Merchants Of Air
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Concerts
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Giveaways
  • Playlists
  • Shop
    • Merchants Of Air releases
  • About us
    • About Us
    • Writers Wanted
    • Logos and banner
    • Advertise
    • Mailinglist

Shadow Witch - Sun Killer

16/8/2016

Comments

 
doom / stoner / grunge
Snakecharmer Coalition
bandcamp
Picture
Picture
It's quite funny to see how ideas can change in mere matter of minutes. My opinion about this album, for instance, completely changed once the second track started playing and kept changing throughout the entire listening session. At first, I thought, "oh, a debut, sounds a bit like Black Sabbath with Dio, not bad, but nothing really impressive". However, soon after, all kinds of different elements started  turning this whole thing into a highly varied and mature doom metal album, much to my delight.

Shadow Witch is a band from New York and this is indeed their debut. The members have been listening to old school hard rock, doom metal, stoner rock and grunge a lot in their days and now translate all those influences into their own sound. That sound contains loads of fuzz, fingerlicking riffs and damn great vocals. The whole reeks of the early eighties of the late seventies, or both, and is simply a solid statement about good music.

'Anticipation' opens the album, but unfortunately is not the best song on here. Like I said in the opening paragraph, the real mouthwatering doom comes after. Even so, don't get me wrong, 'Anticipation' still is an excellent song but kinda lack the "bang"-feeling I expected. Title track 'Sun Killer' does the trick, blending vintage doom metal with elements from grunge, as if Alice In Chains & Soundgarden invaded Candlemass' recording studio. 

The grunge elements are present throughout the entire album. They give the whole a gritty, raunchy atmosphere while still being immersive as fuck. The speedy and heavy 'Blitzkrieg' and the stunning 'Blood on the Vine' are probably my favorite tracks, but I think that's still debatable since the whole album gradually grows upon me. The grunge elements also seem to grow bigger and bigger. In fact, 'Creeper' is a great song that Soundgarden forgot to write. This song actually made me add the "grunge"-tag on top of this review.

The clean, but strong vocal performance on this album definitely adds a lot of credibility to the whole thing. So do the drums, and the bass. It seems like everyone pitched in to get the best out of his instrument. The songwriting is solid, the production is excellent. That being said, if 'Headless Army' doesn't make you bang your head, you're not a doom metal fan. This one is as vintage as it can get.

Right, I think you got a decent idea about what this debut album is all about. With this one, Shadow Witch reach for the bigger stages at many stoner, doom and metal festivals. I hope they make it, and I definitely hope at least one of those stages is situated in Belgium. No doubt in my mind that these songs will cause a massive fuzzfest. So check it out, you won't be disappointed.


​Serge

​


Comments
    subscribe to our newsletter

    Genres

    All
    Acoustic
    Alternative
    Ambient
    Avant Garde
    Avant-garde
    Black Metal
    Blues
    Children
    Classical
    Country
    Crust
    Dark Ambient
    Dark Jazz
    Darkwave
    Death Metal
    Doom
    Dream Pop
    Drone
    Drum & Bass
    Dub
    Dubstep
    EBM
    Electro
    Electronic
    Ethereal
    Experimental
    Folk
    Folk Metal
    Funk
    Gothic
    Grindcore
    Grunge
    Hardcore
    Hard Rock
    Heavy Metal
    Hip Hop
    Hip-hop
    Idm
    Indie
    Industrial
    Instrumental
    Jazz
    Krautrock
    Martial
    Math Rock
    Metal
    Metalcore
    Neo Classical
    Neo-classical
    Neo Folk
    Neo-folk
    Noise
    Noise Rock
    Noise-rock
    Nu Metal
    Nu-metal
    Opera
    Pop
    Post Metal
    Post Punk
    Post Rock
    Progressive
    Psychedelic
    Psytrance
    Punk
    Reggae
    Rock
    Score
    Shoegaze
    Singer/songwriter
    Sludge
    Soul
    Southern Rock
    Speed Metal
    Stoner
    Symphonic Metal
    Synthpop
    Techno
    Thrash
    Triphop
    Trip-hop
    World

    Archives

    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

Find us on

facebook
google+
twitter
tumblr
​
minds

About Us

Contact
FAQ
Logos and banners
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.