Redefining Darkness is one of those labels that I don’t review often, but when I do, I find myself pleased at the end result. It’s also a label whose releases I find out about after the fact, so if you’re with the RD team and reading this, add me to your mailing list for crying out loud! That’s defendersofthefaithmetal@gmail.com, for anyone interested, and that goes for you too, avid reader eager for me to tackle your one man Bandcamp project. That said, if it doesn’t go as hard as Death Etiquette, the sophomore album from Ohio based death-thrashers Atomic Witch, you may as well not bother.
Like most death/thrash vehicles, Atomic Witch boasts a throwback sound, even if unintentionally so. They don’t try nearly as hard for the Possessed drum sound or Necrovore atmosphere as other bands in their vein, but there’s no denying that the riffs, flourishes, and songs that make up Death Etiquette take us back to those wild and unhinged first-gen death metal albums. I’m talking Reign in Blood, Pleasure to Kill, Strappado, and so forth. In the brief span of a little over 27 minutes, Atomic Witch assault our senses with 8 blistering ragers that run the gamut of breakneck thrash and primitive death stylings.
At its fastest and most frantic moments, there is a strong Slayer and Kreator influence, as mentioned above. The opening blitz of “Morgue Rat” will skin you alive, and “Of Flesh & Chrome” channels the most misanthropic moments of Pleasure to Kill (i.e. “Riot of Violence”, “The Pestilence”), setting the stage for an utterly punishing release. From there, Death Etiquette never lets up. Whether it be the barbaric melo death of “Dream Rot”, lethal brutality of “Sabbath Breaker”, or tech-tinged wizardry of “Skelecidal”, Atomic Witch will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
What really separates Atomic Witch from their fellow death-thrashin’ devils are the vocals of frontman Greg Martinis. Sure, there’s no shortage of the usual chants and snarls characteristic of the genre, reminiscent of Tom Araya, Mille Petrozza, and even original Skeletonwitch singer Chance Garnette (Remember him?). Peppered between these, however, are operatic screams and trad metal shrieks akin to Metal Church legend David Wayne. This approach becomes so prevalent on cuts like the aforementioned “Morgue Rat” and “Of Flesh & Chrome”, that at times I even tell myself, “Wow, this is what Metal Church would’ve sounded like had Wayne stayed in the band after The Dark and they went down the death metal rabbit hole.”
Although that last observation may be a bit of a stretch, there’s no denying Death Etiquette will have both thrashers and deathers (I’m SURE this word was used in an old Kerrang! somewhere. There’s no way I just coined another term.) alike raging in unison to a soundtrack straight out of the morgue. Atomic Witch are an explosive band, and no gasmask in the world will save you from the after effects of their fatal metal. In fact, I think I’m growing a third ear as I type this!
7 out of 10
Label: Redefining Darkness Records
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Skeletonwitch, Kreator, Slayer