Witching Chronicles: Exploring WITCH RIPPER’s Through the Hourglass
There was always more to WITCH RIPPER than the sludge tag suggested. The Seattle quartet started out heavier and rougher, but HOMESTEAD already showed a band that wasn’t particularly interested in staying in one lane. THE FLIGHT AFTER THE FALL pushed the progressive side further. THROUGH THE HOURGLASS continues that move, although the biggest change […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring BLACK LUNG’s Forever Beyond
Black Lung still play that mix of stoner doom, heavy psych and fuzzy hard rock they’ve been building for years, but Forever Beyond feels tighter than the older records. The songs feel more planned out this time instead of just running on atmosphere and massive riffs alone. That honestly helps the album a lot. A […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS’ Inexorable Opposites
Wow, this album is weird in a good way. Not random weird, more like you’re a few tracks in and suddenly you’re not listening the same way anymore. It just sort of drags you into its own space without asking. I went in expecting the usual stoner/doom thing – heavy riffs, fuzz, slow grooves. That’s […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Friendship Commanders’ BEAR
There’s weight to BEAR, and not just in the guitars. On their fourth full-length, Friendship Commanders tighten their grip on the space between heavy rock and emotional clarity without drifting into excess. The Nashville duo — Buick Audra and Jerry Roe — work with density and restraint in equal measure, and that balance defines the […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring HOWLING GIANT’s Crucible & Ruin
No intro, no warning, just fuzz and lift-off. Feels like HOWLING GIANT finally got the mics pointed in the right direction – real air moving, not that boxy home stuff. You can hear the sticks hit, the amps breathe, somebody probably yelling off-mic. Good sign! HOWLING GIANT are still a heavy, fuzzy, psych-tinged rock band, […]
Witching Riffs: Behind the Sound of HOWLING GIANT
HOWLING GIANT hail from Nashville, Tennessee, sidestepping their city’s pop-country roots with a fuzz-psych sound that has grown from power trio to powerhouse quartet. After winning praise for The Space Between Worlds (2019) and Glass Future (2023), the band now return with their third full-length, Crucible & Ruin, their first recorded in a proper studio […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring The Domkraft’s Domkraft
Before the amps got louder, before the riffs found their stride across Europe and the U.S., DOMKRAFT’s first strike was this raw, pulsing slab of doom-psych minimalism – self-titled, self-released, and self-contained like some sonic distress beacon drifting out of Stockholm’s concrete sprawl. That was 2015. Just four tracks, pressed in a tiny run, gone […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring The LO-PAN’s Get Well Soon
LO-PAN have been at this for a while now, and you can hear it. Their latest, Get Well Soon, doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does what it needs to do – hits hard, sticks in your head, and sounds like a band that knows exactly who they are. No gimmicks, no overthinking, just solid, […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring The Bronco’s Bronco
Sludge metal has always been a genre of scars – riffs forged in hardship, tempos sinking under the weight of their own despair, and an unfiltered honesty that leaves no room for pretense. Bronco’s self-titled debut embodies this ethos with a sound that is as gnarled and unrelenting as the North Carolina earth from which […]
Witching Rating: Top 25 Most Buzzed-About Albums of 2024
We, Main Witch and Spellbinder, are thrilled to share with you our Top 25 Albums of 2024 (from our humble perspective). Of course, there are many other albums that deserve a spot on this list, but we decided to keep it concise. It’s important to note that the order of the list doesn’t imply ranking […]