Band: WitchTit
Album: Intoxicating Lethargy
Label: Self-Released
Style: Doom
Release Date: 03/12/2021
Hailing from Raleigh, NC, this fearsome fivesome of all things darkened Doom have finally released their first album, following a split with Etiolated back in 2017 (which feels like a century ago). It’s just longer than a proper EP and a bit short for a full-length, so it feels like it’s somewhere between, but because of its heft, we’re calling it a full album and going from there.
“Silver Tongue” starts things off and lets you know right away that you are, indeed, dealing with a band that is “Colder than a…” The riffs are heavy, deadly, and precise. This band isn’t in any rush to get anywhere, but they’re also not dragging a bloated corpse around, either. They know exactly when to let the Doom chime and when to put the pedal to the Metal, if you will. Reign’s vocals fall somewhere between the ethereal quality of Windhand and Jex Thoth and the harder edged wailing of The Devil’s Blood. “Crimson Tide” is next, their single, and it’s “commercial” if anything like this kind of music can ever be considered commercial. It has that same feel as classic Sabbath, the vocals just as isolated and lonely as anything Ozzy ever did. Again, they start slow and build it into some nice, good chunky riffage, eventually becoming quite apocalyptic. Very pleasing while at the same time extremely bleak. The title track is up next and if ever there was a quaalude-drenched dirge, this is it. Slow and brutal, no hope to be had here, thank you very much. It’s never once boring, though, which is a neat trick when it comes to this kind of music. Too easily this could have just become a real drag, but it always keeps the ears perked and the head (slowly) banging. “Traveler” stays with the slow thing, adding in some freak-outs here and there, never really speeding up much but getting weird, like a friend who’s done too much coke and they’re crashing down hard after watching a bunch of conspiracy documentaries. It settles into a creepy little groove towards the end, pleasing, bewitching and yet still a bit scary. “Home Invasion” closes things out. Here’s where they really Thrash out…no, just kidding. They do more of what they do best, which includes a mixture of snail’s pace and groove. This is a band that has a pocket and sticks with it. There’s a few psychedelic flourishes here and there to keep things lively. And to say the ending is psychotic would be putting it lightly.
The whole album is dark and pretty and also unforgiving, all at once. There is no release when you finish this, but there is a sense of having taken a (gloomy) journey and a feeling of catharsis. WitchTit is a band that will probably only appeal to a certain audience, and after reading this, you already know if you’re part of it or not. Count the Wizard as a fan.
The Wizard Has Spoken!