ALBUM REVIEW: Trove Of Oddities At The Devil’s Driveway – Witchthroat Serpent
In the heart of southern France lies the beautiful city of Toulouse, a city that has had many transitions and evolutions over the centuries, from its earliest occupation to the modern day. It is also the home of French doom metal masters WITCHTHROAT SERPENT. Remerging from the depths after five long years since the band’s last album, 2018’s Swallow The Venom, their new full-length Trove Of Oddities At The Devil’s Driveway is a slower, darker, and more psychedelic affair than anything that has come before it. Ground shaking, earth rumbling and evil, WITCHTHROAT SERPENT present to us a side of themselves that we have not previously seen. Paying tribute to old horror movies, psychedelic drugs and lost souls alongside an evocation to Satan, this is doom metal at its evil best.
Firstly, it is worth noting that Trove Of Oddities At The Devil’s Driveway was recorded entirely on tape. As a result, the famed, warm analogue fuzz adds an extra layer of darkness to an already haunting and eerie album. With that in mind, WITCHTHROAT SERPENT have focused a considerable amount on the album’s atmosphere. Building up layers of ominous psychedelic fuzz alongside a vintage mellotron and old movie samples, the album’s whole aura is threatening, menacing and anguishing. It could be argued that this is the first album in a while that has gone all in on the traditional evil side of doom and the horror movie theme to accompany it, whilst simultaneously reinvigorating the concept and making it sound more evil than ever before.
There are no cheesy tropes and stereotypes here; the whole album feels like it has come with its own demonic entity that sits on your shoulder guiding you through its many layers of hypnotic, dark, fuzz-drenched riffs. It looms over you like a sinister shadow, enveloping you in its darkness while your mind conjures up images of provocative satanic rituals in the rooms in the melting house that sits ominous on the album’s cover. You’ll definitely be checking round the corners and behind the doors as the droning layers of harmonic feedback send a shiver down your spine and put you on edge. WITCHTHROAT SERPENT have absolutely nailed their concept and built enormous, hypnotic riffs around it.
Compared to 2018’s Swallow The Venom and 2016’s Sang-Dragon, the band’s songwriting has taken a significant step forward. Whilst there is still a lingering ELECTRIC WIZARD influence, WITCHTHROAT SERPENT have expanded their sound with some luscious psychedelic layers and stronger vocal melodies. As a result, this attention to detail makes Trove Of Oddities At The Devil’s Driveway a captivating and immersive album, conceptually and musically, as you can feel that the band had a vision and made sure that every element was perfectly in line with what that vision was. While the lyrics draw on old horror films and mind altering drugs, the album as a whole is a vivid fever dream of the weird, strange and spooky.
The first oddity that you experience on this album is the ten-and-a-half-minute Goliath of a track Multi-Dimensional Marvellous Throne; it opens up with oddly harmonised feedback that pierces through your skull before launching into a massive doom groove that makes the ground rumble, slowly building into a hazy psychedelic section that swirls around you as you succumb to the steady groove. Nosferatu’s Mastery follows a similar formula, yet it distinguishes itself from its predecessor with its captivating and ghostly vocal melodies. If you’ve ever read Bram Stoker’s Dracula this song will take you back to the first time you came to the pages describing the beastly vampire.
The Gorgon is a strange, weird and chilling interlude track that introduces the mellotron for the first time. It weaves in and out of strange guitar drones, and there’s a spine tingling vocal sample that sounds like someone trying to reach you from beyond the grave. The House That Dripped Blood is an all out doom track, with slow, trudging riffs drenched in fuzz and bracingly heavy once the drums kick in. Yellow Nacre is the fastest song on the album in terms of pace, yet just as ominous in terms of its all-encompassing sinister riffs. Album closer Mountain Temple In Bleakness consolidates the record wonderfully. It brings together all the elements of the other songs into one blockbuster doom riff-fest before it portentously drones out, leaving you with the little demon it’s left on your shoulder.
WITCHTHROAT SERPENT have upped their game with this album. If anything, this style of writing and production suits them considerably well. Tapping into the evil side of doom and paying tribute to the horror industry in a non-cheesy way has been a masterstroke for the band, as they have managed to explore the shadows and produce something brilliantly sinister.
Rating: 9/10
Trove Of Oddities At The Devil’s Driveway is set for release on March 3rd via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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