Artist: Shadow Witch
Album: Under the Shadow of a Witch
Genre: Stoner Rock
Country: USA
Release Date: 14th of February 2020
Released via Argonauta Records
Cover Artwork © Argonauta Records 2020
Shadow Witch are a Stoner Rock band from Kingston, New York. The band was founded in 2015 and released their third album already with Under the Shadow of a Witch. Nine tracks and 40 minutes of playtime, split into two parts by the band. Side A is called “Spearfinger & Other Cautionary Tales”, side B is “Fountain and other assorted lovesongs”. “Spearfinger” is the first track on the record and with 2:59min the shortest song as well, while “Fountain” is the last and longest one, with a playtime of 8:10min. The seven other tracks range between 3:30 and 5 minutes.
This record is not easy for me because of two facts. On the positive side is the brilliant voice of Earl Walker Lundy. I think he’s doing a very great job on the record, and he is the reason for me to really like the record. He has exact the right amount of dirt, desert, Blues and everything in his voice – and definitely a reason to lend this record an ear or two.
On the other hand, there are the riffs and guitars. I usually like this fuzzy sound, but this time – I don’t know, I was missing something special. The guitars and arrangements in general sounded very similar to me, but not in a good way, to speak of an identity or something, It was more like the feeling of having heard the riffs a thousand times before already, and so I was bored while concentrating on this part of the record.
Don’t get me wrong, everybody is doing a good job, but it feels to me like the colourful voice is an oasis in a real big desert. Alright, yeah, that perfectly fits to the music, BUT somehow it feels like there could be more. There are some moments and a whole track where you can get an idea of what could have been possible. Take “Shifter” fo example. I think it could have been more evil and heavier. The riff, the idea, those are absolutely fine. But I would love it, if it had sounded more extreme to make a bigger contrast between the music and the voice. On “Saint Magdalene” I like the acoustic intro, the Tool-ish riff and the wild solo. Actually, yeah, that’s a good overall package. But my favourite track is the last one “Fountain”. It’s more bluesy, dirty Southern Rock than anything else, but I think that this fits perfectly to the voice, and that’s nothing but a fucking great song that will make it’s way to my rotation!
I think that this is a very personal view, when I say that I would really like to listen to more songs like “Fountain”. Just have a try and tell us your opinion!
7/10
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Favorite tracks:
“Fountain”
“Saint Magdalene”
As usual, we added the favorite track(s) to our Transcended Review Playlist 2020.
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