Witch Fever are a rising four-piece, originally formed in Manchester. Their debut album, 2022’s Congregation, was a raw, sludge-punk howl that represented singer Amy Walpole’s livid rejection of the stridently patriarchal Charismatic Church of her upbringing.
Since then, they’ve toured with everyone from Biffy Clyro to IDLES, and gathered a righteous amount of attention (and, of course, they look great). Their second album is less laser-focused on religious subject matter. It’s a match for its predecessor but with greater use of atmospheric effects and electronic trimmings.
Opener “Dead to Me”, a highlight, sets the tone, its title phrase punching out as a chorus from a squall of feedback and Wardruna-style tribal drums. There's plenty similar on board, notably “Drank the Sap”, hammering and gnarly, riding a furious metal riff, after its grunge-style quiet-loud start, but Witch Fever also dip in other directions, exemplified by “Safe”, with its post-punk underpinning, tuneful vocals, and sweet instrumental bridge.
They have lyrical and conceptual heft. In fact, it’s a shame the words, often lost shrieking into the maelstrom, are not more audible. The slow-headbanging “Amber” is a case in point: “Searching venue backrooms looking for another bouquet/Leather belts and buckles hang me up and beg me to stay/I bought a pack of cigs just to smell them and throw them away/Put me in a locket and save me for another day”).
Like Gazelle Twin, but working in a different idiom, Witch Fever embrace a gothic and bloodied (gender fluid) feminine, reflecting the uncanny and the pagan (there is mention of “hagstones”), via four minds musically raging, as if under steam cooker pressure.
Fevereaten is, thus, a noisy palate-cleanser of an album, a battering like their debut. My sense is that they have in them an album that’s less densely abrasive, more musically contagious, an unlikely crossover whopper. This isn’t it but it is a sturdy sonic expansion on their debut, a companion piece peppered with explosive cuts that that will, undoubtedly, fuel their visceral live sets.
Below: Watch the video for "Safe" by Witch Fever
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