The Apothic Gloom

This EP is one big pile of disappointment. They kicked their old vocalist, Chance Garnette for being an alcoholic among other reasons, and I completely agree with that decision. I just wish they could have found a better replacement than Adam Clemans, former vocalist of Veil of Maya. At first, when you begin your listening experience, the title track is absolutely amazing making you hopeful for the quality of the rest of the EP. Unfortunately, it turns into an apocalyptic vocal style that is way too much like the style of most metalcore vocals for a band like Skeleton Witch. It starts off as a slow gloomy instrumental and slowly building up to the vocals, which in this case don't seem bad at all. The guitars seem as if they are able to put you in a hypnotic trance throughout this entire EP. This collection of four songs would be rated so much higher if it weren't for the vocals.

Adam Clemans songs way too much like an asthmatic version of Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy. She isn't a bad vocalist, but these to vocalist styles are very similar which isn't a problem except for the fact the Adam Clemans sounds like he is struggling to breath is all songs but the title track. If you listen carefully you can hear how at the end of lyrics meters his voice kind of fades or dies out with a small voice crack. I don't know if that is intentional or not, but either way, it sounds bad and is not a good thing to do. Also, the way he does the vocals makes it sound like he is hurting his throat and/or using his vocal chords, which in my opinion makes the rest of the EP really uncomfortable to listen to as all you can think about is how much your voice would hurt, doing this style of vocals and then your throat actually starts to ache just thinking about it. Having to deal with that while listening, makes it not worth the discomfort one experiences while listening.

Overall, this EP is only worth listening to for the sake of the title track and the amazing instruments throughout. I think this EP has so much potential to be great if only the band could have found a better vocalist replacement. With Skeleton Witch being one of my favorite bands of all time I find it very sad that they will probably never be the same in terms of their greatness. The only reason I rated this EP as high as I did is that the title track is astounding and the instruments are just as good as they have always been. So, if you are new to Skeleton Witch I suggest you don't start off listening to this unless you want a sore throat that you can't get rid of unless you stop thinking about how bad the vocals sound.

Well, for starters, I'll be the guy who writes it: Adam Clemans is nowhere near as good as Chance Garnette was. Sorry but not sorry, that's just the way it is. You can notice by my reviews here that I've been following this amazing band for a long time. Beyond the Permafrost blew my mind away 10 years ago, more so than most 21st Century metal albums have, and to this day it remains my favorite piece of melodic extreme metal created in this present millennium. Of course the splendor of the deliciously tasty guitarwork of N8 Garnette and Scott Hedrick was the main factor to that happening, but Chance's signature Donald-the-Fucked rasps and low death growls were also major contributors. He sounded pretty badass and unique, and in my experience as an avid all-metal-genre explorer, extreme metal singers that stand out are just as or even harder to find than clean vox singers. Chance was a top choice, but that doesn't change the fact that the band do needed to get rid of him in order to continue, and they did. But I feel their chosen replacement is just as good as Iron Maiden's in the mid 90s… and no, that’s not good at all.

Adam Clemans is a solid singer in terms of skill, but vocally he sounds as generic as they come. I don't know how good he is live and how does he gets along with the rest of the band, but I imagine he's more than ok, otherwise he wouldn't have been chosen by the rest of the 'witch. But at least on this EP, he reminds me a lot of the Massachusetts metalcore scene guys, not what I would pick to front this melodic black/thrash metal outfit. His vocals sound more hardcore-ish than extreme metal to my ears. Even when in-studio doubling his vocals for some parts, he's not too convincing. Now, I've been urging these guys to try their hand at longer, more complex compositions since half a decade ago (you can read my 2011 Breathing the Fire review and see you yourself… but that'd be boring as hell, so you'll just have to trust me here) … and what did they do? They sacked Chance and proceeded to do exactly THAT with THE WRONG GUY. Ok, it seems as if I hate Adam, and of course I do not, but really… it's a frustrating situation for someone who loved Skeletonwitch exactly the way they were. I just imagine what this EP could have been had they given it a Chance! Ha! Because, make no mistake, instrumentally, the 'witch remains as powerful as ever.

