Out of all the doom bands with “Witch” in their name, Witchsorrow is right up there with Witch Mountain in my books. Album number four from this U.K. power trio sees them continuing in the classic doom vein, with enough references to demons and devils to keep their “Occult Doom Club” membership active. And yet, things are notably tighter on this album than its 2015 predecessor—only one of the seven tracks on Hexenhammer is much more than eight minutes.
After a slow ‘n heavy instrumental intro sets the tone, the band gets right into it on the title track with a killer true doom riff right off the bat. The vocals are very reminiscent of Electric Wizard, and I detect an anti-Christian theme to the lyrics. The slow, heavy section that kicks in about halfway through should definitely get some heads banging. “The Devil’s Throne” picks up the pace to a mid-tempo Orange Goblin stomp with a compelling chorus, all in under five minutes. “Demons of the Mind” goes right back to the doom with a slow, lumbering riff that reminds me of Candlemass, albeit with an angrier chorus. “Eternal” starts off in doomier territory, but doesn’t really grab me until it picks up the pace around the 3:30 mark.
At 8:41, “Like Sisyphus” is the longest song on the album. A slow, plodding stomp complete with a vicious spit vocal that adds a few instrumental interludes, but doesn’t really pick up the pace until a plodding, blackened-metal burst around the six-minute mark that signals a more up-tempo verse to follow. I much prefer the more compact doom of “The Parish”—six minutes and a cloud of fuzzed-out bong smoke.
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