But then a group emerges that everyone understands and loves. Back in the 1960s it was the Beatles. In the 1970s it was Led Zeppelin. In the 1980s it was Michael Jackson. In the 2010s it is doubtful that Witchcraft will be that band, but their sound, while based in hard rock, is so universally impressive that it is nigh-impossible to at the very least say that Witchcraft is talented. They are a criminally underrated group that needs more attention.
Witchcraft's first, self-titled album was not too impressive, and their sophomore efforts, Firewood and The Alchemist, were decent, but Legend blows the other two out of the water, and if Witchcraft continues on the trail this album lays, they are sure to get even better.
***
Album: Legend
Artist: Witchcraft
Year of Release: 2012
Genre: Hard Rock / Heavy Metal
***
A characteristic of a really good album is that it impresses right from the start. While some albums build things up to a spectacular first impression, others just start rocking and never stop. With Legend, Witchcraft chose to take that route, and the first song, Deconstruction, does just that. It starts with a powerful hard rock medley that repeats a few times to open up the song. Then the song kicks into high gear with a great guitar riff backed up by the bass and rhythm guitar. But after that the lyrics kick in, and then things get really good. Despite originating in Northern Europe, their lyrics are perfectly clear and easy to understand, and great lyrics they are:
Say me Mister Officer, what is it that you want from me?
I'm just another brick in this fascist regime society,
I stand naked and abused.
Utopian idealists breaking ways for all to see
Deconstructed patterns manifest in broken helpless souls
Inspiration draws us all from amuse, abuse, and disconnect
Suspicion and coalition hold their hands when trust is gone,
Satan is amused.
The band clearly believes that something needs to change in their world. The lyrics show a clear distaste for the parliamentary monarchies of Norway and Sweden, and distrust of the police and similar officers. Beyond that, however, the fact that the lyrics are so easily understandable and interpretable gives this band a more mainstream sound than a hard rock band like Graveyard or a heavy metal band like Kyng or even some modern rap artists, to a degree.
Even without the lyrics, however, the songs work really well. So many modern artists use lyrics as a crutch to hold up the lazy and boring music behind it. Witchcraft doesn't do that, and show off clear musical prowess, especially in songs like the closer.
The album also succeeds with regard to variety, as the album does not just rock from the beginning to end. The band instead treats every song differently while placing them such that they flow into each other. The second song, Flag of Fate, for example, is slower than the opener, but it doesn't sacrifice the power that was demonstrated there. After that they sped things up a little with It's Not Because of You, but kept things a bit softer with a few nice hard rock riffs thrown in. The entire album plays out like this, and no song is out of place.
The band also has influences from all over the board. While hard rock and heavy metal are the base of most songs, soft rock elements are in some songs like the aforementioned "It's Not Because of You", and some stoner rock elements are evident in the song after it, An Alternative to Freedom, with its slower, more laid-back hard rock feel that defined bands like Nirvana. Led Zeppelin-style technical hard rock clearly played a part in influencing Ghost's House.
One of the most unique songs on the album is White Light Suicide, with its riff-based intro with finger-snapping in the background. Then it all stops for a second, and then continues as a softer song with some hard rock bits here and there.
The band dabbles with a triple feel with Democracy, to change things up. This one goes pretty slowly for a hard rock tune, but it doesn't sacrifice the energy and power either. In fact, "Democracy" is one of the heaviest songs on the album, and then perfectly follows it with the softest song on the album, Dystopia, a somber, deliberate tune that is very impressive, if a little repetitive at times.
The album closes with Dead End, an 11-minute technical hard rock opus that features a soft guitar riff that repeats in the background, and then picks up a bit after each verse. It starts to get a bit repetitive when around the three-minute mark the song changes into a soft acoustic feature that devolves into a repeating base figure with rough vocals behind it. What the band does here is really neat because when the vocals get really loud, the guitarists go into overdrive for a bit and then drop out to only the bass figure again. Around seven minutes in the song changes to a slow triple feel for the rest of the song. They do some really neat things here musically, but the end does drag on for a bit longer than it needed to. It's a great way to close the album....
...but they also threw in a bonus track, By Your Definition, which, sadly, is the only forgettable song on the album. It doesn't stand out at all, and it sounds almost as if the band wrote this song just because the album wasn't long enough. An album isn't too short unless it leaves listeners dissatisfied, and Legend was more than satisfying by its conclusion. This bonus track really was not needed.
Without the bonus, however, Legend is a fantastic package. It may not be the Led Zeppelin III of the modern era, but it still is one of the best hard rock / heavy metal albums of 2012, and that's still pretty damn good.
***
Music Video Sample:
<to come at a later date>
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