The RMR crew just survived the latest attack from the masters of the weird. A record so out of the box that the Review Desk struggled with its overwrought alternative and strangely proggy airs. But such free-wheeling records (almost) always get the better of us. They are – want it or not – an essential part of the fabric holding our freaky and often strangely vulnerable metal music together. And that makes us always return to that particular well of spooky offerings and lost souls.
And this time, the ornamental album cover first captured our attention. A rich and plainly gothic tableau screaming gloom, death, and impending doom at ye. Thus and to nobody’s surprise over here, Witnesses‘ latest piece swiftly joined all those other odd misfits of the same ilk on our roster. Welcome to the sumpy horrors of our review pipe. May they bring you Joy.
Joy departs on its journey with a beautiful Doom Metal track called Like a River. That’s pvre Peaceville Three on steroids with My Dying Bride always rushing to the forefront. And as it would be boring to just stick to those well-known tropes, Witnesses then continue down an eldritch path that often sounds as disjointed as it is captivating. In other words, they won’t shy away from making uncannily odd choices to further their cause. And whatever the band delivers, it is deft and starkly out in the open. Nobody tries to sweep all those swirling pieces under the proverbial carpet in a warbling wall of sound. Instead, Joy‘s production is almost barebone with a series of chillingly chiseled elements lying before you. This gang wears its emotions on the proverbial sleeve at all times and there’s nothing flowery about it.
In-yer-face progressive tidbits brimming with subdued atmosphere counteract with almost ethereal gothically tainted passages. Slow to mid-tempo aural fragments full of lost memories and psych-laden musings. Avant-garde ambient and Post Metal interludes suddenly and shockingly stop the action in its tracks whenever it suits the storyline. And most of it – strangely – is carried by Simon Bibby‘s often trenchant sad clears, howls, and croonings riding in on a backbone of Angel Hernandez‘s merciless drum work. And that often goes to the detriment of the electric guitars weirdly disappearing back into the mix. Meaning, after a while, Joy takes on a spookily English Doom Metal flavor that resonates with other spirited DM pieces on this zine from earlier this year. Notably, the My Silent Wake piece that Bibby‘s been a part of, too.
Joy also is a complex and deeply emotional record. And what may sound disjointed at the outset, suddenly starts to make sense later. But it is also a piece of contradictions. On one side the melancholic prog and metal can be raw and abrasive. On the other, you suddenly find soothing Post Metal that nicely fits into the overall tapestry of moods and flavors. A journey that forces you into Avant-Garde territory for short stretches with otherworldly psych passages thrown in for good measure. And that renders predominantly good tracks such as I See Everything difficult to digest.
To add insult to injury, a certain lack of clarity haunts the album. A lot of redirections of styles happen suddenly without proper prepping or breakdowns. Also, some songs abruptly stop dead just to take off on a different tangent making this a two-in-one (The Endings at 4:24, for instance). Drink confusion to the emperor, as some said in former times, but this juicy little morsel may prove too much for some. Thus, a slightly improved, clearer structure would have worked wonders. No one ever said that a record only finds sustenance on six tracks only.
So, where does this leave us? The RMR crew liked the kind of elitist psych and avant-garde touch of the record. The wonkiness, the abundance of ideas that despite the structural deficiencies are well chiseled out. And all that runs in on a tearful ocean of expertly crafted raw and often hauntingly beautiful doom with a touch of brutal prog, ethereal atmospherics, and ambients. And to top it, the makers of this piece – oddly – called the album Joy, to boot.
You can’t make that up.1
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 8 November 2024
- Yes, you can. -Ed.-↩