{"id":68563,"date":"2018-05-25T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=68563"},"modified":"2018-06-25T00:09:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T00:09:17","slug":"album-review-witch-mountain-witch-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-witch-mountain-witch-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"WITCH MOUNTAIN – Witch Mountain (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITCH MOUNTAIN
Witch Mountain<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSvart (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Having seemingly been idle for four years, Portland, Oregon-based doomsters Witch Mountain return with their fifth opus armed with a new vocalist in Kayla Dixon and a new bassist in Justin Brown, who join long-standing members Rob Wong (guitar) and Nathan Carson (drums).<\/p>\n

I was a big fan of their last album, 2014\u2019s Mobile Of Angels<\/em><\/a>, and this five track affair doesn\u2019t disappoint either. The outing kicks of with the monolithic \u2018Midnight\u2019 where Kayla Dixon provides a haunting, eerie wail as many of us have become accustomed to with the trend of female vocalists within this genre. However, Dixon does a fine job; her tones caressing the hazy traipse of guitar, drum and bass, but also providing an unexpected grizzly rasp at times.<\/p>\n

The cover rendition of the 1968 Spirit song \u2018Mechanical World\u2019 provides more of a jabbing, Black Sabbath<\/a>-styled prod as the effective vocal croons drift ghost-like over the fat, blubbery riffage. However, it\u2019s the two longer tracks \u2013 \u2018Burn You Down\u2019 (7:40) and \u2018Nighthawk\u2019 (14:17) \u2013 which really bolster this platter and take it to greater heights. The former starts as a doomy, suspenseful tirade before the drums take over and we find ourselves immersed by an eerie, thoughtful trudge before the combo resorts to a pensive roll.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nighthawk\u2019, meanwhile, begins as an ominous trickle, Witch Mountain suddenly providing a weird soundtrack of sorts akin to Twin Peaks<\/em> before the weight is added; slow, pensive thick rolls within which Dixon\u2019s vocals soar like dark wisps of smoke emerging from some mountainous landscape. It\u2019s certainly a slow-burner as the guitars fizz with anticipation and the drums jab in slow-motion. The reality is, \u2018Nighthawk\u2019 never really quickens from its lumber of slumber, this mighty yet thought-provoking tune being a mere slow ooze until the nine-minute mark when the members come together to provide a hefty wall of thundering doom and Dixon\u2019s vocals take on a real menacing streak.<\/p>\n

But Dixon is more than just a doom metal frontwoman; expressing soul, subtlety and fire gives her performance a mesmerising edge, and in turn these variations are expressed in the music too as the combo showcases varying moods, taking the doom metal ethos to lighter levels.<\/p>\n

With so many bands providing same-sounding occult-fused metal in today\u2019s climate, Witch Mountain continue to progress and on this latest offering the tunes served up are far from being doom-by-numbers compositions. It\u2019s just a shame then that there\u2019s not more to indulge oneself in, but as it stands Witch Mountain<\/em> is a very good record and Kayla Dixon is quite a find.<\/p>\n

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

WITCH MOUNTAINWitch Mountain Svart (2018)Rating: 8\/10 Having seemingly been idle for four years, Portland, Oregon-based doomsters Witch Mountain return with their fifth opus armed with a new vocalist in Kayla Dixon and a new bassist in Justin Brown, who join long-standing members Rob Wong (guitar) and Nathan Carson (drums). I was a big fan of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-witch-mountain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68563","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=68563"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68592,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68563\/revisions\/68592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}