Margarita Witch Cult – Strung Out In Hell
Release Date: 18th July 2025
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner, Sludge, Punk, NWOBHM, Proto-Metal, Doom.
FFO: Black Sabbath, Hippie Death Cult, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Bloody Hammers, Loose Sutures.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Black Sabbath may have played their last ever gig, but there is no doubt that their influence and legacy will continue to loom large. Just ask Margarita Witch Cult who have never denied the debt they owe to their fellow brummies, and who are about to release their second album of horror-themed, stoner sludge, demented thrash, and proto-metal weirdness.
Opener Crawl Home To Your Coffin sets the mood, the perfect soundtrack to an Eli Roth Hammer horror remake, with Scream Bloody Murder the equally scuzzy sequel. Close your eyes. Are you imagining a giant monster grub being dragged across a mud sodden battlefield at the head of an unstoppable medieval army? If not, then you are probably not listening to Conqueror Worm.
The band are clearly having fun. Not to say they are a parody or taking the piss, just a recognition that this genre of metal doesn’t always have to take itself too seriously. Hence, we get the two and a half minute NWOBHM blast through the possibly euphemistic Witch’s Candle, before the midpoint of the record is marked by a ridiculously doomy cover of Billy Idol’s White Wedding. With a tone sludgier than a three-day UK outdoor festival, it’s going to take more than a good laundry detergent to get those whites ‘whiter than white’
The second half widens the horror template slightly, featuring the sci-fi inflected tale of the Mars Rover, rolling across the red planet hopelessly lost and alone, and adding some horns to the doom on The Fool.
Then we’re back to exploring sinister goings-on and bodily remains stuffed into trees, speculating exactly Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm.
An album that is both ridiculous and fun in equal parts that, if it were a movie, would be a late night, post pub masterpiece.
(4 / 5)
