A Modern Take on Vintage Doom
Album Review: Horripilating Presence by Void Witch
CONTIBUTING AUTHOR Abby
For years, metalheads have been begging for a return of that iconic 80s doom/thrash/death metal sound, and Void Witch thoroughly delivers with their delightfully nostalgic, undeniably heavy record Horripilating Presence. Right off the bat, the Austin, Texas, quartet’s first record has that quintessentially doom-death metal feel down pat, from the song titles to the record’s production and editing. As a whole, the record sounds as if all the best moments of Opeth, the grimy vocals of Cannibal Corpse, and the harmonized guitar riffs of Metallica were put in a blender and mixed until the absolute heaviest product was created.
The record opens with “Grave Mistake,” which at first tricks the listener into a false sense of security with a simple yet slightly foreboding guitar riff before opening fire with some brutal gutturals and doom metal-esque instrumentation. Then, it shifts into a more old-school thrash section, complete with a blistering guitar solo filled with whammy dives and tremolo picking. The next track, “Second Demon,” feels at first a bit like a groovy take on Opeth, a little bit of Texas flavor spicing up the intro riff before once again shifting into a more classic death-metal sound. “Malevolent Demiurge” ventures more into doom territory for the first half of its impressive eight-and-a-half minute runtime until double kicks launch the listener back into the realm of death metal.
The fourth track, “Supernova of Brain and Bone,” follows a similar trajectory, but this time with more of a proglike intro that flavors the rest of the song as decidedly more like black metal than its predecessors. This sound continues with “Thousand-Eyed Stalactite,” its slow, melodic guitars echoing as if the song is being recorded in a cave. There’s one particular moment in this track where the vocals were only accompanied by a slow drumbeat that was as menacing as it was satisfying to listen to. The record closes with the title track that, like the opening song, feels markedly calmer than the rest of the album. But that calm is quickly broken by a stank-face-worthy combination of double kick and chugging guitars, the vocals looming over the entire affair.
While the tracklisting may only boast six songs, each one feels like it could turn into its own record with how well the band weaves together genre aspects to create a sound that is both entirely original and reminiscent. The way the record was produced and edited makes it feel like you’re listening to old-school black or death metal like Venom or Possessed but without the bit of tinny background audio that came from recording tools of the industry at the time. This gives Horripilating Presence an old-school vibe while maintaining a more full, modern sound.
Overall, this a fantastically nostalgic first record from Void Witch that any fan of old-school metal would enjoy.
