I really, really liked this band's live album, Live In the Hammer, from a few years ago, but when I went back and investigated their debut album, I found it didn't grab me the same way, despite the fact that a lot of the same songs were on both releases. I think it was just that the live versions sounded so much more chaotic and unhinged, highlighting the strange alchemy of this band, while the studio songs sounded weak by comparison.
This follow-up is Witchrot figuring out what they are good at, and doing it. This album sounds cranked up, tuned in, and spaced out all at once. The guitars are thick and heavy, alternating between melodic interludes and bulldozer riffs that crush the landscape like a molasses flood, while the bass sounds like the constant rumble of the earth collapsing on itself. Once again, vocalist Lea Alyssandra Reto is a highlight of the album, wailing out her vocal lines that are half Lisa Gerard and half Bjork. She's like the sound of a medusa in the studio, surrounded by snakes and breathing hallucinogenic smoke. She rules. If you have a taste for this kind of bizarre, sludgy Doom, then this album is a real treat.
