Artist: Witchcraft
Title: Black Metal
Genre: Doom / Psychedelic
Release Date: 1st May 2020
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
Sweden and me: A Love-story… The last time I had the joy to do a review about Magnus Pelander’s WITCHCRAFT was not so long ago (I reviewed ‘Nucleus’ last year because I was on hiatus for a few years and had to catch up with a list of bands that awaited a review). So, for you WITCHCRAFT fans it has been four years of desperate waiting but for me it was just a few months. Whereas ‘Nucleus’ was a paradox of psychedelia with raw energy, ‘Black Metal’ is an acoustic album (no drums to be heard) and almost feels like a singer / songwriter meets dark Country approach. I am as always fascinated with Pelander’s vocals, there are only a few vocalists that are (or seem) so cocksure about every aspect of their vocal capabilities when it comes to highs and low in tone and even volume.
WITCHCRAFT’s compositions are well executed and conjuring as always but ‘Black Metal’ is a deeply sad collection of songs. The sound really differs extremely from the past records while at the same time it is a hundred percent WITCHCRAFT due to Magnus Pelander’s distinctive voice which always has an underlying sadness and is really heart-wrenching at times. This whole output feels a bit apocalyptic as it is laden with a hard to describe depressive mood which I never heard on a record. The beginning of the song ‘A Boy and a Girl’ really reminds me of old Elvis songs at first, a great tune.
My favourite track is the opener ‘Elegantly Expressed Depression’ but my preference aside: you should and you will listen to this as a whole, the whole musical journey feels incomplete if you do otherwise but I really think that the narrative will lead you to do as I did anyways. At this point I don’t want to call it a masterpiece but if it grows on me even more, I will say so later this year, promise!
Tracklist
01. Elegantly Expressed Depression
02. A Boy and a Girl
03. Sad People
04. Grow
05. Free Country
06. Sad Dog
07. Take Him Away
Line-up
Magnus Pelander - Vocals, guitar
Tobias Anger - Bass
Rage Widerberg - Drums (not on duty here)
Website
https://www.facebook.com/witchcraft / https://twitter.com/WitchcraftBand
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
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