Witch

Witch released their sophomore LP Paralyzed in March on Tee Pee Records. Paralyzed finds Witch evolving beyond the standard Sabbathian riff structure that defined much of their first record. Witch step into a new realm on Paralyzed, melding punk rock tempo's with acid guitar freak outs while maintaining sludgy head nodding grooves. Rather than revisit the sounds of the 60's/70's, Witch reinvent them.



The punk overtones and sped up tempos are largely due to Kyle Thomas' shift in songwriting to suit the free wheeling energy of J Mascis' drum playing. This is clearly evidenced in "Mutated" and "1000 MPH". Thomas admits, "J plays drums with a lot of energy, so I decided that instead of writing slow songs and having them speed up when we play them live, I should just write faster songs".



While "Paralyzed" does find Witch injecting many postmodern elements into their classic hard rock base, their ability to interweave these sounds track to track throughout the record is what makes Paralyzed so good. From the way the album begins with the frantic urgency filled "Eye" to the epic "Old Trap Line", (A track inspired by philosophies drawn from Vipassana Meditation and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, through the lenses of the practice of hunting rites) closing the album in an infectious psychedelic groove.