So, despite all my disliking of the new vocals, I must say The Apothic Gloom EP is a decent enough affair, starting with the title-track, featuring a calm acoustic intro not unlike “This Horrifying Force (The Desire to Kill)” from Forever Abomination, which then transforms into a moody electric guitar solo, before the dreaded vocals appear past the half and a minute mark when the song reaches full speed. An entertaining opener and also the second longest Skeletonwitch composition ever… only surpassed by this EP's closing number. It is followed by the catchiest tune here without a doubt, “Well of Despair”, the 'single' and first song released with Clemans as their new frontman. It's classic Skeletonwitch; an under four minute fast-paced blazer with above average riffage, solid Dissection-like melodies and… yep, those vocals we've discussed so much. I love this one, despite the singer, truth be told. It is soon followed by the less stellar track here, “Black Waters”, which is nonetheless pretty ok, in particular the extended guitar solo that erupts at the rear. And so, we arrive to the 'witch first composition to break the seven-minute mark, “Red Death, White Light”. A more atmospheric number with a more straightforward structure than its length might imply, it reminds me of an elongated version of Beyond the Permafrost's “Cast into the Open Sea”, although surprisingly it doesn't has a guitar solo, just more of those good tremolo twisted melodies and a powerful presence of Evan Linger's dynamic bass guitar.

Something that separates this release from their previous ones, besides the vocals, is that the two longest tracks here tend more to have a blacker vibe, like some of nowadays' melodic black metal acts, I'm thinking something like Sun Worship or, dare I say it, Deafheaven. Don't know if they'll keep it alternating with the shorter, thrashier tunes, in the future, but it's not a failed experiment at all, and I like the variety it provides. But in the end, what The Apothic Gloom EP proves for sure is that Skeletonwitch will remain active, ready to go both on tour and on studio, with N8 Feet Under and Scott Hendric's axe abilities remaining as good as ever, still engaging even if they're somewhat more restrained now, with a slight decline in the twists and turns of their earlier albums, and fewer riffs per song. The potent rhythmic section of Boltjes & Linger can't be forgotten as well. But even with all of those fortes, I still think they won't be able to reach the grandeur of their Chance years with the limited and misplaced vocal range of Mr. Clemans. I hope he surprises me in a live environment or in their next studio recording, but in the meantime I'll stick with Chance's material.

Skeletonwitch have been one of the most dependable names in the post-00s thrash revival. For me, they've always the more straightforward, classic metal alternative to Vektor whenever I've been looking for a high-stakes blend of modern thrash with black metal accents. While I was vaguely disappointed that their longtime vocalist Chance Garnette left a band a while back, replacing him with Adam Clemans of Wolvhammer sounded promising. Some of Clemans' past work is as ominous as anything, and the suggestion that Skeletonwitch's polished energy could take a darker turn was enough to put their latest EP on my radar.

One of Skeletonwitch's best strengths has always been the way they're able to write technical riffs and ideas into tight, economic songwriting. At their very best, they manage to convey an impression of the truly epic in a fraction of the time it usually takes. So much can be said for the way Skeletonwitch opens this four track EP with the title track. The fast-biting intensity doesn't let up once they're in full gear, but they offer time to buildup with ominous acoustic guitars and a booming lead. Despite their fairly modern polish by metal standards, the influence from classic heavy metal is apparent from the very start. When the arrangement is finally awash with speed and dark melodic riffing, it sounds Skeletonwitch have found their perfect blend of styles.

Although aspects of the execution help bring the songs to life, notably the clear production and Adam Clemans' appropriately aggressive vocal performance, The Apothic Gloom ranks among some of Skeletonwitch's best work due to the songwriting itself. From the first listen onward, these songs felt memorable and urgent. "Well of Despair" has since become one of my favourite tracks of theirs, thanks to the solid black/thrash balance. "Red Death, White Light" earns big praise as well, for having a climax that gets the same pint-sized dose of the epic as the EP's intro. No big risks were taken on The Apothic Gloom, but they've managed to develop their sound a bit further without losing any of the energy that made them fun to begin with.

