Still stalking the dark ways of the night Hampshire, England-based doom metal trio WITCHSORROW return for a fifth full-length album, this time invoking Wheatlyan sophistry directly antagonistic of the Pyrrhonist perspective. A half-mast implication that good and evil exist within all things inherently by design, ‘The Devil and All His Works‘ emphasizes the latter in bearing its post-millennial sonic excess, a sort of throwback to a headier Satanic panicked era of British psychedelic doom. This, sidled with odes to doom metal itself makes for a viably entertaining ‘throwback’-but-not affair wherein this finely tuned record smartly embraces its sub-genre music status as a point of power before reinforcing that idea with sometimes referential, always memorable songcraft.

Witchsorrow formed back in 2006 by way of journalist/author Nick Ruskell (of Kerrang!) at a prime point of popularity for sonic excess and nodding rhythmic exaggeration in the realm of traditional doom metal per Electric Wizard and Reverend Bizarre, often seated alongside contemporaries like Serpent Venom and The Wounded Kings in mind. Their first impression wouldn’t come until 2010 per their celebrated debut (‘Witchsorrow‘, 2010) via Rise Above. The style invoked was incredibly straight forward and remarkably patient in its thrum though clearly inspired by classic era doom metal and records like Cathedral‘s ‘Endtyme‘ to some degree, slow and sickly ’til hits of Sabbath and stoner metal brought ’em up to a jog. If you enjoy straightforward, dark and low-set grooves in psychedelic doom that debut holds up as a solid effort but most’d found the bands early discography fairly generic. I’d been a fan per the dour ‘God Curse Us‘ (2012), a more compelling spin that’d been iterative but inventive by comparison. From that point I’d not heard anything about the band until this year, having missed their Candlelight output entirely.

In the years between Witchsorrow‘d basically pushed away from the obscure, focused stylization of their previous era (w/production values to match) and instead wrote busier, clearer-stated pieces in natural evolution of sound and style. Much as guitarist/vocalist Necroskull was compared to Lee Dorrian over those years by default he’d maybe sounded like the guy for a minute or two their earlier records, borrowed a bit from “Night of the Seagulls” more than a few times, sure, but you could find more ‘Day of Reckoning‘ and earlier Saint Vitus than anything else when taken in riff-for-riff from my point of ear, especially pushing into ‘No Light, Only Fire‘ (2015); Their trajectory had rolled fully uphill from slug-ass cryptic daze to a far more active, mid-paced and rocking “commercial” edged sound on ‘Hexenhammer‘ (2018). I wouldn’t blame folks for losing some interest as the troupe strayed further from bottomless gloom but their discography thus far plays well in ramping interest.

There are two consistent thematic messages threaded into the bulk of ‘The Devil and All His Works‘, the first and most obvious being that one can find the work of Him in every thing and second is a message of heavy metal faith, essentially reaffirmations of Ruskell and krewe’s identity being inextricably linked with doom metal. In this way Witchsorrow‘s fifth album is squarely presented as pure doom metal expression and, despite that sounding like rote spin at face value, they’ve done well to bring back the loud and pulverizing bombast of late 2000’s/early 2010’s doom revival within. Expect a loudest-yet, heavier than thou mid-to-slow paced tank ‘n jog of a psychedelic/stoner doom record, some of which rolls back toward the action the trio’d fostered in the early 2010’s.

Beyond 2025 the new Mark III version of Witchsorrow includes the band’s third drummer, Scott Taylor of post-doom act Garganjua, who features heavier in the mix than some of the bands previous albums while generally tanking alongside what most’d consider a fairly straightforward early 2000’s styled doom metal record. Though their work has long been accused of sidling the first two Electric Wizard records with Cathedral-stoked expression (redundant per ‘Electric Wizard‘, eh) here it is impossible to think of anything else within the shared course of extended opener “Omnia Finiuntur” and key single “Bacchus” both of which revive the grizzled, heady Satanic panic of a certain era of British doom expansion. Though they’ve not captured the raw, oversaturated scuzz of that era at its sludgiest break the lazing trod and half bent Sabbath-isms abounding do well to pull the mind in the exact right headspace.

Though they’re not exactly hitting the quick pop structured framing of a band like Daevar there is yet a grunge-era sense of progression containing both “Bacchus” and the slightly more indulgent “Altar” beyond, escaping an easy Windhand comparison by virtue of Ruskell‘s diction shifting throughout. The latter carries a core progression which, to me, recalls something like a psychedelic doom version of Ministry‘s cover of “Lay Lady Lay”, a loose observation but one that’d pinged in mind several times on the way back. Though I’ve always enjoyed this steadied side of the band it’d been “Hades Chains” and “In Triumph We Rot” that’d stuck around longest per Witchsorrow‘s heavy metal amped side, a much needed change in pace to stoke the running order.

The paradigm of Witchsorrow is arguably the same as it were back in 2010 wherein we find points of obvious reference, a reverence for British doom and sonic excess of a certain era, and a perfectly professional sound which “meets the moment” yet the experience never quite breaks away from sub-genre fealty for distinction. In this way they’ve created another record which feasibly does its own thing on some level but settles in mind as a record squarely for fans of a certain niche. ‘Hexenhammer‘ arguably stretched its wings a bit more but ‘The Devil and All His Works‘ steels the stature of the band rather than expands it, a different goalpost by my measure. It is then bizarre on my part to walk away from it finding the experience both one of the band’s best, on par with their second LP or better, and yet nothing you’ve not heard before. Even when left feeling I’d heard it all before I’d still wanted to keep listening, was entertained as such per a blend of nostalgia and sharp enough songcraft. A moderately high recommendation.

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