Written by Zax
- Witnesses – “The Collapse”
- Doom Metal from the United States
- To be released independently on October 31st
Witnesses is the musical gift that keeps on giving this year. Witnesses is a solo project out of New York, and if you’ll recall, around the summer of 2020, I reviewed his album Doom II which was followed by an interview shortly thereafter. Well, Witnesses has released three whole projects since then, including his newest doom metal venture, The Collapse dropping on Halloween!
https://witnesses-nyc.bandcamp.com/
The magic of Witnesses isn’t just the amount of music he drops, but also how consistent it is. Whether he’s making ambient, dark folk, or doom metal, he knocks it out of the park. The range is spectacular, truly.
Witnesses takes on doom metal with heaps of atmosphere, and even more poignant melodies this time around. The tracks are lengthy journeys through slow, ominous riffs, epic vocals. Each track sounds monumental. The production is stellar, and the atmosphere – which actually feels a fair bit darker this go around – shrouds each track under this sorrowful veil. He definitely flexed his ambient skills on this one. The percussion also sounds pretty huge here.
So, if you’ve been following Witnesses like I have, you may be wondering how this record stacks up to Doom II. As much as I enjoy Doom II, I actually think this one tops it. The guitar tone has a lot more bite to it than it did before. It seems like Witnesses recruits a new vocalist for each project, and I actually prefer the vocals this time out, the new guy has more of an aggressive edge to his performance. Essentially, Witnesses juxtaposed melancholy with menacing performances for a more nuanced, diverse listen.
I think Witnesses has something for everyone, and if you’re into classic sounding atmospheric doom metal, you’re going to dig the hell out of this one.
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