this album depends entirely on your liking of doom; if you like Sabbath, you will probably like this. Likewise, if you like Sleep... ditto. Hell, even those at the more sludge end of the doom spectrum will find much to enjoy here. Dixon employs a ferocious growl at times to go with her crystal clear soulful vocals (double tracked for effect at times) which should appeal to all sides of the doom coin.
It's not perfect- the pace is uniformly slow and the fact that there are only five tracks here might irk some listeners- even if track five edges towards the fifteen minute mark! Opener “Midnight”tells you much of what you need to know about the new record; it's weighty and atmospheric in equal measure, while utilising a lot of what is best about the genre in terms of sound and themes. From there, “Mechanical World”successfully captures the right mood and the record is starting to take firm form.
The sound is darker for “Burn You Down”and the pace is no quicker. “Hellfire”offers up a two and a half minute interlude of acoustic and folksy melancholy which acts as the perfect bridge to what is the grand finale.
Clearly, the closing “Nighthawk” is the heavy artillery here; a sprawling epic of huge proportions- but the rest of the album fits together perfectly and the five tracks absolutely work as a whole piece. The record can most certainly be filed amongst Witch Mountain's best and will slot right into the collections of doom heads alongside The Wounded Kings, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Castleand so on. This is slow and bluesy doom of the finest vintage with a vocalist who is fantastic.
“Witch Mountain” is available here
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