Swamp Witch - The Slithering Bog
Sludge metallers create visions of swampy hell on second release
Whilst bands like Inter Arma are setting new standards for the scope and limitations of modern sludge, there will always be those that instead dive head first into the genre and let it wholly consume them. Experimentation is no bad thing, but there’s something to be admired about a band that knows what they want to be, and commits wholly to being exactly that. Swamp Witch are one of these bands, as they deliver exactly the kind of thick, weighty sound that their name and murky album sleeve promises.
At the heart of Swamp Witch’s sound is a stylistically typical sound that hasn't evolved much from their 2014 debut Gnosis, with bruising riffs unleashing their assault from a realm of unsurpassable feedback. Swamp Witch’s is a sludgy sound that fans of the genre will be used to by now, but The Slithering Bog shines by managing to do something most don’t. Whether it’s the subtle layer of agonised, hypnotic psychedelia or the perfectly executed atmosphere of despair and decay, The Slithering Bog draws you in and allows your mind to wander in much the same way it will whilst reading a captivating book. When this happens, the album opens up into a sonic journey that lets your imagination soar through a labyrinth of ghostly, hellish marshland.
Riffs aren’t so much droning from a layer of feedback as much as they are trying to escape from a swamp of grimy mud. When the pace slows on tracks like ‘Marsh of Delusion’ and ‘Bayou Tomb’, it’s as if long corkscrewing weeds have wrapped around the listeners legs, and are constantly trying to drag them into the murky depths. An eternally swirling fog makes the bog impossible to escape, and this stays during the sombre mood of ‘Dead Root’, which makes it seem as if the listener is uncontrollably sinking into the putrid abyss.
It’s perhaps a little ironic that a band which seems fairly predictable is one of the most bewitching you’ll come across. Imaginations rarely run free when listening to what at first seems like typical sludge-obsessed doom metal, but the near-pinpoint use of each element of Swamp Witch’s sound provides a swampy, nightmarish world for the mind to explore. You’ve almost certainly heard this kind of music before, but the incredibly effective way in which the band use their sound shows that while there are many great acts that are pushing the limits of the genre, those that happily stay confined to it will always have room to create great music if they’re capable.
8/10
