Witchery first came onto the scene in the late 90s, as part of a burgeoning scene of black metal bands determined to take the genre back to its thrash-driven 80s roots. Admittedly, their first few albums did this rather well, following in the footsteps of bands like Venom and early Destruction, while incorporating traditional metal flourishes akin to Maiden and Mercyful Fate. Ironically, founding Witchery bassist Sharlee D’Angelo was in Mercyful Fate up until their 1999 breakup, so that could explain some of the more melodic and ominous moments scattered throughout albums like Restless & Dead (1998) and Dead, Hot and Ready (1999).
As the years went on, Witchery, for a lack of better terminology, “fell off”. Sure, they continued to record albums and play the euro fest circuit, but D’Angelo’s focus shifted towards the much more commercially successful Arch Enemy, whose continued success led to his departure from Witchery this year. Also gone from those formative years are drummer Martin Axenrot, better known for his output with Opeth and Bloodbath, as well as vocalist Tony Kampner. Which leads us to practically a brand new incarnation of Witchery for their latest album, Nightside.
Whereas past Witchery albums were blatant homages to the glory days of spikes, leather, and savage outbursts of evil, Nightside seems a lot more concerned with “keeping up with the times”. The production is painfully generic, and aside from a few moments of old school thrashing, the album owes much of its existence to the redundancies of 21st century metal. “Storm of the Unborn” and “Left Hand March” leave a sour aftertaste with their pretentious, symphonic, Cradle of Filth-esque pomp (black metal for theater kids), while the uninventively chug laden “Crucifix and Candle” bores and the closing title track comes off like a neutered Death SS.
Yet for as much filler that weighs down Nightside, there’s an almost equal amount of kickass blackened thrashers that can’t help but make me think, “This would’ve made a rock solid EP.” Downtuned modern riffing aside, the opening “Witching Hour” (not to be confused with the Venom song of the same name) is a mostly faithful aggressive thrasher. The nasty, sinister, rock n’ roll attack of “Don’t Burn the Witch” (again, not to be confused with the Venom song of the same name) screams filthy driven first wave. And the chaotically hellish “Popecrusher”, “Churchburner”, and “A Forest of Burning Coffins” scream Metal Blade era Slayer with their unhinged guitar passages and diabolical atmosphere.
On that note, Nightside is about as accurate of a 5 rating you’ll see me give on this site (Yes, I spoiled it as if you weren’t just gonna scroll down and see it in 20 seconds anyways). Half of it smokes like a witch at the stake in mid 15th century Europe. The other half has me questioning why I even bother reviewing new metal albums in the first place. I very easily could spend the rest of my days spinning Hell Awaits on repeat, but nope. Here I am subjecting myself to an album that has me actually drawing comparisons to Cradle of Filth. I need a raise!
5 out of 10
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Skeletonwitch, Goatwhore, Cradle of Filth