Awakened from the Tomb...

At times, in spite of everything going belly up and wrong in one's wan(ton)ly self-sabotaging life, an irrepressible urge to grasp the nearest keyboard and digital (overlord) tech-box is simply too strong and alluring to resist.

Thus, it was "cease and decease" for this colourfully sordid urban yegg as he trips and traipses over the next best thing in our global, quote,"doom-meets-hard-boiled/dyed-in-wool-traditional-heavy metal" fishbowl since Britain's Amulet - to Hell with sliced bread! Said soothsaying subject of this debilitating and conducive find goes by the congenial, meaty moniker of Witcher's Creed - think a killer, wizened and perhaps a tad fungal Middle-Ages soundtrack to a damnably twisted Assassin's Creed, if you will - which, post-dating a trio of frugal, albeit effective, demos and single going back to 2016, rudely rounded the bend with both a (t)rusty, double-pronged (Colin) pitchfork and indescribably congruous inclusion to my top such genre hybrids alongside...Black Sabbath, Blood Curse, Burning Saviors, Orchid, Pentagram, Trouble, Wicked Inquisition, Witchfinder General, Witchcraft, and perhaps, in addition to all things "witch-y" and nocturnal, ranging from Angel Witch to Zaum, subtly cloying, cryptic touches of old time rock n' roll such as Coven, Iron Claw and Wicked Lady, not to mention freaky like-minded heady risers akin to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell (urf!), Demon Eye, Duel and Galleon, to paint a fair, however tar-streaked and feathered, ever-Mclovin' picture.

Fuck, does it show I'm excited?!

The jocosely rendered cowbell-infused, maniacally expunged and glibly joyous introductory coda launching the eponymous namesake highlight, right at the start no less, yields a nostalgically heated and eclectically charged, unabashed atmosphere of suburban pot smoking despondence paradoxically confronted with rueful merriment and an easy appreciation for down-to-Earth, genially rocking mid-tempo - yet super sardonic and gruffly melodic - rhythms liable to make your cat_iguana combo screech up the bathroom's tiled wall in frenzied pentatonic, bluesy Gibson SG wielding madness/gladness.

For example, the beginning of "Depths of The Black Void", which does an excellent job of stirring up unnerving visuals of Nick Cutter's The Deep faster than you can shake a wishbone, ascribes to killer "Hand of Doom" meets "Funeralopolis" (i.e. "early" Electric Wizard), hand-maiden glory of the most bumptious and noodling order - that is, slightly quicker and more slippery than the former two classic arch-type bass lines, though at times, I'm reminded of swarthy pendulum creepers like Orchid's "Dogs of War" or, for the love of God, "The Loving Hand of God" (ruefully bemused punches now welcome.)

Plainly, there's something so gripping and mesmerizing - cathartic! - about this recent surprise, which probably has a lot to do with the fact the genially "occultic" quartet hails from a similarly run-down industrial burg as say, Birmingham, England or Pittsburgh, USA. The lads also evoke old-school Alice Cooper vibes rarely heard then or since, and, to be frank, I haven't rallied anywhere close to this crazy level of nogg jog since advent of aforementioned Amulet and/or Raleigh, North Carolina's Demon Eye - both groups of which could be right on the verge of assuaging erudite, ticklish, musical fancies sooner than we're led to believe...

Anyhow, once a deliberate high speed, jack-booted face gnasher, "Victims of Retribution", jams its riveting and viscerally gangrened stump in the metaphorical door, all hesitations about the band's convincing, authentic pedigree are flushed down the (opioid) wash basin, and thus until lone ax-man Filip Andersson cooks and singes his far-out, devilishly grooving way through the electric, it not downright lampooned, ether.

