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Acid Witch’s MySpace page claims they sound like: “Weve done to many drugs, and watched WAY to many horror movies…”. Of course, this is the band’s claim, as it is their page. However, I think this is a pretty fair way to describe what they sound like. Acid Witch is a mish-mash of Stoner, Doom, Sludge, and Death(?). This is punctuated by the logo and cover artwork, as they both coincide perfectly with this genre explanation. The cover artwork in particular is probably one of my favorites of all-time - good shit. The three members here are Lasse Pyykkö, Shagrat, and “Slasher” Dave, or as they are labeled in the liner notes “L S D” (this might be intentional). What they give us is a very enjoyable and a completely awesome album in “Witchtanic Hellucinations”.

The first track, “Intro”, gives us a pretty good idea of what’s to come. It starts out with a lone organ section. At 0:33, we get a bass guitar note, and some spoken word (this is done in a witch voice - or at least what is supposed to be a witch voice; this voice is done well, and completely sets up the album perfectly). The spoken word section is as follows: “Step this way, lovers of the loathsome, as I lead you into my cave of lurking shadows, and demonic dabblings. Gather around the cauldron, while I boil up a beastly brew, I call, Witchtanic Hellucinations” Then we get some guitar (with some nice wailing leads), as the voice cackles, and the kick drum thunders. Does that sound like fun? I hope you said yes, because yes, is the right answer.

The guitars are doing all sorts of things on this album. Almost every single one of them is wonderful. We get lots of [pedal] effects, my favorite probably being the effect used throughout “Witches Tits” (though the wah-Wah used throughout “The Black Witch” is also very enjoyable). We get chugging, sludgy [stoner] riffs. We get leads and solos and wail and sail into the universe that is your brain (a few with a psychedelic edge to them). We get tons of trilling (within solos and outside of them as well), which was fun and I loved. I feel a great way to showcase some strong sections, is to just list them like so:

My favorite chug-chug riffing:
0:16-0:47 in “Witchtanic Hellucinations”
3:14-3:28 in “Witchtanic Hellucinations”
1:55-2:26 in “Cauldron Cave”

My favorite stoner riffing:
Main riff in “Into the Cave”
1:23-1:54 in “Cauldron Cave”
(interestingly - or not so much - both “cave” titled songs)

My favorite leads:
1:57-2:23 in “Witchblood Cult”
0:03-0:17/0:56-1:11 in “Witches Tits”
0:16-0:33/3:37-3:56 in “Broomstick Bitch”

My favorite solos:
2:52-3:09 in “Into the Cave”
0:32-0:48 in “Witchblood Cult”
2:24-2:40 in “Witchblood Cult”
0:53-1:16 in “The Black Witch”
2:29-2:51 in “The Black Witch”
1:57-2:15 in “Witchtanic Hellucinations”
2:35-2:52 in “Cauldron Cave”
2:27-2:35 in “Rabid Werewitch”
1:10-1:27 in “October 31st”

Needless to say Acid Witch have some very pleasing guitar work in my opinion, and I think that sentiment might be the same for you too; I hope so at least. I think a big part of this is the guitar tones. Both the sludgy rhythms and wailing lead guitars sound pretty perfect tonally (particularly the leads).

The vocals are another strong point. They have a presence, and sound like a low bubbling burble-gargle. A similar sound-alike is Hooded Menace (for the vocals) (and for the general riffing too, actually). Not coincidentally, Hooded Menace and Acid Witch share Lasse Pyykkö on vocals - this most likely explains why the vocals sound similar (though I’ve heard that Slasher Dave and Shagrat will be taking over on vocal duties, and Lasse is going to play drums).

Aside: the peanut butter sandwich I just made is delicious. Yum.

Another asset to the album is the use of organ. A lot of the time it is used as an intro piece (“Cauldron Cave” being my favorite), but in turns up from time to time to really enhance and compliment the album’s sound (“Realm of the Wicked” being played solely by the organ). The drums and bass are, unfortunately, just not a major part of this album for me. I never feel like the bass or drums are holding the album back in any way, but I rarely ever notice them either. To be honest, they just play their part and that’s that (which is fine).

Composition/Album flow-wise, Acid Witch do a pretty good job of keeping the listener on their toes. A few times the band throws in some curve ball tracks to really shake things up. I found these songs to be very successful. “Beastly Brew” starts out almost black metal sounding (a maybe near-Drudkh-ish kind of sound). However, around the 1:00 mark, the guitars get very trippy and the mood of the song changes completely. This song keeps within the aesthetic and genre sound, while still being completely different and momentum shifting. Sometimes a slower song placed right between faster songs can totally kill an albums flow. Here, “Beastly Brew” only works to create a great transition from “Witchtanic Hellucinations” to “Cauldron Cave”. Like I mentioned earlier, “Realm of the Wicked” is completely played by the organ; it sounds ominous and creepy, and really just fit’s the album’s overall sound so well. Both songs are just over two minutes in length too, just long enough to be awesome, and just short enough to move back into the chugging, wailing, burping doom seamlessly.

The overall aesthetic here is very pleasing. The thought of witches brewing potions, casting spells, and doing other witch-like things is a very complimentary - so much so that you actually believe the songs sound like the aesthetic. The song titles reek of witches and the like - with five of the thirteen tracks actually containing the word “witch”. Andrew W.K. had partying, Acid Witch has witches. The album also shows off some fun sound effects. My favorites being: the intro to “Swamp Spell”, with it’s bubbling (from a Cauldron perhaps?), and the intro to “Rabid Werewitch”, which sounds like the night, followed by footsteps on gravel, a wolf howling, and a scream. The exceptionally strong cover artwork (done by Acid Witch member, Shagrat), that I touched on earlier, is another great factor of the witch aesthetic.

All in all, fun music and a fun aesthetic translate into a very very fun album. I really wish “Witch House” (their two track EP released last year) wasn’t s vinyl only, as I am sure it really strong as well. I’m really excited to see what Acid Witch has in store for us.