There’s a certain smell you get when a band decides they’re done sanding down the edges — it’s like the air in a garage after three nights of amps running hot and beer sweating on the floor. Metamorph has that smell all over it. WITCHRIDER’s latest isn’t here to charm you with the kind of studio gloss that hides the grit; it’s here to lean hard into the rattle and fuzz and make you feel like you’re standing in front of their speaker stacks at 1 a.m., lungs rattling in your chest.
This Austrian crew has been working the stoner rock trenches for over a decade, but Metamorph feels like the first time they’ve slammed the throttle all the way without worrying if the thing’s gonna blow. Six tracks, no filler, the guitars tuned to that sweet spot where fuzz becomes a living thing — not just a tone, but a texture you could run your fingers through. The riffs aren’t showboating; they’re locomotives, heavy and unrelenting, with just enough melodic spine to stick in your brain after the noise dies.
Dan’s vocals come across like he’s pushing them through the same amps as the guitars — part confession, part warning, part weather report from inside a storm. There’s a weariness to them that’s earned, not affected. You believe every word because it sounds like he’s had to claw his way through whatever inspired them.
What’s striking here is the feel — that dangerous tightrope between being locked-in as a band and letting the whole damn thing careen around the corners. You hear the Queens of the Stone Age DNA, sure, and a few strains of Foo Fighters’ melodic muscle, but WITCHRIDER have always had their own engine running under the hood — a bit darker, a bit more brooding, like they’re playing for the last crowd on Earth.
Metamorph feels like a gig you stumbled into, halfway through the set, and by the end you’re drenched in feedback and sweat, not sure what just happened but already hoping they play somewhere close again. This isn’t a reinvention — it’s a sharpening. A reminder that heavy can be cathartic, fuzz can be emotional, and raw doesn’t mean sloppy.
They call it Metamorph, but it’s more like a molting — the same animal, just meaner, louder, and more dangerous without the old skin weighing it down.
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Released by Fuzzorama Records on August 15th, 2025
Music source for review – Grand Sounds PR
