...and Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon

Below is a re-structuring of an old review I did for Witching Hour's eerie third album back in 2018.

Starting things with soulfully depressive clean guitar work that sets beautifully dark mood filled with ambience. The huge sounding lead work and drums soon join us to complete the instrumentals with a true melancholy that is incredibly heartfelt. Everything working perfectly in balance and unison to create a heartbreakingly warm vibrancy. We are then thrown into lurching riffs that are melodic and catchy with some really interesting timing choices that create an unnerving passage into more progressive musicianship. The gloriously more thrashy sections met with gruesome vocals have a really epic 80s feel and drive everything into the next phase of obliterating extreme metal that remains melodic and sombre but with added aggression. The grisly vocals add so much atmosphere to the piercingly intense grinding track and elevate it into new ground. This is some truly unique music that is just so stunningly atmospheric, sombre and yet will still assault you with its thrashy and primal energy. The songwriting is fantastic on its own but the brilliant performance allows it to be utilised to its full extent.

The fearsome speeds and yet enticingly warm tones create a balance that is absolutely immense, creating some truly impacting heavy metal with everything one could possible desire, or at least to my ear. Blistering songwriting, stunning performance and just sheerly glorious musicianship is ever-present on this album. The chilling vocals add so much darkness to the otherwise upbeat music giving it a wonderfully juxtaposing and fascinating style that to me was addictive from the albums onset. I truly feel absorbed in this record, more than usual, to me that is truly an amazing thing.

I am certainly curious and excited to see how the band finish off such a killer release. Setting in with bleak guitars, much like how the album began with a much more sombre feel, but also a vibe that it will be built into something huge. The furious vocals introduce more hectic drums, chaotically fantastic guitars and just more driven madness from the band. It is evident they want to go out in style with one last bout of frenzied extreme metal mania, which I respect. The melodies are beautifully contradictory to the hellish vocals and gruesome instrumentals, which sound so killer together. The organs were an awesome touch and the very last section once more brings totally emotive, soulful and tearfully beautiful clean guitars back for one last piece of melancholy.

This release contains a wide range of melodies with a biting aggression but also a bittersweet melancholy that is all in perfect balance with musicianship and songwriting to match. Absolutely brilliant album, a must listen for a total adventure into ancient blackened heavy metal!

Re-structured from my 2018 review on www.nattskog.wordpress.com

In love with the first wave of black metal and resembling its concurrent influence upon Teutonic thrash metal scenes, German blackened speed/thrashers Witching Hour notably describe their sound as ‘ancient black metal’. This indicates a certain intention they’d most obviously fulfilled back in 2009 with their debut full-length ‘Rise of the Desecrated’ with its ‘Endless Pain’ black/thrash style. From that point on they’d grow restless of that typical, and several generations deep, imitative style and begin to swerve from a ‘Show No Mercy’ style of riff unto epic heavy metal influenced thrash that verges on the fringes of progressive-isms beyond ‘Past Midnight…’ (2011). ‘…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon’ continues the thread the band had first established on ‘Where Pale Winds Take Them High…’ back in 2014 as their blackened thrash sound evolves into a sound that is increasingly all their own.

For a seemingly rote retro black/thrash project out of Rehlingen, Germany to develop so steadily into their own thing deserves some mention as their combination of epic heavy metal, progressive thrash, and fleeting black metal influences are no less ‘retro’ but all the more unique among peers. Blackened heavy metal is no rarity the world over but ‘…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon’ represents a grey area of modernity and old school heavy metal somewhere between the first wave blackened death rock experimentation of Crucifyre and the sort of heavy rock influenced groove of Chapel of Disease in 2018. The rocking kicks of early Venom are still in the back of their minds but Witching Hour begin to venture unto an elevated form of epic heavy/speed metal a la up-and-coming groups like Chevalier that is moderately comparable (but better than) to long developing Bewitched-esque bands like Skelator and Manzer.

In evaluating a retro focused band’s departure from typical beginnings it is initially difficult to see ‘…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon’ as a retro or modernist affair. At face value it is a slick and very successfully -grooving- mix of semi-melodic thrash guitar work that acts as a full extension of the guitar ideas touched upon ‘Where Pale Winds Take Them High…’; This is about as far as Witching Hour can take that sound without becoming an entirely different band and thankfully they’ve not lost the black/speed metal feeling introduced on their second full-length. When considered as a ‘retro’ project the record feels obscure but not particularly ancient in the mix; If taken at face value without any pre-concieved notions of inspiration and/or generational worship Witching Hour have put together one of the more successful modern thrash records of 2018.