It's enough to say that The Apothic Gloom makes well on the prediction that Clemans' arrive would enhance the band's bleak undertones. While Skeletonwitch haven't outdone Beyond the Permafrost by weight of sheer energy, I don't think I've ever heard material from them that finally gives in to the dark undercurrents carried throughout their music. The EP doesn't offer so much different than what's been heard before from these guys, but any naysaying that the band would be worse off without Chance has been quelled with this release.

Originally written for Heathen Harvest Periodical.

It's all but impossible to discuss contemporary extreme metal without mentioning Skeletonwitch. They have all the makings of a modern classic - they've taken disparate influences and melded them flawlessly into a signature sound, they've got a visual aesthetic that is instantly recognizable and uniquely theirs, and they've got both a devoted fanbase and a legion of casual listeners. So when it was announced that their vocalist would be replaced, it came as something of a shock. Any music fan knows that a band rarely succeeds without its singer; who truly prefers Bayley-era Iron Maiden? And so it seemed that the Witch would be yet another casualty of a lost lead singer.

Yet Skeletonwitch survived - and flourished. The Apothic Gloom represents everything that makes Skeletonwitch the band they are, and adds a darker and more cerebral element to their music that previous releases lacked. At first blush, this may seem counter-intuitive. Though blackened thrash metal is a bit of a niche interest, Skeletonwitch is unquestionably one of the genre's foremost icons, and a shift in sound might appear to cheapen that. Yet this EP manages to stay within the bounds of the genre, while tipping the scale much further into the 'blackened' end than before.

Tracks 2 and 3 ("Well of Despair" and "Black Waters", respectively) are the closest to previous Skeletonwitch tracks. The lead guitar lines have a decidedly Norwegian bent, but the riffing harks back to SoCal skate-thrash. The other two songs sound far more like late-'90s black metal, but lightning fast power chord riffs and melodic lead lines keep them from straying too far from the expected.

New vocalist Adam Clemans demonstrates some exceptional vocal prowess throughout the disc's 20-minute run. His voice is less distinctive than previous singer Chance Garnette, but impressive nonetheless. In fact, his vocals suit the band's new direction better - though it's a far cry from Abbath's croak or Nocturno Culto's howl, Clemans has a raspy high end to his screams that blends flawlessly with the black metal inspired songwriting, particularly on album closer "Red Death, White Light".

As always, the disc is instrumentally airtight. The drums are as powerful as they've ever been, and the occasional blast beats sound better than ever before when paired with guitars that match the stylistic influence. The guitar solos never feel out of place, and they don't overstay their welcome - a trait that the Witch could easily have picked up from many of their thrash-metal progenitors, and which they do occasionally suffer from on earlier releases.

The only problem with The Apothic Gloom is a small one. As mentioned earlier, the middle tracks do sound like past Skeletonwitch releases. And "Black Waters" in particular closely resembles "Cast Into the Open Sea" from the untouchable Beyond the Permafrost - both songs are good, but the similarity makes it hard to appreciate "Black Waters" as its own song.

Setting aside the small similarities to their earlier work, The Apothic Gloom does a nearly perfect job of introducing a new sound to a band who made its name with one distinct style. Though many bands flounder without the anchor of a distinctive vocalist, Skeletonwitch has done more than enough to prove that they can stand on their own, and Adam Clemans is a welcome addition to the fray. If this EP is any indication of where the band is going in the future, it is all but inarguable that they will continue to defend their honor in the metal scene for years to come.

Skeletonwitch are a melodeath/rethrash band, they have some tremolos to make them have some black metal appeal. The tempo is pretty high but the riffs are mostly one note duggadugga thrash gallops or Amon Amarth styled catchy enough but utterly forgettable melodic runs that more or less sound like the imaginary sound track to that dinosaur and cactus endless runner game that pops up when your internet goes down in Chrome. The solos are pretty good to be fair, the one in the first song before the mediocrity rolls in is pretty sweet, and the one at the end of "Black Waters" is a solid rock solo. It's not agonizing or anything, but it basically just straddles the line between poppy and epic and fails to really push heavily enough into either extreme to make it stand out or appeal beyond a “here is some sound” level. The vocalist is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a friendly melodeath/rethrash band, namely shouted vocals with a little bit of roughness around the edges to give it the melodeath or catchy black metal edge. His lines follow the little licks well enough, you can understand the words. They have a drummer.

