Acid Witch     

Witchtanic Hellucinations

Hells Headbangers 2012

Deathly doom with a horror movie vibe overwhelms you on the 2008 debut album from Acid Witch which has been rereleased by Hells Headbangers.  After a somewhat campy synth-laden intro we get down to the meat of the album, doomy death metal that reeks of deep riffs and grim vocals.  There is an intentionally tongue-in-cheek cheesiness to the music here, but it is amazingly effective.  Swamp Spells bubbles and then drifts into churning riffs and warbling keyboards for a 70s psychedelic horror feel.  There is an undercurrent of sorrow in the riffs, but that is balanced by the monstrosity of the vocals.  Witchblood Cult has a bouncy main riff and wailing guitar solos that sound like a banshee announcing your demise.  The chanted singing that rises for a short spell in the middle give the song a ritualistic feeling.  The whole song twists and turns in a slowly undulating manner.  However, the Black Witch has a slightly faster pacing and the wavering synths again.  And then you have the title-track which rolls over with a footstomping groove and periods of progressive synth and guitar.  Beastly Brew is a short instrumental that is vast, languid guitars that wail mournfully over a wall of noise and trippy synth.  My favorite part of the whole album is the opening synth for Cauldron Cave which sounds like it could have been lifted right out of the soundtrack for Phantasm.  Then a bluesy guitar solo screams out before some seriously down-tuned, crushing riffs lunge out of the speakers.  Acid Witch is catchy and campy in the same breath.  Witchtanic Hellucinations is a fun escape into the backwoods of death doom with a total horror soundtrack vibe and all these ingredients are boiled together in a cauldron to a deadly effect.