Originally written by Ramar Pittance
I think most metal fans know a band or two like Skeletonwitch. Either they practiced in your dormitory’s basement while you were in college, lived a few doors down from you in the shit-fuck town your grew up in, or grabbed the opening spot on whatever opening tour that came through your area. They’re all metalheads, and listen to all the same shit you do. They grew their hair out and walked around in Deicide or Hellhammer shirts and cut-off camo pants. And, whenever you walked into whatever gas station or liquor store the bass player was working at to buy new equipment or pay rent, he had some positively superb stuff on that you would shoot the breeze about while you bought your beef jerky and Busch. And, you always wondered why this band never got signed, because whenever you saw them live they kicked your fucking ass. And, this band knew what real metal was all about, and didn’t play that faggot pussy shit like all those metalcore bands that are on Metal Blade and Roadrunner. But, when you put the bong down and actually listened to the demo you bought at their basement show, you kind of realized why the bass player was still working at the Circle K and every show got broken up at 11:30 because some skinhead punched some dude in a Smiths tee-shirt and emo glasses in the stomach. And the reason was because, when you broke it down, as much as you wanted them to, your boys didn’t have what it took. Skeletonwitch are that band.
Worship the Witch is the second Skeletonwitch demo to land at Metal Review, and not much seems to have changed since the last one. These are heavy metal fans playing heavy metal music, and their vast range of influence paints this demo as a kind of indistinct extreme metal portrait. There are fast parts with driving blast beats and steady tremolo riffing, dark clean guitar intros that set the pace for punchy, hard driving riff based tunes, and of course melodic Iron Maiden inspired epics. The players are strong individually, and have a good idea of how to play together in time and transition well, but with song writing so well-worn, their commendable performance can only rise so high as their average material. The production sounds live, and succeeds because the band knows how to pull their own songs off, but the drums are too loud and bass is overwhelming.
Until Skeletonwitch can elevate their songwriting and vision, they will continue to be provincial heroes that consistently pump out average sounding demos.
