Smoulder’s fumbled provocation: a beats and yelling feature

Witch Wife in an Alien WorldOut 9th October on Cruz del Sur Music As the erstwhile darlings of the new wave of traditional lesser spotted heavy metal, this album is a bold move for Smoulder. Sure, aside from a clear pivot away from doom into faster classic metal stylings, the material is contiguous with previous effort ‘Violent Creed of Vengeance’. But the demeanour is darker, the delivery more eccentric, the overall experience more bombastic, reaching to the essence of old school USPM in Brocas Helm, Manilla, Road, or Cirith Ungol, which can often appear abrasive or even baffling to modern ears which, for the most part, usually parse it as “charming”. The presentation pulls in opposite directions. Production wise things have been brought back to basics, not that Smoulder ever showed much ankle in this regard, but some attention has been taken to make this as raw and immediate as possible whilst coating the mix in enough varnish to enhance the more epic moments. This, in every…