{"id":105239,"date":"2025-07-25T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105239"},"modified":"2025-08-12T13:21:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T12:21:57","slug":"album-review-sleeping-with-the-witch-acid-bender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-sleeping-with-the-witch-acid-bender\/","title":{"rendered":"SLEEPING WITH THE WITCH – Acid Bender (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SLEEPING WITH THE WITCH
\nAcid Bender<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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This looks like an annoying stoner album, but it\u2019s not. Acid Bender<\/em> is the second full-length from Tuscon, Arizona-based groove metallers Sleeping With The Witch.<\/p>\n

Thrash overtones are present, especially on the infectious title track with its hasty start. Vocally, there\u2019s a deathly grunt style from Bo Barrow, although he also fits into that Phil Anselmo (Pantera) category of being confrontational and muscular with the chops.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some seriously heavy riffage on offer here too, the tone drifting from a mid-90s brand of chugging, immediately apparent on album opener \u2018Reprobator\u2019. I\u2019m generally okay with this sort of stuff, but it tends to wear off very quickly due to being so generic. Having said that, the Slayer<\/a>-esque opening to \u2018Nothing Left\u2019 and the subsequent groove gets the foot tapping, and the doomy nature of \u2018Rotting\u2019 also appeals greatly.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s certainly a level of intrigue here, the guys obviously have extra in the tank and I\u2019d like to see them diversify their sound more with coming releases. Sleeping With The Witch obviously knows how to thrash, just check out the wild escapades which open \u2018Corpse Runner\u2019 and the rugged stance of \u2018Sail To Kill\u2019.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ll never fully be on board with albums of this kind because it is such an exhausted style, but for a quick dose of in-your-face thrashing, I\u2019ll tag along.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SLEEPING WITH THE WITCH Acid Bender Self-released (2025) Rating: 6\/10 This looks like an annoying stoner album, but it\u2019s not. Acid Bender is the second full-length from Tuscon, Arizona-based groove metallers Sleeping With The Witch. Thrash overtones are present, especially on the infectious title track with its hasty start. Vocally, there\u2019s a deathly grunt style […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5952],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-sleeping-with-the-witch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105240,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105239\/revisions\/105240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}