ALBUM REVIEW: Asteroid Witch/Greenseeker – Asteroid Witch/Greenseeker

October 31, 2023 Tom Fordham

In the shadow of Mount Hood and the active volcano Mount St Helens, the city of Portland has a rich and vibrant musical history, especially in the heavy music underground. Lying on a number of fault lines, the two latest additions to this eclectic scene are set to open up those fault lines with the rumbling sounds of psychedelic doom and heavy psych. The two rising stars of the Portland underground ASTEROID WITCH and GREENSEEKER join forces for a monolithic split album brimming with fantastic psychedelic imagery and mountains of fuzz.

Forged in the nucleus of a black hole and transported through time and space to the city of Portland in 2021, ASTEROID WITCH combine the thunderous, fuzzed-out riffing of bands like SLEEP and RED FANG with space-age synths and psychedelic jams that are the specialties of HAWKWIND and ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE. Since then they have enchanted and decimated all those who stand before them with their cosmic, fuzzed-out messages from the outer reaches of space. ASTEROID WITCH are well-versed in laying synths and riffs to build monolithic walls of sound that transport you to another universe.

Their counterparts on this album are GREENSEEKER. Formed in 2019, they are worshippers of psychedelic proto-metal; steeped in mysticism and esotericism, their nostalgic, bluesy 1970s riffing and enigmatic lyrics bewitch and beguile all those who hear them. Channelling the sounds of RAINBOW, URIAH HEEP and ATOMIC ROOSTER, the quartet transport you to a mystical time where occultism was on the rise and levels of consciousness were being altered by hallucinogenic substances and mushrooms. GREENSEEKER’s meandering jams will make you want to don a wizard’s cape and explore the wild mountains around their hometown.

The ASTEROID WITCH portion of the album is an intoxicating and heavy slab of doom-laden heavy psych that transports you to another galaxy. With sumptuous layers of fuzz coating their riffs accompanied by mind-bending synthesisers, the quartet waste no time in getting down to business and launching you head first into a black hole. The heavily flanged vocals of their intergalactic ritual leader – going by the name of Dave (guitars, vocals) – hypnotising you with messages of intergalactic demi-gods and cosmic magic. The four transmissions they have put together fluidly connect to make a mesmeric aural experience.

There is an old school attitude to ASTEROID WITCH’s songs. Raw and uncompromising, the band put every litre of blood, sweat and tears into their gargantuan riffs. In some ways it feels like they’re soundtracking an action-packed sci-fi thriller, as the synths glide in between the ball-busting and intense riffs and pummelling drum rolls. Ultimately, their half of the album is a gritty, one way space shuttle ride into the deep, dark recesses of the cosmos. Throughly exhilarating and relentlessly exciting, ASTEROID WITCH give you a wonderfully refreshing take on heavy psych.

Opening up with From Other Worlds, ASTEROID WITCH kick start this cosmic adventure with a thunderous opening riff and restless synthesisers. This is followed up by Time Crystal/Mind Prism – a bluesy and trippy excursion that feels like you’ve eaten one too many mushrooms and you’re imaging the martians on the dashboard of your space ship. Prophets Of The Celestial Temple is a high-energy, bludgeoning slab of BLACK SABBATH-esque riffing and their half is concluded with Astral Projection – a mad, disorienting heavy psych jam that will send you into madness within a black hole.

The GREENSEEKER half of the album is a lot more sedate and hypnotic. Their slower, bluesier and more vintage jams keep you in the tripped-out, cosmic mindset and give you the sensation of floating in your own imagination as the stars and planets race past you. Their dynamic and virtuosic jams are imbued with a deep mysticism that makes your synapses tingle, as if they have tapped into an ancient force and embedded it in their songs.

GREENSEEKER write music to get lost in, which is expelled in the nearly nine-and-a-half-minute musical journey The Curse Of The Black Cloud. The track moves through multiple musical environments all interconnected by well worked melodic transitions and interplay between Max Siegfried’s guitar and Lauren Hatch’s keys. With lusciously vintage tones, the song invites you to get lost in its ethereal layers, as you completely succumb to its spell. Devil’s Grave Touch is a mind-bending, near-13-minute meditation packed with meandering guitars and sensuous vintage organ layers. It harks back to the psychedelic jams of old that would have the audience completely enchanted in the present moment, lost to the world exploring the many levels of human consciousness.

ASTEROID WITCH and GREENSEEKER are here to put Portland on the map, and they have more than done so with an enchanting and mind-bending excursion into the realms of mysticism and space.

Rating: 8/10