Burn the witch. Send her to the gallows. She is unholy. She is Satan's pawn, there is no good in her.
You hear the townspeople talking, but you don't believe them. After all, you love her. You'd do anything for her. You'd leave your family, your job, your life. You would kill for her. You would kill yourself for her. You would die. For her. Always for her.
This is true love, this is the Witch Hunt.
The panic sets in.
Everything you know about your lover is a lie. She is not the kind, beautiful creature you met, no. Instead you see a disfigured, mangled caricature of the woman you love. Her once shimmering hair now seems more akin to a blinding fire, her laugh seems less like purity and more like nails scarping a chalkboard, and her voice is no longer the soothing, angelic song it was once, instead there is hatred and hell fire in its place.
She is the witch.
She is the focus of the new ep from Wisconsin resident death dealers, WICKED WORLD. After bursting onto the heavy music scene with 2015's murderous mix, As I Decay, WICKED WORLD is back, and they're better, more emotional, more honest, more broken. Comprised of vocalist Alex Miller, bassist/vocalist Matthew Tucholcke, guitarist Chris Easton, and drummer Josh Kanute, WICKED WORLD has proven yet again to be deathcore's premiere story tellers.
The panic sets in.
Opening with the ominous, oppressive funeral bells of the Salem days, opening track Panic effortlessly sets the tone of the seven track slab of pure, unadulterated sorrow that is Witch Hunt. Opening the album with the lyrics telling a story of a man who fell in love with evil in all her beauty, the concept fleshes out perfectly with lyrics comparing heaven to her embrace, and hell to her absence. The character drives his loss like nails into the forehead of the listener, warning of the dangers of a toxic love, of falling in love with a witch. "Purgatory exists for you and me. Forever within, forever without" captures the theme perfectly, serving as a reminder that even the most torn of lovers can still exist in harmony, even if it's in eternal limbo.
While Panic is an introduction, a summary of things to come, follow up track WATCHYOUSLEEP is the true start of the story. Outlining the relationship between man and witch, the song talks of losing sleep over the longing to be near her, and the nightmares she leaves in her wake. No matter how desperately the man wishes to be free of her grip for one night, he can never escape her. Driven home by Kanute's pin-point precision on his bass and snare drums, as well as Easton and Tucholke's start/stop groove and chugging, every syllable becomes more like a nail, slowly being hammered into the listener's pysche, painting a vivid portrait of the witch's power over her lover. Each second is coated in muk, each riff is slathered in self-loathing, every crack of the snare more intense than the last. Featuring a guest spot from powerviolence royalty Jon Hoffman (Weekend Nachos), WATCHYOUSLEEP is the perfect first chapter of this putrid novel.
Picking up where WATCHYOUSLEEP left off, Crowd of Horns furthers the plot. Staying in the same first person narrative, the character professes his love for the witch, and admits that he has been trapped by her magic, doomed to rot unless he sacrifices her to God above. Lyrically and musically this is the most emotionally descriptive song on the album. With Miller's barks more grisly and enraged and his highs more pained than ever, he effortlessly strokes the canvas to paint a picture of pure insanity over his own refusal to accept the evil. Lyrics like "I saw your face and it looked like God's, I looked at my sins and it looked like us" further drive this message home, as the character seems to come to terms with the fact that while his lover is beautiful, she is consumed with the darkness and he is powerless to save her. Promising to cleanse the world of filth, the character relents and sacrifices her to purify the old town of Salem, and bring about Armageddon. He admits there is no hope, and as the slam breaks in (and BOY is it beefy), the wicked are washed away. The witch is dead, and no love can bring her back.
