Review: Warlockhunt ‘Call Of Sorrow’
It might be the fact that I’m so friendly looking that people of a certain age will go to great lengths to show me pictures of their families on a plane trip, I sit there and let them share something that makes my heart swell with hatred. A hatred so evil it must be let out by listening to filth… but with some pop sensibilities ever present. I can’t get too crazy with my car tunes as I cruise to buy my organic produce, but, when a band is self-described as ‘two bass and drums doom pop heaviness formed in 2019 in the grim north west of the UK’ my interest is immediately piqued.
With La Rainey on bass and vocals, Murky Watters on bass, and Kris Fjerkofferson on drums I couldn’t help but notice there doesn’t seem to be a guitar player. Well, guess what? They don’t need one. Bell Witch doesn’t have one. Botanist doesn’t have one. So, let’s see what Warlockhunt brings to the table of building texture by capturing cool rumbles.
Sacred Skin begins with no build-up whatsoever. We’re flung into the chasms of bass and drums playing off each other over seductive vocals drenched with a witchcraft feel, it’s easy to be hypnotized by the lyrics that can easily be taken as threatening, and are delivered so nonchalantly, you become entrapped in the spiderweb like intricately Warlockhunt creates effortlessly. The speed eventually ramps up and the bands muscles are officially flexed.
chasms of bass and drums playing off each other over seductive vocals drenched with a witchcraft feel…
Chords drip in and in and on and on and they just keep coming on the feedback drenched Sorrow Calls. It’s hard to explain as the vocals are delivered in a way that makes them feel like they’re sticking like bricks. Each line never really ends, it just bleeds to the next. Drums dance between playful and tribal, they can’t quite make up their mind on where to land. It’s not random but more desperate like Fjerkofferson has some dark demons he needs to hammer out.
Again, One Day is laced with poppy radio friendly textures overdubbed with a beat resembling what sounds like a laser fight in a long-lost sci-fi B movie. Dreamy vocals that could seamlessly fit in with Coven and Blackwater Holylight’s best tracks. The bass is delivered so slow and doomy, they control the pace even more than before on Forgive, while the vocals have this weird echo effect laying atop the sizzling bass guitars. The forlorn story that La Rainey delivers is so sad and exhausted as the pace ebbs and flows until the track meanders to a crawl. And then… silence.
This was a short effort that shows promise and after listening to these four tracks, a full album could be quite interesting.
Label: Independent
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp
Scribed by: Richard Murray
