{"id":89613,"date":"2021-04-16T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T23:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=89613"},"modified":"2021-05-28T16:25:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T15:25:43","slug":"album-review-witchrot-hollow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-witchrot-hollow\/","title":{"rendered":"WITCHROT – Hollow (2021) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITCHROT
Hollow<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2021)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Time to form a s\u00e9ance and celebrate this stonkingly good doom metal opus from the relatively new Canadian act Witchrot. If you want a distinctive female vocal delivery then Witchrot is your new favourite band \u2013 a sizzling, soulful and bewitching globule of fuzzed-up psych dripping in orgasmic sludge and anomalous algae.<\/p>\n

Hollow<\/em> \u2013 the Toronto band\u2019s debut full-length \u2013 oozes eight tracks, none of which are overlong and yet all are led by the sexy, smoky vocal croons of Lea Alyssandra Reto who feels no need to act the predictable coven witch, in spite of the band moniker. Instead, we hear a lazy drool married with laid back, haunting wisps, while behind her the band stirs up mesmeric monoliths of psychedelic doom.<\/p>\n

No better place to start than with opener \u2018Million Shattered Words\u2019. It\u2019s the longest tune on the record at seven-minutes, but one which doesn\u2019t drag. Instead, Witchrot builds a framework of kaleidoscopic fuzz as the track heaves like a mighty mountain mantra in worship of Lea\u2019s soaring, dry tone.<\/p>\n

\u2018Colder Hands\u2019 creeps with menace, in its depth a siren-like melancholy wails like a horn of wining doom as the combo trudges and consumes Lea\u2019s hidden words, before she cries \u201cI\u2019m gonna leave this world… done with sucking the blood from you\u201d<\/em>. The band construct great tidal waves of rolling thunder and lightning colour as massive concentrated fizzes of psych-sludge cult heroes of mine, Fear Of God, ooze into the equation through the lethargic swamp.<\/p>\n

\u2018Spiral Of Sorrow\u2019 exudes menace as pillars crumble into its bulbous, bubbling cauldron of fuzz, while Lea\u2019s vocals are eerie whispers in the murk. Throw this track onto surreal television series Twin Peaks<\/em> and you\u2019ve got yourself a journey into woodland weirdness.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what I love about Witchrot; those surreal, multi-coloured landscapes of doom, and yet rarely are such oozing levels daubed in gloominess. Instead, we get obscure gems such as \u2018Fog\u2019 which emits a creepiness and avant-garde atmosphere in spite of its straight-forward clanking lumber.<\/p>\n

\u2018Devil In Your Eyes\u2019 begins in a more stark yet menacing fashion, but again you\u2019ll be mesmerised by the music and those steamy vocals before the gargantuan wave consumes. Meanwhile, the closing title track is an eerie trickle of vocal and stark guitar until again there\u2019s that leak of remote, uneasy fuzz.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all laborious glue rock – just check out the brilliant \u2018Burn Me Down\u2019, which is a heap of cool, rock n\u2019 roll straight from the mouldy garage. And that theme continues with the fuzzed-up wildness of \u2018I Know My Enemy\u2019, where we surf-a-go-go through the swamp as the clan ups the tempo but keeps the gluey, gloopy groove.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no escaping the strange vibes of Witchrot, with Hollow<\/em> being the deepest chasm you\u2019ll explore this year. When Lea hauntingly cries \u201cI know your name, I know your face, you know your place\u201d<\/em>, you\u2019d better believe it. Witchrot is my new favourite band.<\/p>\n

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

WITCHROTHollow Self-released (2021)Rating: 8.5\/10 Time to form a s\u00e9ance and celebrate this stonkingly good doom metal opus from the relatively new Canadian act Witchrot. If you want a distinctive female vocal delivery then Witchrot is your new favourite band \u2013 a sizzling, soulful and bewitching globule of fuzzed-up psych dripping in orgasmic sludge and anomalous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4645],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-witchrot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89613","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=89613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89615,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89613\/revisions\/89615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}