Join the coven! Witch Fever’s magnificent second album throws more styles into the cauldron, and the result is enrapturing.
Witch Fever’s 2022 album Congregation was as murky and as spellbinding as its title suggested, the residues of singer Amy Walpole’s religious trauma creating heart-stopping, even harrowing moments. It felt leagues above most debuts in how accomplished, and how complete, it was. What could come next? How could they better themselves? Somehow, they’ve done it. FEVEREATEN is a staggering advancement of their sonic sorcery, blacker, richer, more refined yet just as gut-wrenching.
The Manchester quartet stylised themselves as doom-punks from the outset, but more so than ever, that template has become more multi-dimensional. Opener DEAD TO ME is a bridge between their past and present, with the sort of quaking guitar line and abrasive caterwauls that they’ve often called upon, but with a cavernous sense of atmosphere that feels more evolved. They’ve strode forwards emotionally too. In the title-track, Amy mulls her constant returning to writing about the church – ‘I thought I’d gotten over it’, she sings over trembling instrumentals that surge into a chorus thick with dread and the chilling drone of usual bassist Alex Thompson’s cello. ‘Swallow the feeling that I’m a cause for concern / No happy ending’.
There’s clarity, and even moments of triumph. The clamorous SEE YA NEXT TUESDAY bristles with righteous fury while nodding to their hardcore side, which the hellish REPRISE builds on with a cry of ‘WITCH FUCKING FEVER!’ that feels like a beautiful proclamation of self-confidence. But, of course, there are moments of devastation as well. AMBER finds Amy singing through a fracturing voice before she screams to the godless heavens, but her ability to knock their air from your lungs even while writing about simpler, more universal pain (as with Slow Burn from Congregation) is just as impeccable. The glimmering SAFE, which lingers on the slow agony of the movement from lovers to friends, is utterly heart-shattering stuff, and if your chest’s not heavy by the end the haunting cello solo that finishes it will change that.
This is an album for the coldest of autumns and for dark nights of the soul. It’s hellish, haunting and an emotional maelstrom, deeper and more textured than Witch Fever have ever gone before. At this point, everyone needs to know who this band are.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Die Spitz, Chelsea Wolfe, Ethel Cain
FEVEREATEN is released on October 31 via Music For Nations
