Musing over dark dreams, fantastical quasi-blasphemies and what drives the blues in mind Örebro, Sweden-based heavy psychedelic rock/traditional doom metal trio WITCHCRAFT return with their first characteristic full-length in nearly a decade. As a seventh and long-awaited record from a band credited with inspiring broader heavy rock revivalist idealism a couple of decades ago ‘Idag‘ is naturally cumulative, gathering years broadened ouevre into a proper representative experience. Meeting up with the expectations set by the artist’s 70’s stoked spiritus and folken doomed personae might’ve been a mess in most hands but here style acts in service to their songcraft and not the other way around, ensuring no matter how you approach this one it’ll feel equal parts welcome return and a pace forward.

Witchcraft formed circa 2000 by way of Magnus Pelander not long after his prior band Norrsken split and the story has been well told from that point as a tribute 7″ EP under this name lead to the official formation of an occult rock/traditional doom metal inspired band soon after. They’d just as quickly signed to Rise Above and released a vintage-toned, folkish and bluesy heavy psychedelic rock full-length (‘Witchcraft‘, 2004) and developed their Pentagram inspired sound via a string of popular records over the next few years. By the time that contract was up and the shift to Nuclear Blast was made the (completely restaffed) band opted for a polished sound, catchier hard rock songcraft on ‘Legend‘ (2012). It was arguably their least interesting release and despite having been a fan from the start I’d lost interest long before the impressive ‘Nucleus‘ (2016) brought me back, ending up at #13 on my Best of The Year List. The dramatic hand of Pelander is typically best served by some manner of extreme, or at least strong expression or character to embody (see: “The Outcast”, et al.) and for my own taste this occurred when his vision was at its peak indulgence circa 2016.

‘Black Metal‘ (2020) appeared to purposefully invert those expectations via an acoustic album focused on spiritual and emotive release, essentially a solo record under the Witchcraft name. So, now that we’re on the cusp of album number seven it bears some mention that their name hasn’t been in lights for a while, I’m not sure they’d toured those two previous albums (likely for different reasons) and as such there’s been no real prompt for what ‘Idag‘ intends to be. Granted the press materials suggest outright that we can consider this work cumulative, representative of past-and-present personae set alongside reissues of some past releases. So, it might perk the ears of old heads to know that 70’s proto-metallic, folken and prog-rock devised inspiration feed this latest work’s tone and timbre. I’m here for the doom metal gear for the most part and can reassure folks there are riffs on this album but you might have to be keen on their whole discography to best appreciate this one.

Fans of ‘Nucleus‘ won’t find any ~15 minute epics here but you will feel some of that blood boiling within a handful of these songs as the dramatic doom metal buzzed touch of Witchcraft finds some of its pre-‘Legend‘ voice in opener “Idag” and, generally speaking, throughout the full listen. That opening piece isn’t just a slow burn into gloom as its odd-stepped, not so Sabbath groove evolves beyond the wah-soaked solo around ~2:57 minutes in. We get the intense vibrato of Pelander in broad showcase, an oaken bass guitar tone, and a most classic treatment of the riff ’til ~4:17 arrives and a funkier rhythm crops up, synth briefly swoops in (via Björn Ekholm Eriksson) to redirect. The gears are turning in mind as that opening piece/title track already speaks to this whole idea that the Witchcraft sound might be salvaged unto an amalgam which serves the song and not just the style.

On that same note they go on cracking into a shorter (earlier) Pentagram-esque buzzer with “Drömmar Av Is” and something a bit more signature Witchcraft via the troubled intensity of “Drömmen Om Död Och Förruttnelse”. Here I’d point to two realities of Side A which should be obvious enough: First, the first half of the record is sung almost entirely in Swedish and this is something new for the band outright. Second, and far less important is the use of wah pedal tones for simpler rock guitar leads. They’ve made sure the listener has comfortably eased into an ancient doom metal cloud before Pelander reaches for his own shade of folk-spiritual blues (“Om Di Vill”) and an acoustic interlude (“Gläntan (Längtan)”) and I suppose if you’d been repulsed by ‘Black Metal‘ for whatever reason these short and sombre pieces entirely fit into the trajectory of the album’s first half, not quite as much as “Christmas” does later on but enough that it feels like Pelander is exacting his full range within this album.

Side B arrives with English-sung lyrics in hand and the ‘Firewood‘-feeling single “Burning Cross” pulls the ear back to bigger riffs and melancholic tones. If you’re looking for that point where Witchcraft yank the reigns and take you back to the 2000’s I’d say it’d already been happening since the album opener but as we touch upon this piece as well as the folken heavy psych bustle of “Irreligious Flamboyant Flame” we’re fully there per my own experience. Another key single “Spirit” ensures you got the memo, that both the entrance and exit from ‘Idag‘ bears its own hand of rootsy doom-rock fixation; The full listen is varietal yet bears a strong signature, almost working too much into a ~40 minute rock record and only just carrying sensical tonality through its overall flow (re: following “Christmas” with “Spirit” makes sense as an endpoint, etc.)

By design one should arrive upon ‘Idag‘ with most any angle of existing fandom for Witchcraft and find the experience easy to connect with. I’d always felt there needed to be a smoother transition between the band’s late 2000’s oak and their sudden return in the early 2010’s unto polished evolution, in some respect we get more of that midway covered here than on ‘Nucleus‘ but also an album which doesn’t deny Pelander proper extension of his skills and notable voice beyond 2016. In taking a look beyond consideration of its place in the band’s discography I’d simply enjoyed ‘Idag‘ as a return to their realm, to the fellow’s considerable voice, and the overall most complete ground covered within. Though I’ve some nostalgic fandom for certain other releases this one makes a great argument as a best representative vision of the artist which won’t likely suffer under iteration. A high recommendation.

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