Witchrot – Soul Cellar
Release Date: 23rd May 2025
Label: Fuzzed and Buzzed Records (USA) and Majestic Mountain Records (EU)
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom Metal, Psychedelic, Shoegaze, Sludge, Stoner.
FFO: Conan, Acid Mammoth, Castle Rat, Dead Witches, Faetooth, Cathedral.
Review By: Rick Farley
Emerging from Toronto, Canada’s underground in 2018, the fuzzy, atmospheric doom band Witchrot return with new album Soul Cellar releasing May 23rd, 2025. Loaded to the gills with buzzing, stonery, groovy metal, with an epic sense of energetic compositions and distinct taste for the occult. All with a balancing act of slow, trudging atmospheres mixed with swaggering distorted rock filled tempo’s, the record does an excellent job of keeping things truly interesting. Sludgy, sleazy and in your face, Witchrot is here to push genre boundaries and create a unique sound that will linger on for all time.
Soul Cellar was recorded at Simcoe Mechanical by Nixon Boyd and Palace Sound by Dylan Frankland. Mixed by Dylan Frankland and mastered by Tony Reed at Heavy Head Recording CO. It’s big, ugly, thickly distorted and sounds rude as hell. The heavier tracks have an engulfing tone about them that’s hard to shake off. Not an easy record to consume as far as tonal qualities go, and it works magnificently. It creates a noxious, jittery, tension that’s on the verge of shredding your nerves. The softer tones on the record reach into the ethereal doom realm offering respite from the grating distorted chaos. There is enough of a warmer low end that ties everything together, so it doesn’t entirely wreck your ears. The production, while being an acquired tase works incredibly well with the overall atmosphere and compositions the band have created. The one thing that I personally would have liked more, is Lea’s vocals to be less saturated, her voice is so sultry and dramatic, I would have loved a more natural sound. Everything sounds like she’s deep in a cave. Just a personal preference. Shout out to ZZ Corpse for a killer album cover as well.
Musically Soul Cellar is relentlessly heavy while still being creatively and hypnotically melodic. Walls and walls of distorted guitars crashing down all around you. Upbeat Black Sabbath influenced tempos ready to steamroll through your bones, while trippy atmospheric elements are placed within the soundscapes to ensure you’re feeling immersed in another world. One filled with mystery, paranoia, and raw brutality. Silky keyboards, intertwine with smoky airiness only to ram you with oncoming dense guitar riffs. Each track has a theatrical conjured feel to it, as if an alchemist philosophically, and spiritually intertwined with an astral body. This is old-school flavoured heavy metal for doom fans, if that makes any sense.
Soul Cellar surely is not going to appeal to every metalhead out there, and that’s perfectly fine. If colossal, energetic doom filled with sludgy, psychedelic swagger and ethereal atmosphere appeals to you, you will be hard-pressed to find anything else right now quite like this. This is a record meant for a certain genre, but one that’s willing to explore boundaries and push everything just a little further. One listen to the otherworldly vibe of the single Possession Deepens with its darkened sexy vocals, crusty riffed groove and then the sheer brutal crushing from their first single Throat Cutter, and you’ll quickly see why both worlds coming together that form Witchrot is well worth your time.
(4 / 5)
