Review: Sorcia ‘Lost Season’

Seattle trio Sorcia (Jessica Brasch – vocals/bass, Neal De Atley – vocals/guitar and Bryson Marcey – drums) formed back in 2018 and released their debut album mere days before the pandemic hit in early 2020. 2021’s Death By Design EP marked their first release for Brad Fyre‘s excellent Desert Records label and was reviewed by our own Josh Schneider here at Shaman towers. A great read for when you get the opportunity.

As with Death By Design, Lost Season the band’s sophomore album, is produced by Thomas Doyle (Tad) at his Witch Ape Studio. Like Josh, I too am a huge fan of Tad, one of the most overlooked and underappreciated bands from the grunge scene. The artwork is also fantastic, offering you a brief portal into another dimension and is yet another reason why I was so excited to review this album.

MisAnnThrope kicks things off Electric Wizard style (think Witchcult Today) and before you start rolling your eyes at the prospect of yet another generic and boring Wizard knockoff influenced band, fear not, these are not just some weed obsessives cranking out cheesy horror samples and uninspired riffs. Instead, you get vocals bearing a slight similarity to the late Chris Cornell (RIP) with the more subdued parts of the track reminiscent of Soundgarden’s own twisted brand of psychedelic infused grunge doom. There are even shades of Doyle’s work in Brothers of the Sonic Cloth to be found; a promising opening number.

An Axe Named Otis is a little faster with punishing grooves evoking Celtic Frost, while the vocals of Jessica and Neal provide a dark goth/death-rock vibe that works spectacularly well. As such, Sorcia have avoided the pitfalls of simply choosing to outdo their contemporaries in the heaviness stakes, instead crafting music that has texture, variety and intelligence in equal measure. A personal favourite. Faded Dune demonstrates the band’s fun side with a NOLA southern metal influenced sludge sound that will delight fans of Down and Alabama Thunderpussy. There are also shades of Deliverance/Wiseblood Corrosion of Conformity and I was going to mention Zakk Wylde, but realized I liked the band too much to insult them like that.

Dusty appeared on the aforementioned Death By Design in acoustic form and was a mellower, Americana/folk type affair, this time round the track has been transformed into something far more brooding with a distinctive post-punk edge. It’s also obviously far heavier in tone with wild expansive soloing in places. This is a wonderfully emotive piece, and the band are proven to be correct in their assertion that it ‘was always meant to be plugged in and turned up, showing its other side as a powerful and epic force’, which it truly is.

Entering The Eighth House is the longest track at over nine minutes and there is something of a Saint Vitus doom flavour about it. As such it wouldn’t be out of place on that band’s Mournful Cries album, and one could easily envisage it sitting comfortably alongside Shooting Gallery and The Troll. It has that classic Vitus lysergic feel as well and as such is an appropriately downbeat way to conclude the album. As with An Axe Named Otis, Neal and Jessica‘s dual vocals once again take us further and further into the mire, never has despondency sounded as good.

I don’t know where Fyre finds bands such Sorcia but it’s a credit to not only him, but also his label, and of course the band themselves that we have an excellent record such as this in front of us to enjoy.

Label: Desert Records
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: Reza Mills