{"id":22443,"date":"2014-10-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22443"},"modified":"2014-11-18T16:53:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T16:53:52","slug":"album-review-witchclan-the-dark-binding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-witchclan-the-dark-binding\/","title":{"rendered":"WITCHCLAN – The Dark Binding (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITCHCLAN
The Dark Binding<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nElvester (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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An eerie female narration signals the hideous return of Britain\u2019s oldest active black metal band Witchclan. Having formed as Crypt in 1990 out of Newcastle and playing a blackened thrash in the style of Venom and Possessed, the combo eventually changed its name to Witchclan two years later. In 1993 the group recruited vocalist Matt Bass, now the sole survivor and mainman behind sophomore effort The Dark Binding<\/em>, which follows 2011\u2019s Misanthropist<\/em>. <\/p>\n

This time round Witchclan channels his potent black metal wizardy through Elvester Records, but once again it\u2019s a fine, ten-track display of grim, primitive black metal straight from the underground… or East Sussex to be precise!<\/p>\n

Matt Bass is clearly inspired by that formidable wave of Norwegian black metal which swept through the 90s like a destructive plague, and yet there is still something distinctly British about this new release. Maybe it\u2019s the 80s Goth-like strains which introduce us to \u2018Worms Of Hypocrisy\u2019 coupled with that almost rainy, obscure embryonic dexterity. This new album also boasts an overwhelming creepiness about its structures and melodies and doesn\u2019t rest on simple laurels, instead offering up some fantastic macabre experimentation too. <\/p>\n

Bass takes us on an engrossing journey narrated by his grim vocal yelps which at times meander into deathlier growls. The programmed drums work superbly in tandem with an almost sparse yet precise rhythm section, but instead of creating a predictable dissonance which you may have come to expect from a number of black metal bands, Witchclan serves up a rich mix of faster, nefarious segments. These segments then comfortably make way for slower passages of sickness, which one moment hint at Celtic harmony and the next belch out hideous groans of multi-layered darkness. <\/p>\n

The superb \u2018Treading On Angels\u2019 sees Bass bark, \u201cI offer my soul to you, Purest Satan; I\u2019ll tread upon the corpses of angels to get to you, Purest Satan\u201d<\/em> as he offers up a more direct black metal blitzkrieg fusing rattling drums and a sneering guitar sound. \u2018Dawn Of The Serpent Kings\u2019 begins in fiery satanic fashion as an almost haunting choir collaborates with a trudging mayhem and then slams into the face like a barbed mace of evil. Although a relatively short track it\u2019s one of the album\u2019s best periods, which in turn leads us into the speeding fury of \u2018Beyond The Seventh Gate\u2019; a hasty retreat into the backwoods of misery delivered in pitch-black metal morbidity. <\/p>\n

If that\u2019s not enough grimness to satisfy your wretched soul then how about the guttural hostility that exudes from \u2018A New Dawn\u2019? A straight up slab of blackened thrash, \u2018A New Dawn\u2019 then submits itself to the terrors that lurk within the epic \u2018Paths To Immortality\u2019 with its creepy twinkle tip-toe sampling to guide us deftly into the black mire of the racing riff. \u201cIn dreams I hear the whispers\u201d<\/em> pukes Bass as the drum clatters without mercy. <\/p>\n

The album reaches its nefarious climax with a wondrous brace of tracks; the foreboding \u2018Crossing Of The Spheres\u2019 is a catchy as hell, dark \u2019n\u2019 stormy affair built upon a foundation of Lovecraftian weirdness and sinister slow-building Gothic melody until it transforms into a billowing speed metal cacophony. It\u2019s like some malformed yet unnameable horror dredged from the same cesspit as Bathory and the likes. Meanwhile, \u2018Neverending Funeral\u2019 offers one last frightful blizzard; emerging from the biting tundra like a horde of cloaked vultures smothering prey, a clanking clamour of fizzing guitars and hideous percussion entwines before resorting to a doom-laden melodrama of death metal crawling. \u201cThis feeling of morbid dread is overwhelming\u201d<\/em> snorts Bass, and I know how he feels as the outro \u2018Descend Into Madness\u2019 takes us towards the light, only for us then to be snatched back into the infernal pits of blackness where we shall be forever bound by the darkness.<\/p>\n

For a grandiose black metal statement but spawned from the truly unholy depths of foggy Britain, The Dark Binding<\/em> is sure to be the<\/em> soundtrack to everyone\u2019s nightmares and it\u2019s nice to hear black metal sounding so refreshingly horrid. No wonder it was released on Halloween!<\/p>\n

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

WITCHCLANThe Dark Binding Elvester (2014)Rating: 9\/10 An eerie female narration signals the hideous return of Britain\u2019s oldest active black metal band Witchclan. Having formed as Crypt in 1990 out of Newcastle and playing a blackened thrash in the style of Venom and Possessed, the combo eventually changed its name to Witchclan two years later. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1496],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-witchclan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443","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=22443"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22462,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443\/revisions\/22462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}