All hail the Cult of the Seven Crowns! Witch-Lord is one of a number of destructive musical forces that is just one head of the hydra meant to smash the world into oblivion, and the difference between those other groups (Gehenna, Gravehill, and others) is massive and due in no small part to the monolithic doom purveyed on display on Atomized In The Black Solarian. Now, I know what you might be thinking, “Wait a minute though… can the same maniacs responsible for the dirty hardcore punk cum metal of those other groups really drop a basement dwelling soul crushing riff fest that makes doom pretenders hide in shame, or is Witch-Lord one of those dabbling groups of people?” This would be a completely fair question to ask seeing as there is more and more diluted doom (you know, bands playing ripoffs of ripoffs of ripoffs type deals) rearing its ugly head now than there ever was prior to some god forsaken doom apocalypse that I seem to have missed the memo on happening.
Thankfully, Witch-Lord takes a track not so dissimilar from some of the earliest doom purveyors (see Cathedral’s amazing Forest Of Equilibrium for an idea of what I am talking about here) and uses just your standard rock and roll format (a guitar or two, a bass, drums, and vo-kills) to go spelunking in the darkest recesses of bass abuse; certainly, the results are surprisingly awesome as I can definitely hear that early sound but with the added grit of some of the gnarliest vocal lacerations ever put to this style of music (listen to “Blood For Kali” (love that change up doomy breakdown) on Atomized In The Black Solarian and then try to tell me this guy’s voice is not perfect for what Witch Lord is doing).
There better be more coming from Witch-Lord because I seriously am kicking myself for not listening to this more in depth sooner, and I want more because the four songs here (with nary a weak track) are just the biggest music tease this side of a one song seven inch; Atomized In The Black Solarian will drench your ears in reverbed out fuzz guitar that pump glacially paced riffs that just pummel you in all the right ways (if only this was recorded a bit better for maximum stomach rumbling capacity and a smidge more clarity in the guitar sounds (I mean it just the slightest of smidges). Get this now (if it was on Southern Lord all the kiddies would be wetting themselves over this record) because it is a sweet record that definitely will make you glad you did.
