Bandcamp For the better part of two decades Witchsorrow have flown the flag for unreconstructed British doom, the Cathedral-and-Vitus school of tar-slow riffs and doomsday bellows. The Devil and All His Works, their fifth, is the sound of that band getting impatient. It opens on “Omnia Finiuntur,” a genuinely widescreen piece that builds from an orchestral, brass-and-strings intro into a metallic climax with real dynamic sweep, and then spends the rest of its running time proving the band have grown a faster, nastier streak: more death-metal bite in the riffing, more thrashy propulsion, the doom now a foundation to launch from rather than the whole edifice.
It works best where the weight stays in charge. “Altar” is the standout, a proper death/doom crawl with a raw, unpressed, live-in-the-room feel, earthy guitars and a bass that actually knurls, drums breathing in a natural space. “Lamentation” is the other high point and the record’s strangest turn, an atmospheric doom-sludge dirge built around dry, front-and-center spoken word, unhurried and genuinely ominous, the kind of track that trusts a single mood to carry six minutes. These are the moments where Witchsorrow sound like no one is rushing them, and they are the best things here.
The faster material is where the record shows some strain, and it is mostly a production issue. Several of the heavier, more aggressive tracks are mixed dry and pushed loud, the low mids stacking up until bass and rhythm guitar smear into each other and the cymbals get a little harsh at the top. The songs have the muscle; the master occasionally robs them of the low-end cavern that makes doom feel bottomless. It is a small complaint about a band clearly energized by pushing their own tempo, but the contrast with the organic, headroom-rich tracks is stark.
The Devil and All His Works is a heavier, more restless Witchsorrow that still knows exactly when to drop the anchor, and doom fans who like a little death-metal grit in their misery will find plenty to sink into. It is not the glacial monolith some will want, and it is a touch uneven, but the highs (“Altar,” “Lamentation,” that opener) are the sound of a veteran band refusing to stand still. Fire it up loud, and let the slow ones do their work.
Traditional doom pushed faster and nastier, with more death-metal bite in the riffing, strongest where the weight stays in charge. “Omnia Finiuntur” opens widescreen, an orchestral brass-and-strings intro building into a metallic climax with real dynamic sweep. “Altar” is the standout, a death/doom crawl with a raw unpressed live-in-the-room feel, earthy guitars, a knurling bass and natural-space drums, and “Lamentation” is an atmospheric doom-sludge dirge built around dry front-and-center spoken word, unhurried and ominous. The reservation is on the faster tracks: several are mixed dry and pushed loud, the low mids stacking until bass and rhythm guitar smear and cymbals turn harsh, robbing the doom of its bottomless low-end cavern. The organic, headroom-rich tracks show what the master could have been throughout.
Standout tracks: Altar, Lamentation, Omnia Finiuntur
