Album Review: Witchsorrow – The Devil And All His Works

Album Review: Witchsorrow – The Devil And All His Works

Reviewed by Matthew Williams

With bells tolling, a creepy organ rings out menacingly, before an almighty doom riff and pounding rhythm punctures your inner soul in search of a foreboding darkness. Yes, it can only be one thing, and that’s the beginning of the fifth offering from the doom metal obsessives known at Witchsorrow.

Their latest album, “The Devil and All His Works” has taken the lyrics and title from an occult book by Dennis Wheatley, as vocalist/guitarist Nick Ruskell, better known as Necroskull, said that “everything had to be total doom”. The mammoth first song “Omnia Finiuntur” is a weighty, beastly piece of music, and if you’ve ever seen them live, you know that this is one band who always deliver on the heavier side of things.

With Emily Ruskell on bass, the duo has produced another album that fans of doom metal and the occult will adore, as the next song “Bacchus” emphasises further, as it celebrates the “joy of decadence and sin” and doesn’t stray from their winning formula of the last two decades. They have a new drummer firmly in place, Scott “Doom” Taylor, and the rhythm is at is dark and gloomy best on this bruiser of a track. They are joined by Svalbard’s Serena Cherry on “Hades Chains” as she adds her roaring fury to the scintillating song, which is lit up by a decadent head banging riff that flows across the heavy track and one you’ll never tire of listening to.

The pace gets slower on “Altar” as a huge bass sound bounces around the mix, doing untold damage to your eardrums in the meantime. There are cleaner vocals from Necroskull embedded here, adding some subtlety into the song, as they cast their spell far and wide. The frontman commented he “wanted everything to be as pure as possible” and they are certainly hitting all the right notes, especially during the full blooded “In Triumph We Rot!!!” as they sing about their dedication and passion to everything doom metal.

“Lamentation” deviates from their usual lengthy song times, at just under two minutes, but is a joyous blend of dramatic drums, brooding bass and gritty guitars with a layered monologue over the top, that leads into final track, “A Quintessence of Dust”. It’s another sinister sounding track, featuring some shredding from Employed To Serve’s Sammy Urwin, which adds a different dimension to the song. It encapsulates the dark forces that surround the entire production and is the perfect way to end as the riff is killer, heavy and ready to tear you a new one.

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