King Witch – III
Release Date: 27th June 2025
Label: Listenable Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Heavy Metal, Doom Metal.
FFO: Candlemass, Black Sabbath, Avatarium, Memento Mori, Solitude, Aeturnus. Alice In Chains, Soundgarden.
Review By: Mark Waight
Born in late 2015 and hailing from the old city streets of Edinburgh, King Witch are a formidable live band who have already built up quite the following, having extensively toured the UK and Europe over recent years.
King Witch’s old school style Doom-laden Heavy Rock not only gives us a wonderful glimpse into the much-cherished past, but it also delivers a wide grin inducing and intoxicating retro sound fit for the modern world too.
“III” as the title implies is King Witch’s third album, following on from “Under the Mountain” (2018) and “Body of Light” (2020). With an almost five-year gap between “III” and their previous release the long wait only serves to make the new arrival all the sweeter.
King Witch are Laura Donnelly (vocals), Jamie Gilchrist (guitar), Rory Lee (bass) and Andrew Scott (drums).
Maybe we do all “Suffer in Life” but gritty, gloomy and heavy on the hammer openers like this certainly do make those crosses so much easier to bear as we are slowly crushed under the weight of a world that is seemingly hell-bent on self-destruction. Listening to this album, I had to ask myself if King Witch really have done a “Deal with the Devil” because songs like this powerful Dio-style slow burner are so freaking awesome, it’s hard not to believe a big bag of silver coins hasn’t changed hands.
The head spinning, buzz-saw riff of “Swarming Flies” generates an absolute screamer of a track with a very sharp sting in its tail courtesy of a smoking hot and finger numbing guitar solo finale. If I haven’t already persuaded you to turn up your listening device to maximum volume, then make sure you do now in anticipation of a dark doomy voyage with King Witch on the “Sea of Lies” where a jaw dropping, off the hook show of vocals will leave you completely floored.
Laid back and beautiful ballad, “Behind the Veil” explores King Witch’s softer side in full-on psychedelic technicolour. Deliciously delicate guitar playing and smouldering hot rock vocals pave the way to a truly mouthwatering grandstand finish. Pedal to the metal track “Diggin in the Dirt” is a pumped up, turbocharged and fiery good old-fashioned rock’n’roll headbanger. If you haven’t already shaken your head off by this point, then this one should bloody well do the trick!
Acoustic folk influenced song “Little Witch” takes you back to a bygone age and really captures the essence of those great festivals of the past by spiriting you right back there, even if it’s only for a fleeting moment or two. Epically proportioned curtain closer “Last Great Wilderness” is a classic rock track. In one respect it echoes many of the metal masters of the past yet at the same time King Witch also manage to put their own unique spin on proceedings by adding a totally different and refreshing dimension to the genre. The Rock gods will indeed look favourably upon this masterpiece in the years to come!
The next time someone says to you “they don’t make albums like that any more” when listening to one of those classics from yesteryear, you can now inform them, “well, actually they do” and then assuredly guide them in the direction of “III” by King Witch. This superb album instantly transformed me back to being fourteen years old again and listening in awe to heavy metal for the very first time.
King Witch are worthy of a place on the playlist of anyone who is serious about heavy metal and really love this genre. In my opinion, “III” is destined to be one of the very best albums of 2025, it is also my own personal favourite release of the year so far!
Very Highly Recommended!
(5 / 5)