The 10+ minute opener “…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon / Once Lost Souls Return” essentially begins as some kind of black/speed metal take on The Chasm with a gloriously epic intro and a building traditional heavy metal lead-in that evolves into a set of side-bars and tangential riffs typical to records like ‘Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm’. I don’t believe Witching Hour are aiming for pure riff salad but the similar tone and techniques create an album that doesn’t differentiate vastly from song to song. Vocalist Jan Hirtz modifies his expression this time around from old snarls to listless existential wails among dark fantasy lyrics and in turn embraces the change felt within guitar compositions. Though I would call this sound ‘epic blackened speed metal’ in lieu of the non-specific nature of ‘ancient black metal’ the mystic quality of ‘…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon’ allows either interpretation to work. It grew on me slowly and soon proved itself as one of the finer releases from December this year and as such I can highly recommend Witching Hour‘s latest. This’ll be a tough one to preview as a lot of its best qualities reveal through variations on a theme rather than ‘singles’. I’d recommend starting with either the two part opener or jumping directly into “Behold Those Distant Skies” with the understanding that most of the album builds up to that point with several peaks.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2018/12/19/witching-hour-and-silent-grief-shadows-the-passing-moon-2018-review/

As easy as it would be to just say that And Silent Grief Shadows The Passing Moon is just another ripping black/thrash record, I won’t. Not only because that would be boring and redundant, but also because it wouldn’t be true. No, Germany’s Witching Hour are a very elaborate band, and although labeled as such, it’d be more fitting to simply call this record blackened heavy metal. Now I know, you’re thinking “wouldn’t that just be called black metal?” Simply put, not at all.

There are blast beats and tremolos thrown into Witching Hour’s sound, but that in no way makes up their foundation. For the most part, And Silent Grief Shadows The Passing Moon relishes in the styles established by the NWOBHM artists. The riffs are very clean and concise, and you can hear every note quite clearly since the instrumentation takes a lot of the forefront here. Looking at the album opener and title track, this ten-minute beast lays out the epic sound that characterizes a lot of this record, with vocals not coming in until the song progresses past the halfway point. Rhythmic repetition is used heavily here, for the sake of suspense and transition alike.

Speaking of the vocals, they aren’t as centered on high, agonizing shrieks as you’d imagine. Instead, they’re a bit lower in pitch and draw more breath, ultimately making them a bit more in your face and not drowned out by noisy instrumentation. Different vocal approaches and cleaner guitars are complemented by guitar licks that sound rather dismal and quite depressing at times. There’s nothing cooler than emotions felt in harsh music. But don’t let them fool you, because numbers like “Behold Those Distant Skies” will change that mood right up without warning, adding in progressive sections that combine bass-heavy backings and odd drum fills.

Rest assured, you can definitely hear some thrash metal leak in here; since a lot of early metal acts implemented speed metal, you’ll find it in most of these songs at least somewhere. “As I Walk Among Sepulchral Ruins,” the last track, is probably the only one that’s completely a blackened thrash song (despite the slow intro), as it has a much meaner grit to it, where the other songs seem a bit friendlier. The sadder parts and the cleanliness are likely the cause of that, but there’s also a lot of melody, even in the vocals, which takes down the aggression. Plus, an acoustic guitar manages to sneak into the end of “The Fading Chime Of A Graveyard Bell,” so there’s that too.

Yikes, I’m about out of breath. This is easily one of the most involved blackened heavy/thrash records I’ve ever come across, as there is a lot to digest for sure. If you’re seeking a speedy epic album consisting of long, somewhat depressing songs that use a lot of repetition, then wait no longer to feast your ears. It’s definitely a mood album, and it took about four listens to gather everything, but Witching Hour will not steer you astray here.

Originally written for Indy Metal Vault:
https://www.indymetalvault.com/2019/01/07/album-review-witching-hour-and-silent-grief-shadows-the-passing-moon/

When I got this in my email from Hells Headbangers, I was expecting nasty black/thrash, something like Nifelheim, Desaster, Occult Burial or Bonehunter (from HHR as well) but no, I was surprised to hear what Witching Hour actually play. I’ve been familiar with the name for a while but that’s actually the first album from the German trio I check and it’s a banger.

What surprised me about this record is how smart it actually is. It’s really rare that a black/thrash band manages to be actually intelligent while retaining their primal destructive instinct. Witching Hour are like a barbarian who didn’t dump their intelligence stat. I think the latest non Vektor thrash band I’ve heard that wasn’t completely only into destroying corpses with their teeth musically was Norway’s Nekromantheon (definitely fucking due for a new record, by the way) and that’s saying something. I guess we could say that the shadow of Deceased isn’t far as well and Fowley’s mark is surely present in Jan Hirtz’s rough drawl.

Their approach is epic and long winded. The decision to start with a ten minute track was bold, especially considering that the first half is instrumental. It did create an interesting and worthwhile introduction to the album. It then continues with five packed tracks full of intricate thrash riffs not only content in delivering aggression but also focusing on delivering interesting time signatures without entering Mekong Delta German progressive thrash territories. Witching Hour also incorporates a large amount of heavy metal in there, it’s ancient occult metal and it made me think of Demontage, the unknown jewel from Toronto, in many ways. Drawn out songs full of incredible riffs combining melodic might with precision, wits and passion are what they offer on here.

They also offer some moments to breathe and gather your spirit such as the first moments of the superb closer “As I Walk Among Sepulchral Ruins” and its repetitive but atmospheric guitar introduction. I got nothing bad to say about this record, it gives me what I want in thrash metal in 2018, it’s not overly long, it delivers the riffs, it’s not fucking dumb and about pizza or “fun” and it remains evil while never becoming unnecessarily full of thicc nacho cheese.

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