Fuck you Mike.

It's always a bit of a kerfuffle when a founding member of a band is replaced. From what I've read, Skeletonwitch was perfectly justified in their decision to replace Chance on vocals, but you wonder if they can continue to keep up the quality of their music. Chance's wet rasping and growling contributed a lot to the band's personality. At the same time, perhaps Skeletonwitch was due for a change. While their lyrics used a lot of words that sound cool when growled, they don't really mean much of anything when you read into them, and that's where Adam Clemans gets the chance to shine. While I don't know exactly what the lyrics are (there is no booklet included with the CD), they are fairly understandable in the music, and even based only on what you can decipher listening to the songs the words have much more weight and depth. They seem to carry much more personal meaning, which is just what the doctor ordered in terms of refining the band's sound. Does the presence of Clemans alter The Apothic Gloom so much that you can barely recognize the band, though?

Of course not. If this was any other band I would be worried, but Skeletonwitch have established themselves as one of the most consistent and hardworking metal bands of the last decade. It seems like they're always touring, coming out with a new release, or doing both at the same time. They've probably got their style of songwriting down to an exact science at this point and there's no need to fix what isn't broken. Perhaps there's a little bit more of a black metal tinge to The Apothic Gloom that you could attribute to Clemans and the time he's spent in Wolvhammer, but Skeletonwitch have been slowly adding more and more black metal to their mix long before he joined. Since at least as far back as Forever Abomination, it's been more prominent, and many songs on Serpents Unleashed were carried by high-pitched tremolo. Even as the band slowly evolves, it's not like anything on this EP is really unexpected, which is more of a blessing than anything.

This is still pretty thrashy on the surface, as any Skeletonwitch album is. "Well of Despair" is probably the most straightforward song with a classic thrash break in the middle, and although typical, it's probably my favorite track on The Apothic Gloom overall. The band sounds comfortable with what they're playing yet passionate about playing it, and Clemans' use of a fast, choppy style shows his diversity as a vocalist and how unbelievably well he fits into the band. He's only been with them for a matter of months but it sounds like they've been rehearsing for years. The last two tracks are a little bit more longer, a bit more gradual and atmospheric (reminds me of Chrome Waves at times), but they still have the band's trademark energy and riff salads all the while.

I was a fan of the band before, owned a few of their full-lengths, but I listened to them fairly infrequently. Even when I did decide to fire up the Witch, I would only listen for a track or two. I could never quite pinpoint what was holding me back from serious fandom, but only now that I can spin The Apothic Gloom over and over again without getting bored do I realize what the band was missing: maturity. That's a really abstract characteristic, sure, and maybe it isn't the goal of a band that is inherently whimsical and childish, I get that. What swapping out Garnette for Clemans has done, though, has made Skeletonwitch more grown up without being any less fun to listen to in the process. Sometimes you just gotta resign yourself to being a real adult with responsibilities and shit. If you can manage that transition, you won't lose your youthful spirit or anything, but you'll become a more well-rounded person in the process. We all have to make changes and sell out to The Man at some point, and The Apothic Gloom is a perfect example of how to do it right.

(PS: check out Wolvhammer if you want to hear more of what Clemans can do. You can tell it's the same guy, but his approach is so much different. Great band as well. If nothing else I hope this lineup change gets more people into The Obsidian Plains.)

Okay so apparently while I wasn't looking, the vocalist of Skeletonwitch left? What the hell, yo? He was one of the most instantly recognizable traits of the band if you ask me. His high pitched rasp wasn't really so much of a rasp as it was like... a dry gargle? I can't even explain it, he was neither dry nor wet with his approach, but it was something special. More people should try to sound like Chance Garnette. So what now? They got some new guy to totally fuck up one of the coolest parts of the band right?

