vote
7.5
- Band:
VOID WITCH - Duration: 00:38:50
- Available from: 26/07/2024
- Label:
-
Everlasting Spew Records
Streaming not yet available
Primal, cavernous and poisoned by mortuary miasmas, that of Void Witch; and yet, in its own way, punctuated by airy interventions, the result of a palpable sense of melody and a guitar work that does not limit itself to stabbing and burying, but knows how to be the bearer of less obvious contents.
The band comes from deep Texas (Austin to be precise), and, at a superficial listening, it refers to the most traditional death/doom and faithful to the fundamental characteristics of these sounds.
Void Witch, at their long-distance debut after a demo and a self-titled EP released in 2022, in fact keep themselves adequately distant from experimentation, futurism, adventures out of the ordinary; however, they can count on a vision of death metal that is not at all hyper-traditionalist, and it doesn't take them too long to make it emerge.
Death/doom is a subgenre that is experiencing a very fortunate period, for the validity and variety of its proposals, and the Texans immerse themselves in it with will and conviction, bringing home the result thanks to some measures that slightly separate them from the bulk of the releases of the branch. In an era that, in death metal as elsewhere, seeks density, stratification and morbidity at all costs, Void Witch present themselves in a simpler way and, forgive the term, which could sound paradoxical in this context, 'light'.
Compared to the majority of their colleagues, the quartet starts from a mephitic base, to soon produce measured melodic embroideries, sometimes even sweet embellishments, fearlessly entering doom and classic metal territories. A drive that does not sound disconnected from the starting canons at all, rather it allows a useful enrichment, by virtue of both the quality of the individual solo interventions, and of their integration into an otherwise harder and more grim rhythmic tangle.
At the height of the two central episodes, “Malevolent Demiurge” and “Supernova Of Brain And Bone”, you are taken by the hand, almost without realizing it, by electroacoustic chiaroscuro not so far from the most nocturnal Opeth or from certain more airy digressions of Evoken; the consequence is the unfolding of melancholic situations of a certain effect, cemetery-like but with grace and a touch of grace that even leaves you amazed.
In other moments, like in the two opening tracks “Grave Mistake” and “Second Demon”, the band sounds more canonical and square, although it already makes us understand that alongside a learning path based on Floridian death metal and the inevitable Incantation, some more eclectic desires are being grafted. But, in fact, we remain firmly in the death/doom sphere, albeit with a roundness of sound and a smoothness that is not so common to feel on these coordinates.
Recalling in some cases the balance of brutality and melody of the excellent Hooded Menace and a work like “Effigies Of Evil”, or the relaxation of Dream Unending, Void Witch manage to build their own personal discourse, dragging themselves through the mud and at the same time looking for a more serene and dreamy dimension.
This happens without causing major caesuras or abrupt changes within the individual tracks, which have in their balance and in a development bordering on progressive one of their best weapons. A nice fat and intimidating growl, this one always hostile and extremist, completes the picture of a truly successful debut that deserves all the attention of those who hang around in the genre – whether they are neophytes or consider themselves black belts in slow-motion rot.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM