Witchsorrow
The Devil And All His Works
Church Road Records
There are certain things in life that you just don’t update. Like classic cars, for example. Imagine taking an E-type Jaguar, or whichever car rich people like to tinker with on weekends and putting an electric engine in it. Then, add a giant subwoofer in the boot. It’s too much! Doom metal is much like a classic car. You might give it a touch-up and maintain its performance, but you certainly don’t – urgh – modify it!
Witchsorrow knows this. They also know many things you might not know about their chosen genre. From their authentic fuzz tones to the church bell samples on the opening epic ‘Omnia Finiuntur’ (let’s face it, giant fuzzy down tuned chords coupled with bells will always be awesome, no matter how many times you hear them). Witchsorrow are here to adhere to the hallowed tenets of doom metal as decreed by Grand Lord Iommi. Now, forever the loyal acolytes, Necroskull leads the band to execute this creed with great power and might on ‘The Devil And All His Works’.
Witchsorrow albums aren’t a regular event at all. Their last opus was 2018’s ‘Hexenhammer’. Much like many tracks on this album, their pace is their own, and sometimes, it’s very slow indeed. However, while funeral doom is very present here, Witchsorrow also writes for the rabid moshpit veterans. This is gloriously displayed in the awesome gnarl and stomp of ‘Hades Chains’. Svalbard’s Serena Cherry also lends her larynx to this monument of pure riff worship. The band further affirms their total devotion and reverence to the metal gods on the anthemic ‘In Triumph We Rot!!!’. Their bell makes a reappearance. Monolithic, “metal till we die” albums had better have a gargantuan closing track lasting just over eight minutes! That’s what they say, isn’t it?
Thankfully, Witchsorrow brutally delivers exactly this on the album’s massive climax, ‘A Quintessence Of Dust’. The track is so skull-crushingly heavy that even their label boss, Sammy Urwin, was compelled to supply a guitar solo. Word has it that Sammy insists he has no memory of this and played in a “trance-like” state in the studio. All Church Road Records knows is that they woke up outside Raven Records in Camden with a Witchsorrow record contract signed in the blood of their enemies.
This story hasn’t been confirmed or denied by either camp. All we know is that we haven’t been feeling ourselves. We keep hearing bells tolling everywhere since reviewing this album.
All hail the riff! All hail Witchsorrow!
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Reviewed By George Miller