Initial Impressions: Witchcraft: Legend

Witchcraft is another of those bands that I have heard a lot of great things about but sadly never checked out.  It is strange though because it would seem that the band is up my alley.  So I have no idea why it is that I have not checked them out before.  Perhaps it is due to the fact that there are so many bands these days playing the same style of traditional doom/1970's hard rock that Witchcraft plays.  That's probably what it is.  But given the fact that I am a huge fan of groups like Grand Magus means that the chances of me enjoying Witchcraft were probably pretty good.  That coupled with the fact that I have only seen good reviews for the band's latest had my hopes high for this release.

Well it was definitely worth it.  The influences are obvious from the opening strains in the album.  This is clearly a band that takes its sound from the early metal bands like Black Sabbath and Pentagram and adds in some classic hard rock groups like Thin Lizzy and other groups of their ilk to fill out the gaps.  The result is a sound that would have fit in perfectly in the 1970's rock scene but yet is fresh and relevant even today.  It is not truly retro-sounding even though there really are no modern influences, but it definitely is not modern either.  It is kind of a conundrum.

The songs vary quite a bit from slower-paced doomy-sounding songs to faster-paced crunching rock songs. It is hard to classify this as a doom metal album.  That feeling and atmosphere is for the most part absent, but calling it a traditional metal/hard rock album is definitely accurate.  Not that that is really a problem, I just think the misclassification can throw people at times expecting a Sabbathian record.

I really enjoyed this album.  I find myself wanting to listen to stuff like this more and more lately.  It is melodic, yet still relatively heavy.  The vocals sound amazing, and the songs are powerful and yet catchy enough to induce singing along.  It is a terrific album and the band definitely sounds like they had a lot of fun creating it.  I definitely have a lot of fun listening to it.