You can’t go wrong with a band that shows the kind of dichotomy in their sound that Temple of the Fuzz Witch does! One song is straight fire with vicious vocals to match the vicious sounds produced through the instruments while the next is a sanguine (There’s a song titled that on the record even!) soliloquy that evokes the sort of emotion not often felt from a heavy ass record such as Apotheosis.
That range is immediately present across the opening two tracks with “A Call To Prey” coming across like Nachtmystium doing Doom with an incessant ominous hum from start to finish and “Wight” being something else entirely in terms of a scaled back sonic assault that’s no less potent.
“Nephilim” is Intense amidst some kind of Grunge-ish elements with the downtrodden-ness of it all to begin coming at listeners like a nasty Alice In Chains throwaway mashed with some crushing classic Corrosion Of Conformity (Deliverance era, think “Broken Man” and “Seven Days”) from Noah Bruner’s guitars as Bruner does the Jekyll AND Hyde vocal styles here to boot. “Bow Down” spills out of that sonic carnage with a crusher! A scorcher! A vibrant all out Rawk banger! And another song that reminds listeners of the grand scope heard in Apotheosis from track to track yet with a constant overall feel.
“Sanguine” is kind of just that with the way both the clean and, what? Unclean? That’s the opposite, right??? Anyway, with the way both of Bruner’s voices come out to play in an effortless and energetic way as a sort of call and response is pretty awesome here. “Cursed” arrives next with the Joe Peet low end and Taylor Christian drumming thriving as Bruner rails with the riotous riffage while “Raze” is gargantuan as it lurches along like a Titan with Bruner’s voice soaring high above the Christian/Peet rhythmic synchronicity.
“Apostate” is a meditative reflection up there with some of the great more Psychedelic trips that Black Sabbath used to take us on (“Planet Caravan”, “Solitude””) but louder… and heavier with “Ashes” spiraling out of that with a seemingly similar aesthetic but is broken up by moments of pure flexing in the Black Metal department making for a gnarly finale.
Apotheosis drops through Ripple Music on April 5th. You can pre-order your very own copy now when you head here or to the stream below. For more from Temple of the Fuzz Witch, follow them across the information superhighway by heading here or here.