Well... nah, he's rad too.

I feel like that's the main purpose of The Apothic Gloom, it's just a short, four track EP intended to acclimate long time fans like myself to the new guy, and it's a wonderful way to do such a thing. His style is a little deeper and more crusty, a little more "normal" so to speak than the instantly recognizable GRRAH of Chance, but it works just as well with Skeletonwitch's signature style of thrash metal with little bits of basically everything else thrown in. The Apothic Gloom takes some more influence from Forever Abomination (the only album besides the future classic Beyond the Permafrost that actually qualifies as essential listening) in that there's a lot more black metal influence here than usual. This is black/thrash but not in the sense of what most bands with that label imply. A lot of bands like Witchaven and such, while good, sound more like really lo-fi thrash like early Sodom or Kreator instead of an actual fusing of the relentless pummeling of thrash metal with the melancholic atmosphere of black metal. That's what Skeletonwitch does here, most notably on the title track and "Red Death, White Light". The seven minute closer in particular elicits a lot of ethereal tremolo melodies and, well, gloomy atmsophere layered over the blistering thrash underneath. It works really well and I really hope the next album has more in line with that style.

The other two tracks, "Well of Despair" and "Black Waters" are more in line with Beyond the Permafrost in the sense that they're clearly based in high speed thrash with huge swaths of melody. "Black Waters" admittedly draws a bit more from Immortal than any given thrash band but the base is still there. Skeletonwitch is a band that's never content with where they are and are always willing to mix it up, and this EP is no exception. Like I said, "Red Death, White Light" is a good example since it starts with with such an ethereal delaydelaydelay melody. They're dipping their toes into post-black like ten years after it became trendy but are still nailing it. So just like always, they're not exactly blazing new trails as much as they're just taking pre-established ideas and arranging them in an inventive way and standing out in a crowded sea of metal today.

tl;dr - This is a short review for a short EP so basically the important thing to note is that this is an excellent (and quite literal) marriage of black and thrash metal with great mid range vocals and tons of excellent melodies. The riffs aren't as quite as strong as they were a decade ago but the essence of the band is still there and probably the best it's been in five years. Hopefully this signals a rejuvenation and the new album will completely smoke.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

Skeletonwitch is band that I’ve been ignoring since their excellent sophomore effort Beyond the Permafrost mostly because I stopped following melodic death metal except perhaps for a very small number of bands like Dark Tranquillity. Following the departure of founding vocalist Chance Garnette (I guess he became unlucky?), the American quintet managed to revitalize their sound with this sweet extended play.

The sound of the Ohio based band has always been a mishmash of styles surrounding their melodeath core like their thrash leanings. They also had some black metal elements as well but, as far as I remember, those were never as obvious as they are here. I feel the melodic black approach those guys took here has injected some life in their formula and the addition of vocalist Adam Clemans (Wolvhammer) adds a certain blackened sludge/crust. The final track of this EP, “Red Death, White Light” (the title reminds me of a The Velvet Underground album) is basically a mix of their melodeath sound with a shitload of post-black metal and it’s superbly done. Clemans’ vocals are not as insanely high as Garnette’s but I think he did a fantastic job and he fits the style.

The first three tracks, while good, just don’t reach the same level as the last track. The two tracks sandwiched between the title track and the seven minutes closer are fast bangers with a lot of groove but they just don’t do much to reinvent the formula (not that it was needed, you could say). The first track, “The Apothic Gloom” brings a certain melancholia to the EP with its soft introduction and some Swedish doomy death feels. I was almost reminded of Tribulation’s The Formulas of Death and their semi-gothic influence with this track. There’s a musical depth in those songs just like the death metal played by bands such as Horrendous. It’s not just pure melodic aggression.

Skeletonwitch are once again successful at melding genres together and things are looking well for their next full length album if they continue to expand their sound like they did with this release. Maybe someone will give them a leaf stone so they can evolve Gloom into Vileplume and be even better.

Metantoine's Magickal Realm