Make of that what you will but once another seriously freaked out gem flips the blood-soaked pages of this dark, bold, kinetic, blackly festive grimwor to the tune of the equally bovine (i.e. cowbell) tocsin-ator "Raven's Claw", be ready to unplug the phone and black out the windows - only this time, forget about the crack and prostitutes - it's all about black candles, obsidian spirits and a single chipped, cold sweat-caked planchet...(at least, until ole Zozo takes shocked form in your bed clothes). Spooky, albeit highly impressionable google-ized trauma aside, credit is due for solemnly turning things down a notch with a couple of saturnine trailblazers in "Larissa" - a fatal and attractive, Witchfinder General-at-its-most-competently-placid styled ode to womenfolk in line with dimly lit, early 80s worthies such as "Invisible Hate" (sans gauche voice-breaking) and that most slackened but swift, proto-metal, narcotic crooner, "Love On Smack" - ho-hum...!).

Full merit must be bestowed on ghoulish and concise, lowly mid-ranged front man Dennis Blohm Hedlund and fellow apocalyptic Swedish troubadours Emil Bjällerhag (bass) and Charlie Rangstedt (drums) for creating the eerie, fore-boding, ill-omen-ed and brooding surround necessary for ax jock Filip Andersson's conservatively gained, yet filthily unctuous and easy to pick-up, barge swelling motions, on top of combustive and penetrating, sinewy minor-blues solos in all their spectral, modal glory, enhanced no less by the same kinds of rad guitar moves made immortal by the likes of T. Iommi, V.McAllister, P.Cope, J. Simms, L."Rhino" Reinhardt, R.Palmer (RIP), and E. Clapton - yes, them too.

Gadzooks! The kingly, monstrous swagger and size of "Salem (Resurrection)" - especially at the bidding of the eight minute-long/tentacled, mid-part doom epic with the spectacular name of "Rituals of Decay" - left me pleasurably shook, in an auspiciously hortative and miasmic manner - dig its red-hot firebrand of a slapdash solo before another "heavy" (i.e.60s talk), lead-footed and evilly despondent, seven-minute blood letter, "Monolith", oaf-fish-ly tumbles and spills its way into the damp, dank recesses of my chemically altered mind's mossy, leaf strewn, darkened forest floor with classic American doom brawn, sort of like Spirit Adrift, Internal Void or Monolord. (Excuse the endless and exhaustive band comparisons, but I'd taken an ill-brained, overly extended and stew-y - i.e.overripe - stoner/doom metal sabbatical!).

If anything, "Monolith" clearly showcases the group's psychedelic and experimental, jam-y side, kind of comparable to Pentagram's mid-to-late-noughties "Show 'Em How", or possibly older pioneers such as Tony McPhee's majorly underrated Groundhogs or that flavor-fully Teutonic n' weird Gutterscream favorite, Lucifer's Friend. For that galaxy-brained, duel-y diagnosed matter, kaleidoscopic, Suspiria-flaired titular closer "Awakened From The Tomb..." anoints a mirthful, albeit melodiously raw, contemplative encore and exit to both (its) plumb, plodding predecessor as well as entire forty-eight minute record as a whole; in essence, a truly conducive running time spread over a distinctively ingenious track arrangement/placement.

By all means, fans of stout, criss-crossing genre worthies such as Lamp of Thoth, Salem or Desolation Angels - old, grizzled, NWOBHM salts who've both, in recent years, made shockingly solid, reprising comebacks - should also take a time-out to flag down these compellingly rocked-out space cadets faster than two bleats of a (sacrificial) lamb's flail. Thrills guaranteed to fill all the nooks and crannies, lest I walk off the rotten plank of shark infested Internet waters. (On top of chewing away any desecrated corpse's workman's cap of your choosing.)

Hence, help make this wacky World a much better, if not morbidly harmonious and chthonic, place by coveting Witcher's Creed's awesome full-length debut, Awakened By The Tomb (ellipsis optional), also available on retro-fitted - yet limited - 12" vinyl, courtesy of Ripple Muzak - fine, creepy American purveyor of Foghorn and Holy Grove, of Baltimore, Maryland and Portland, Oregon, respectively, as well as for want of further upbeat and fetching doom metal finds. Lastly, doesn't the crepuscular and amaranthine cover conjure an uncouth, but dedicated and tough-as-nails, Earthride/Witchcraft-like dispo?...