The next track, Burn Victim, shifts the narrative from the desire to fix a broken relationship to that of a man lamenting his lost love and being plagued by the apparition of his former lover. Still feeling her breath on his neck and comparing it to hot ash, comparing her lips to fire and her love to falling from grace, the man slips into a deep, desperate depression. Unable to break free the man feels like his bed is a coffin, one the witch happily perches upon, her ghost tormenting the man for what he had done. Musically speaking this is the weakest track on the album, with the drumming seemingly by the numbers, however that is not to say it detracts from the album as a whole- rather, it is the perfect interlude, shifting the setting of the story from a toxic relationship to a man slipping away from reality more and more as time goes on. The character finally caves and wishes for death, with the Kanute's barbaric drumming slowly tightening the noose around the listener's throat.
From here we are moved into Dogmother. Opening with a riff straight out of Mayhem's cookbook of black metal mastery, the song is much more somber than the rest. While Easton and Tucholke melodically weave a web of pure despair, Kanute creeps below, offering a percussive display of subtle, but murderous, technical prowess, with each ping of the ride cymbal sounding more akin to the sky falling from the heaven's. This track is Miller's standout performance, making his suffering and unmitigated anguish shine through with every venomous bark he spits out. It is here that the listener truly begins to understand that the character never wanted to betray his beloved, and had actually become infatuated with the pain she brought him and the terror she plagued Salem with. Jason Lionel Frazier (of BeheadingTheTraitor and Choke notoriety) makes a brief, but effective appearnce here. Blending perfectly with Miller, he barks and yells his way in time with the band, adding the voice of yet another broken lover to the frenzy.
Where Dogmother was a more melodic and somber trek, penultimate track PACK OF TEETH is straight forward aggression and anger in a pure, raw state. Directing the self-loathing of the last five tracks outward, Miller makes no attempt to hide his grim intentions. "I'll make you wish you had an extra pack of teeth" exemplifies this perfectly, as the line gives way immediately for Andrew Hileman of I AM to make his appearance, with grisly, guttural bellows that shake the very foundation of the earth. Refusing to let the witch control him any longer, Miller ends the song with the lyrics "Your bite won't break my skin. Shatter.", reminding us all that there is no evil too strong to be overcome, as long as you want it bad enough.
But does the character of the story want to move on? Album closer I Am the Grey doesn't think so. Easily the most epic and theatrical song of the album, the song tells us the ending of the story- the character never recovered. He never loved again. Instead, he allowed the void to consume him, the evil took over. Such a selfish way to live, such a selfless way to die. The only way out is in a wooden bed. The character realizes the woman he loves, while pure evil, is God, and he cannot break away from her vile, poisonous love. As the album closes with the lyrics "I'm finally one with God, I am the Grey", the character gives in to his desire and kills himself, slowly descending to purgatory, forever to remain with the Witch. As the album closes, the bells are heard again- everything is clear. The story is repeated, we understand how the character came to be in his eternal place of suffering. Where Heaven is her arms, Hell is her absence, and Purgatory is his place to be with his lover, until the end of days. The Witch has claimed another hopeless, longing soul. As the album loops into itself, the story ends, and the listener is left with a hole in their chest, and a sudden realization that nothing is ever what it seems.
Overall, this album brings new life into a genre known for constant stagnation. For every bitter grunt from Miller's mouth, Easton creeps behind, with riffs so evil, so hateful, so grotesque that you feel the arms of the one below embracing you. But it would be all for not if it weren't for Kunate's outright insane drumming. Giving each riff the extra punch it needs to really stand out, Kunate and Tucholke blend seamlessly, providing the low end thunder that makes the atmosphere of this seven-track album as suffocating and oppressive as it possibly can be. Each track is memorable, with every song adding new emotion to the mix, further engrossing the listener, leaving them speechless every single time. Even the guest spots are perfect, as each guest vocalist has the perfect voice to compliment Miller's mental decay.
The witch is coming. Prepare for the hunt.
RATING: Five out of Five Innocents Burned in the name of Christ
FFO: Despised Icon, Drowning, Death
Witch Hunt drops 6/24 through Innerstrength Records
check out WICKED WORLD at
https://www.facebook.com/wickedworldwi
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