Witch

Witch

[4/5] Much of the hype around Witch focuses on the fact that Dinosaur Jr guitarist/singer/Machiavelli figure J Mascis plays drums in the band. And while that sort of trivia may be enough to get your fledgling stoner-rock group plugged in Pitchfork Media’s news section, it won’t convert the 40-year-old bong casualty in the Rise Above Records T-shirt who’s got the much handsomer option of a new Pentagram reissue dangling in front of him this spring. Luckily for him, then, Witch’s debut is a bona-fide motherfucker of a stoner jam, and the next best thing to having Pentagram reborn. In English, that means it’s the spirit child of Black Sabbath’s first two albums, with guitarist Asa Irons’ (of psych-folk group Feathers) riffs bleeding vintage-style fuzz and Mascis’ drumming, while not as nuanced as the jazz-inspired pounding of Sabbath’s Bill Ward, at least having the requisite cavernous thud. There’s some singing, too, courtesy of Feathers’ Kyle Thomas, but unlike most stoner-rock frontmen, he makes it sound incidental. Which, as anyone who’s heard Goatsnake will tell you, is a good move.
(TEE PEE) Aaron Burgess