Witch ‘Paralyzed’ CD/LP 2008

Anyone who has happened upon this band’s first album will remember THAT riff on ‘Seer’, and what a way to open your debut album it was. An album that wore its vintage pedigree on its sleeve, that dragged you into its world of 70’s neon glow and dodgy acid tabs.

Forward two years and here we have the band’s sophomore release, a record that see’s them develop and expand on their original template. Album opener ‘Eye’ is surprising in its up-tempo punk sensibility, like the Dead Kennedys as seen through a lava lamp. It’s immediately apparent that the warm mellow fuzz of their debut has been replaced with a jagged, angular symmetry slightly at odds with the retro charm they exude. It’s not until the fourth song do the band display some of that relaxed warmth of yore in the fantastically trippy ‘Spacegod’. As an album, ‘Paralyzed’ is superior to the self-titled debut, it has a greater variation and depth to the song-writing that make it a very satisfying listen.

However, even after all of this, the album still has me confused. My head knows that this is a good record, the awkward tempo’s and jangling awkward guitar lines making it so much more interesting than the bands previous effort. It has a rich sound, shrouded in the haze of 70’s drug-induced experimentation. My heart on the other hand just wants one of those riff’s, that fuzzy valve amp warmth of the old record, something to jam-out and trip like a fevered dream to.

Now just imagine if they mixed the two together in the right amounts next time…

Label: Tee Pee Records
Website: www.myspace.com/witchofficial

Scribed by: Andrew Sloan