Witchrot unleash an avalanche of overpowering doom with 'Live In The Hammer'

Photo by Alex Carre

Recorded live-in-studio, Witchrot gathered in their masses to produce a thrilling document of a band at their heaviest, showcasing indisputable mastery of a special kind of black magic rendered on this mortal plane as their latest album, Live In The Hammer.

Side A's opening medley of "Druid 1 // Crypt Reaper // Burn Me Down" begins with a haunting string arrangement layered over colossally heavy riffs and rhythms, laying the groundwork for a recorded performance that shakes the very foundation of Valhalla, awakening fallen warriors from a cursed slumber among the crypts and catacombs of eternity for one last assault against impenetrable black gates. Sludgy doom riffage moves with measured determination, growing in mass as the band marches resolutely forward, an unstoppable force ominously growing on the horizon threatening to completely eclipse the Sun and cast all in their path beneath the blackness of a tattered funeral shroud laid across the ruined stumps and muddy ruts of a battle-scarred landscape. With animal ferocity the hulking behemoth of sound is whipped into electric frenzy on passages that surge and crackle with thrash-like guitar and Howitzer percussion, moments of abject mechanical malevolence that offer no quarter in the face of overwhelming aural devastation.

"Dug Your Grave // Strega" populates the B Side with another monumental medley that seasons the band's meaty doom chops with eerie vocals loaded with an emotional heft that crushes with the unyielding intensity of black holes spinning in the void. It's a track that highlights Witchrot at some of their best, channeling empowerment and growth from within the inescapable construct of death's finality into a thrilling celebration of the wonder of mortality. The back half of "Strega" features a brilliantly mournful guitar line that shimmers like stained glass shattering in slow motion - a moment of remarkable beauty rendered in breathtaking detail as jewellike notes are suspended in the black before crashing across the cold marble of a mausoleum floor.

The final portion of the album transitions into more traditional song structures, featuring a quartet of tracks that reveal the breadth of Witchrot's sonic spellcasting abilities. Moving at the deliberate pace of an otherworldly funeral procession, "Acedia" overpowers everything in its wake beneath an avalanche of fuzz, enveloping with an all-consuming totality that suspends existence in a static bath of nothingness. "Who Scared You" is a hard u-turn away from the droning inevitability of the previous track, lashing out with an insane forward momentum imbued with the breakneck terror of a runaway train plummeting off a precipice. The juxtaposition of these two tracks is exemplary of the band's abilities, as Witchrot handles the transition with skillful aplomb. Throat rending screams and haunting harmonies electrify the punishingly brutal "Cold Hands," like a carnival of tortured souls voraciously pouring forth from the Ark of the Covenant hellbent on devouring all living things in their path while "Million Shattered Swords" rises with the unholy might of an army exhumed beneath ragged banners, rusty chain mail scraping against cloven shields in an endless death march toward a second chance at eternal glory.

Live In The Hammer is available now on limited vinyl via Fuzzed And Buzzed, and digitally on Bandcamp. Stream the album on Spotify and follow Witchrot on Instagram.