Witchtanic Hellucinations

If you don't know who Acid Witch are, I wouldn't be surprised. The band have maintained a pretty underground status but seem to be getting bigger and more noticed as a majority of bands who continue in the underground do overtime. They blend a pretty interesting concoction of psychedelic doom/death metal, hail from Michigan, America, and have been since 2007. Witchtanic Hellucinations is the band's debut album that was released in 2008 on well-respected underground U.S. label Razorback Records.

On the band's Myspace it says that:

"Witchtanic Hellucinations" is 13 terrible tales of dark and heavy as f--k DOOM METAL brewing from the unspeakable hag's psychedelic cauldron of death! A true melting pot of twisted Death Metal riffs swarming with tripped out leads, demonic-death growls from hell, and a cackling corpse-full of catchy song writing that will warp your mind until you pass out from the fumes of cursed Witch-smoke! Behold the swamp spells and the cult of bloodthirsty Witchwolves as they devour your soul! The ACID WITCH is born...let the Death-Trip begin!"

I think there pretty accurate on that one. This is some really heavy stuff. The guitars have a really nice fuzzy sound to them that's psychedelic and, most of all, very heavy. I think the guitars really make this album along with the psychedelic leads because it's just really nice chugging goodness. Its a slow, doomy/trippy psychedelic chaos death trip, I tell ya.

There's really no fast bits on the album, just slow chugging to medium speed doom metal. Occasionally the drums have fast double bass bits that go along well with the chugging guitars, but it's mostly a slow to moderate tempo in the traditional style of doom, yet very heavy at the same time while maintaining their own style. The drums are really quite simplistic and mostly play slow doom metal beats that have been done before, you know, so nothing's really new in the drum department here unfortunately, but they fit very well with the overall record and I don't think there would be any need to try and make them flashy/fast or whatnot. There's really still not much known about "Acid Witch", so I can't really tell you much, but to check this out if you ever wondered what Black Sabbath would sound like if they were death metal and smoked a lot of weed while watching horror movies all the time.

The vocals on this record are just mostly death grows with some high shrieked screams here and there, but the majority is mostly some really low, sickening, almost guttural like vocals. I believe the vocals on this record were Lasse Pyykkö of Hooded Menace, so if you're familiar with Hooded Menace already, then you know what the vocals are gonna be like on this record: very low, guttural, and almost zombie-like. So overall, if you don't like growling or vocals not in the traditional style of doom with clean/singing vocals, I think you might dislike this part of the record, but if you give this a chance I think there might be a chance of finding something you might really like about this record, like with the guitars or drums. The only flaw with the vocals I find are that sometimes they can make a high hissing sound that I'm not sure was intentional or whatever, but they can really cut through the mix sometimes and go through your ears. This is more noticeable especially when listening to this record at high volumes (the only way), but other than that they are pretty awesome. The lyrics pretty much talk of witches, cult, spells, magic, and everything around that nature, but also have a quite tongue-in-cheek humor merged with it. I mean, "Witches Tits"...come on, you know you want to! :-].

Overall, the production is quite clean. While still being raw, natural, and bass-heavy, it maintains a nice enough production to not be discouraged away from. I find that Acid Witch are a great band/addition for any lovers of doom/death metal to check out. I don't think the band really had any intention of reinventing the wheel so to say, but if in particular you've always wondered what death metal would sound like with really psychedelically tripped out leads, this is the record for you. Really brilliant stuff. Listen at your own risk.

I recommend you check out this release in particular if you like bands like Witchfinder General, Fleshpress, Winter, and Autopsy.


Written By FoulIncantation-
(Originally written for Ultimate Guitar.com, with minor/major changes added to it!)
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/acid_witch/witchtanic_hellucinations/index.html