Eight Years? How the hell have eight years passed since Witchsorrow released the monolithic Hexenhammer onto an unsuspecting world? Yet there it is. The band, perennial festival favourites at everything from Arctangent to Roadburn, have taken their time with The Devil and All His Works and yet, from the moment the opening track – an eleven-minute epic – drops, it’s clear that Necroskull, Emily Witch and, on the album, Dave Wilbraham have locked into a fervent furrow on this, their fifth full-length outing.
The album opens with the Hammer Horror infused tones of Omnia Finiuntur, a tolling bell paving the way for a riff of Iommian proportions, as the band unleash their own take on Black Sabbath. With producer Chris Fielding piling on the bass, it takes just the opening minute for the band to extinguish the light and, from hereon, you’re lost in Necroskull’s eternal void – all spacey vocals and churning, fire-plumed riffs. It’s a hell of an entrance but then, if you’ve been absent for a period longer than some bands’ entire lifespan, it’s important to make quite the entrance. For fans of the band, it’s little short of the rapture and, as you slowly wrap yourself within the velvet folds of their throbbing doom riffs, it’s like they’ve never been away, Witchsorrow simply picking up where they left us after Like Sisyphus to remind us that no one really does old-school doom quite like they do.
Having firmly re-established themselves, Witchsorrow explore a carnival of dark delights with Bacchus. A shorter piece, it hauls itself from a morass of feedback to dip into a heady brew of Candlemass, Sabbath, and Type O Negative, Chris Fielding wreathing Necroskull’s vocals in a gossamer web of reverb. Surprisingly catchy for a song that hits like a sledgehammer, Bacchus is an early highlight and all the evidence you really need as to Witchsorrow’s enduring excellence. It’s followed by the surprisingly brisk Hades Chains, which takes Metallica’s Call of Kthulu, ramps up the pace and then sends it spinning off into Reverend Bizarre territory. With Necroskull’s vocals ever more lost in a sonic hall of mirrors, it has a similar impact to My Dying Bride’s Forever People, exploding from the core of the album with real force.
It’s back to a more majestic form of doom with the somnolent march of Altar. Spread out over eight minutes, it’s a dark trawl through the band’s heaviest riffs and, as gongs crash in the background, it draws you into a realm of barren landscapes and decaying castles. In contrast, the taut In Triumph We Rot! Nods to NWOBHM with its frisky riff – think Angel Witch amped up to 11 and filtered through the twisted brain pan of Lee Dorian and you’re somewhere in the ballpark.
A short segue track, Lamentation slowly fades up to find Necroskull tearing molten riffs from an overloaded amp as a sample from Hamlet feeds into closing epic A Quintessence of Dust. Darkly beautiful and every bit as evocative as the monologue from which it takes its title, A Quintessence of Dust is the perfect closer for this doom-laden yet varied album, once again marking out Witchsorrow as true masters of their craft.
It has been too long since Witchsorrow last graced us with their presence, but it has been worth the wait. There is something uniquely evocative about their brand of doom and while you can, of course, enjoy rocking out to a single track, it is infinitely more satisfying to lose yourself within the vast landscapes of this beautifully sequenced album. With satisfyingly meaty production from the uber-talented Chris Fielding and exemplary playing across the board. Witchsorrow have just delivered the year’s most potent doom offering. 9/5/10
Upcoming shows:
23.07 London @ The Scala [with Bat Sabbath]
20.08 Bristol @ ArcTanGent Festival
10.09 Sheffield @ Zephyr’s
11.09 Glasgow @ The Classic Grand
12.09 Liverpool @ Arc:Hive [with Pantheist & Monolithe]
26.09 Southampton @ Abyssal Festival
05.12 Wolverhampton @ Bloodstock Winter Gathering
