Witchtanic Hellucinations

This is a fantastic, refreshing doom (although the genre is very hard to define) album with a unique atmosphere. I'm personally not even a huge fan of horror movies or anything, but the evil, trippy sound that is emitted from your speakers after turning this album on is about the coolest thing you will ever hear. First of all, the riffing overall is NOT very original or creative. It is very basic and not technical at all. This is one of those albums where the production is more addictive than the actual music. What is interesting, however, is that the style of guitar played is often very NWOBHM. It is a mix of that heavy metal style with many other doom and stoner influences, down tuned to C or B (can't remember). Some times, the music will sound kind of happy in a strange way. So overall, this mix of NWOBHM and crushing doom metal makes it fairly unique.

Now for probably the best part of the album, the lyrics, horror themes, that AWESOME cover artwork (which really needs to be made into a poster which I would instantly buy), and the cheesy, but very fitting keyboard/organ sections. There is really just nothing to hate about this album. Yes, Razorback Records signs a lot of bands like this, and horror influenced metal is nothing new at all. But nobody has ever done it like this. The album starts with a creepy keyboard section before the listener is thrown into the cauldron. There are a couple more similar interludes later in the album, and you get some cool horror sound effects on some songs. None of them are too long or tedious at all, unlike some other crappy bands that use quotes for the first 2 minutes of every song. One of my favorites, "Beastly Brew," starts with a little guitar interlude, and turns into quite possibly the greatest sounding track on here, layering all sorts of terrifying, trippy guitar effects and noises together to create one hell of a creepy experience!

As far as production values go, the guitar is a super fuzzy, downtuned, distorted mess of awesomeness. There are very strong stoner influences in the lead guitar work, using that "trippy" guitar pedal effect (I forget the name). The drums are nothing too important or special, but this is not an album to showcase drum skills, really. Basic patterns get the job done well. There are no fast tempo riffs/d-beats/blast beats in WH. This is slower stuff for the most part. The vocals can unfortunately make or break the album for some close-minded listeners, mostly newer fans of metal who aren't used to very deep death grunts. An extremely deep Demilich-like belch is used extensively throughout the record. It is very fitting to the music, however, and I wouldn't prefer it any other way than this. It's unfortunate this vocalist has left Acid Witch now. I will also add that the overall production has that "recorded in a cave" sound to it, and this is what makes it so damn creepy sounding. It is a clear sound though, and not too over-produced.

Almost all of the songs are great, there may be a couple that bore you a bit though. There will be a couple of times when you think "didn't I hear that riff already"? But it doesn't happen very often. But like I said, this is an album that is enjoyable because of its atmosphere much more than its musical composition. This is totally the kind of album you just want to get high to and chill to late at night. It sounds particularly amazing around Halloween time, of course. Put it on to a cold Autumn breeze on an October night and it's one of the coolest feelings ever. If you ever bother with this band, which you SHOULD, then get this album. The following LP, Stoned, is not anywhere near as good as this one, trust me. The difference between this and Stoned is that this one sounds inhuman, evil, and unique, and Stoned sounds much more human, like a couple of dudes jamming. Also, the songs in Stoned are very forgettable except for a few. Actutally, Stoned is not horrible or anything, it just pales in comparison to this one. The riffs on Witchtanic Hellucinations are VERY memorable though. Seriously, there are some riffs that have been stuck in my head since the day I got this. Anyway, this is all you really need from Acid Witch in my opinion. Buy it, play it every October, and enjoy the Witches Tits!

I give it a 90. There could be some slight improvement to make a couple of the songs more interesting, but it's still an experience like nothing else! Don't let the doom metal elitists talk you out of this, my friends. It's at least fairly unique, and worth your time!