By Jim Rowland
Its 20 years now since Witchcraft first formed in Sweden, fuelled by an obsession with Roky Erickson and Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling. Their brand of occult-tinged doom and classic 70’s rock captured our imaginations here in the UK with their much loved self-titled debut album on Rise Above Records back in 2004, with ‘Firewood’ and ‘The Alchemist’ following fairly swiftly and cementing the band’s reputation. The days of that original band on Rise Above are well in the past now, and Witchcraft have carried on very much in the image of front man Magnus Pelander ever since, with numerous line-up changes and sporadic but still quite magnificent albums for Nuclear Blast, such as 2012’s ‘Legend’ and 2016’s ‘Nucleus’, which marked a progression from Witchcraft’s original sound. However, fans of any of those previous albums need to be aware that ‘Black Metal’ is a different beast entirely.
Firstly, don’t be fooled by the slightly tongue in cheek album title – the sound of the album has more in common with Leonard Cohen than Cronos and crew, or any given bunch of Norwegian church burners. Secondly, ‘Black Metal’ is an entirely acoustic album, stripped bare to just acoustic guitar and Pelander’s voice, no electric guitar, no bass, no drums. In fact, you could argue that it shouldn’t be using the Witchcraft name at all, and should be billed as what it is, which is a Magnus Pelander solo album in the truest sense.
However, despite the absence of the amplified electric rock sound, the one common factor that does shine through is Pelander’s unique, haunting voice which has the same quality whether it is accompanied by a gentle acoustic guitar, or a huge, distorted riff of doom. It’s exclusively gentle acoustic guitar you get here across the album’s seven tracks clocking in at just over the thirty minute mark in total. The songs are delicate and incredibly morose, but there is beauty in there, bringing to mind the vibe of Free’s ‘Mourning Sad Morning’ or Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ album, but there’s probably loads of ancient Swedish folk singers I’m completely unaware of that you could compare it to as well.
If you like Witchcraft purely for the heavy doom and classic rock of the previous albums, you may find this hard work, but if the qualities of Magnus Pelander’s voice and song writing are also what appeal, ‘Black Metal’ is well worth exploring.
- ‘Black Metal’ is released next Friday (1 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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