WITCH MOUNTAIN
“WITCH MOUNTAIN”
Album Review by Dark Juan

8/10

Witch Mountain are:

Rob Wrong – Guitar
Nathan Carson – Percussion
Kayla Dixon – Vocals
Justin Brown – Bass

I really shouldn’t watch depressing films. They make me very angry, especially if children are being harmed. I have just watched something where a young mother goes absolutely hatstand and at the end of the film walks into the sea and drowns herself and her toddler. My only thoughts on the matter were, a) I desperately hope there is a heaven so that kid will be ok forever, and b) I hope and pray that bitch gets raped by the devil with pitchforks for ever and ever and ever for she killed her kid and that’s an unforgivable crime. See, that to me is a true horror film, rather than some bloke with cancer fabricating increasingly elaborate devices for extremely tenuous plot devices and the standard explosions of gore when some hapless twat cocks up trying to escape, or doesn’t listen to the clearly more intelligent person trying to extricate everyone from an extremely improbable situation (I mean come on, I’ve known people who suffered from cancer, and let me tell you, they didn’t have the fucking energy to do hours and hours in a machine shop building meat machines out of pig iron and steel and testing them, lug the fuckers about town, set up some ridiculous trap, record threatening messages, animate a shitty little puppet on a pushbike and go around kidnapping healthy and strong people who could probably snap his weedy, pipecleaner arms off, all the while avoiding the police like some kind of melanoma stricken fucking ninja Spetsnaz while simultaneously recruiting other people to carry on his work for him… Surely he must have had some kind of personnel department?) which a pre-schooler could think their way out of. Anyway, now that I have totally ruined your Sunday for you, let’s do a bit of a review, eh?

Witch Mountain. A band from Portland, Oregon, in existence since 1997 playing what they call “top-tier traditional American doom”. When people say that about themselves my natural sarcasm comes instantly to the fore. They play doom metal, which is not American sounding in the slightest, because the simple fact of the matter is that most doom metal sounds exactly like Black Sabbath from Birmingham, ENGLAND. However, having dealt with their silly nationalism (America ain’t the be all and end all, boys and girls, otherwise you wouldn’t have psychopaths with assault rifles massacring schoolkids, and a fucking nutter in the White House!) I can tell you that Witch Mountain are a very good doom metal band, if uninspired in sound, some of the time. But only some of the time. There are some absolutely incredible passages on this record and special mention must be made about the vocals of Kayla Dixon. This is quite simply an incredible frontwoman, possessed of a voice that is equal parts angel and chainsaw murderer. She has a passionate, smoky, bluesy and soulful delivery (and an extensive vocal range) when singing clean and a pleasing, heavy, menacing rasp when growling. It is the vocals of Kayla that lift this record from among the congested melange that currently constitues the doom genre. She sings with power, and a conviction that is almost frightening. Wide eyed, howling at the moon kind of lunacy… Dangerous, compelling, seductive and murderous all at once. A remarkable achievement.

The band sound exactly how you might expect them to – there’s Sabbathian and Candlemassian riffs in abundance and there is a heavily stoned ambience throughout. However, and this is slightly different from the norm, there’s some exquisite quiet passages on the middle eight where Kayla is allowed to stretch her considerable vocal talent and variety of styles to extremes. But the highlight of the whole thing is the closer, Nighthawk, being a 14 minute out and out blues and doom jam. The finest vocal lines are on the songs Mechanical World and Burn You Down and I have to say a soulful vocal transforms merely competent doom metal into something spectacular. I am impressed.

To summarise then – Witch Mountain play an entirely predictable, enjoyable version of doom metal (to claim it as American is spurious) that does not surprise you in the slightest until the singer appears. Then some kind of some incredible alchemical transformation occurs and what was predictable immediately becomes exciting, relevant and suddenly much greater than the sum of its parts. A fine record, then, entirely due to the virtuosity of the singer, although the rest of the band give it their best and make an enjoyable racket. It’s a damned fine record if you enjoy doom metal, and you will hopefully enjoy this record even if you aren’t a doomster, simply because of the quality of Kayla’s voice. She is magnificent. The whole record’s good. It’s worth a punt, folks.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System might have just fallen hopelessly in love all over again (Last time it was Floor Jansen’s voice and before that Anneke Van Giersbergen’s) and awards Witch Mountain a hugely stoned and mightily loved up 8/10.

TRACKLIST

Midnight
Mechanical World
Burn You Down
Hellfire
Nighthawk

https://witchmountain.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/witchmountain/

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