Album Review: Witnesses – “Joy” (Post-doom Metal)

Written by Kirk

When talking about doom metal, it’s almost impossible to do so without talking about riffs.  I don’t care if you’re a death metal fan, a thrash metal fan, a power metal fan, a black metal fan, a trad metal fan, etc., there’s no riff quite like that of a doom metal riff.  No other riff in all of heavy metal—nay, music as a whole—has the power to shake you hard enough to make it feel like your soul is going to escape your body. It’s just one part of why I love doom metal so much.

And yes, we all know that Black Sabbath created the blueprint for doom metal. I mean, they took the blues and said, “But how can we make it heavier?”, and gave birth to a whole new sub-genre of music.  Are we eternally grateful to them? Of course we are, and the wild world of doom is riddled with countless bands who have either emulated or even ripped them off (Hail, Iommi!). And yes, we still listen to them because change is scary and we like listening to things that are familiar and comfortable. But what if I told you there are also bands expanding what it means to be “a doom metal band” and pushing the limits of what doom can do?

One such band is New York’s Witnesses, the brainchild of Greg Schwan and his never-ending quest to create music that is both cinematic and haunting. If you believe in the theory of past lives, then Schwan was a film composer in at least one of them, because his songs elicit such lush and vivid emotions with an ease unlike many others. And while Witnesses hasn’t always been a doom metal band—their first doom metal album was  technically 2019’s To disappear and be nothing—one thing that hasn’t changed since the release of I back in 2017 is Schwan’s knack for majestic harmonies and swooping melodies.

Upon listening to Joy, the latest album from Witnesses and their eighth full-length since Schwan created the project in 2016, you can’t ignore how absolutely beautiful it sounds. To quote directly from their Bandcamp page, “The production is organic. Drums are forward and vocals are aggressively multi-tracked for width and depth. Guitar harmonies are often soaked with reverb to enrich the sense of space.” My ears may not be trained well enough to hear these distinctions in production without being prompted, but I can attest this statement to be absolutely true.  Everything about this record has been expertly crafted; Erik Peabody did an astounding job mastering it. This is Witnesses as you’re supposed to hear them.

What about the album itself? What is at the heart of Joy? What is its message? Its purpose? Its meaning?  Not to sound like an utter and complete smartass (this time), it’s about finding joy, but these songs aren’t about finding joy under ordinary circumstances. These aren’t songs about finding a smile because you’ve had a bad day at work or because your girlfriend broke up with you; these are songs about rediscovering the joy we used to have in our everyday lives. Maybe it’s the love of nature (“Joy (Like a river)”), the joy of sharing your everyday experiences with someone you love (”Joy (I see everything)”), the joy of having someone with whom you can share your most intimate secrets (“Joy (Beyond the sound of my voice)”), the joy of knowing you have companionship with someone that will transcend any hardship (“Joy (The endings)”), or the simple joy of knowing there is someone who loves you as much as you love them (“Joy (Safety in me)”).  What we often neglect to realize is that we often take these things for granted. An innumerable amount of random acts can rend these joys asunder at seemingly any point in our lives—topple this seemingly impenetrable stack of cards—and then what do we do with the pieces? How do we pick them up and carry on? How do we find joy in a world that seems to have forgotten the simplest of pleasures? For me, that’s what is at the heart of Joy, the endless pursuit to overcome an increasingly overwhelming sense of melancholy and hopelessness. Which can sometimes be the most daunting of all of life’s endeavors.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This has been a busy year for Greg Schwan. In addition to painstakingly crafting what is arguably his greatest creation as the driving force behind Witnesses, he’s also been busy working on another passion project:  protecting the sanctity and stability of independent music. It’s no secret by now that the pedestal upon which many of us have placed Bandcamp has begun to tarnish and crumble. Being sold twice in the course of two years has left the already small company in rather sad shape while the demand placed upon it has only grown. But Schwan has been working hard not only on creating his own music, he’s been helping build a new home for the music of others. He has been among the key figures behind Ampwall, a new independent music community looking to replace Bandcamp as the go-to destination for artists and consumers alike. Because one thing in which he finds joy is music, and he’s bound and determined to hold onto that sense of joy with all his might.