It is a simple fact that regardless of who may be the founder, writer, or core of an act, many bands become almost synonymous with their vocalist. They’re the ones who are up front, fronting the band in fact, and if not tied to an instrument are freer to work the stage and the audience. If I have one more teenager come up to me at a gig when I’m wearing my much loved ‘Dehumaniser’ tour shirt and tell me “Sabbath isn’t Sabbath without Ozzy” they may well find themselves flattened under the combination of nearly 50 years and 18 stone of angered hippy. So, when it was announced that Witch Mountain were continuing after the departure of Uta Plotkin, there were whispers in the scene about how the band could follow such a tough act. Would it be damp squib of the Van Halen/Gary Cherone variety, or would it be a triumphant rebirth of the AC/DC ‘Back In Black’ kind? Well folks, if you fancy skipping to the end of my waffling to read the score, I think you can guess with this eponymous return, ‘Witch Mountain’, I’m very glad to report it is solidly the latter!
After just a few heavy down-tuned guitar blasts care of band founder Rob Wrong on opening track ‘Midnight’, new vocalist Kayla Dixon fires out with a voice full of power, fire and emotion, slotting seamlessly into the band as if she were born for the role, alternating a clean, powerful sustain with demonic growls over a slow beat that sets the song up to be a future doom classic. This is no mere one off lucky strike either, as ‘Mechanical World’ follows on hard and heavy, the bass, drums and guitar taking on an almost industrial slog to match the title, whilst some skilfully managed multi-layering of Ms Dixon’s siren cry brings an unearthly and ethereal tone to the proceedings. The rejuvenated creativity of Witch Mountain continues unabated with the massive ‘Burn You Down’, where again the clarion vocals descend into a guttural snarl before Mr Wrong fires out a blues inspired solo that crosses genres and decades with its dirty swagger.
Things take an unexpected change of direction for ‘Hellfire’, a stripped down acoustic number that is redolent of the dusty plains and economic crash bleakness of the darkest of dark country music, a track where the vocals come most to the fore and almost dominate the whole proceedings; that’s not a criticism, because it is a voice that deserves to be showcased to the fullest. All this goodness is rounded off by the epic, meandering ‘Nighthawk’, a track that slowly builds and builds without ever losing the interest of the listener despite clocking in at over fourteen minutes. The slow bass and drum creep matches laconically delivered lyrics, whilst the guitar initially provides accompanying riffs before coming into its own, trading solos with vocal fireworks, before finally fading away with a retreating whine of feedback. So rapt was I in listening to the track that I genuinely had trouble believing that ‘Nighthawk’ was nearly a quarter of an hour in length, as it went past all too quickly, surely the mark of the sort of music that just grabs the listener and holds them in a spell.
‘Witch Mountain’ is not just a fantastic album, but a statement of intent on the part of the band, that statement surely being they are firing on all cylinders, and ready to take on all nay-sayers who might have thought the personnel change would be one the band could not recover from, and with signing to the ever energetic Svart label, the band are surely deserving of every success. Damn but my album of the year list is getting crammed, and it’s not even half past 2018!
(9/10 Spenny)
Leave a Reply