(CD/LP, Church Road, 2026)
If you’re old enough, you may remember the explosion of Doom releases in the mid ‘00s. A time when Doom Metal took the underground by its trembling hand and guided it, with fanaticism, toward BLACK SABBATH’s ‘Heavy paradise’. CATHEDRAL, REVEREND BIZARRE, CANDLEMASS and SAINT VITUS, among others, led the underground straight into trends’ living rooms, making many fans turn their gaze (and ears) toward a genre that, until then, felt difficult, slow, and not exactly eager to please.
Trends come and go, and by the time we reached the mid ‘20s (when the F did that happen?), only a few true acolytes are still keeping the fire burning beneath the weight of modern –Core subgenres, if Metal at all. Going against the grain, British Doom legends WITCHSORROW continue the Heavy work with their fifth studio album, “The Devil and All His Works”, breathing fresh air into a forgotten Metal realm with grace, malice, and unashamed dedication.
The verdict arrives early: “the fire has not dimmed.”
At eleven and a half minutes of evil Doom Metal, album opener “Omnia Finiuntur” makes it clear that WITCHSORROW are not here to modernize the genre for short attention spans. The riffs move with ceremonial weight, the atmosphere is blackened and occult, and the transition from the church organ to the Eastern-like guitar solo is a pure delight. This is Doom written by people who understand that heaviness is patience, structure, and the courage to let the riff breathe until it turns into a claustrophobic room you cannot escape. Leading single “Bacchus” conjures a hypnotic atmosphere of ritualistic indulgence, as if ancient, black-robed sorcerers gathered around the amplifier to bless the distortion. Here, WITCHSORROW’s mastery of guitar tone becomes impossible to ignore. The production, courtesy of UK underground Metal figure Chris Fielding, keeps the sound massive without turning it into mud. The guitars are crunchy and clear, the bass is thick and suffocating, and the whole thing moves with a no-frills Doom authority that knows exactly where it comes from.
WITCHSORROW’s riffs are hungry mouths that open wide for old-school Doom metallers who still believe “in endless decay Doom round our throats til the end,” as the lyrics in my personal favorite “In Triumph We Rot!!!” nicely put it. Between tolling bells and headbanging rhythmic stomps, the song feels like a hymn for those who never escaped Doom because they never wanted to. The basslines move like nepenthes: sweet and narcotic, waiting to catch, devour and digest their prey.
What makes “The Devil And All His Works” even more refreshing is how human it sounds. Some intentional imperfections - in the guitars and/or drums during “Hades Chains”, for example - underline the physical presence of the musicians. In an era flooded with radically polished, over-corrected music, this feels like a real palate cleanser. It draws the listener closer to the speakers, reminding us that Doom should feel alive, dangerous, and slightly unstable. The track’s fist-raised momentum also benefits from Serena Cherry’s guest roars, adding extra venom without distracting from the band’s core identity.
The short, bass-laden instrumental “Lamentation” works like a dark sonic carpet before Hamlet’s famous reflection on man’s greatness and dust-like insignificance opens the philosophical wound even wider. This leads perfectly into “A Quintessence Of Dust”, where humanity’s self-destructive nature becomes the album’s final, crushing meditation. The song grows more lethal by the second, with Necroskull delivering “cruelest fate, touched by the shadows of life,” like a sentence already carved into stone. The tolling bell sounds at the end remind us that we are both severed from and bound to mortality, while providing the perfect excuse to begin the ritual all over again.
Listening to “The Devil And All His Works” in its entirety, the first thought that came to mind was that WITCHSORROW have painted the “doomness” of Doom, yet everything they do reveals the architectural mind of true English Metal. Their songwriting depends on structure, and because it is structural, its Art depends essentially on heaviness. Yes, they have studied the occult Doom lore and covered it in the thickest fog they could summon, but they have also made it their own.
While many cult bands cannot make a dignified comeback to save their reputation, the raw, slithering, and true-to-its-roots “The Devil And All His Works” is more than a return. Fully aware that the Devil is present in everything, it’s a minor masterpiece that proves WITCHSORROW has been beautifully preserved in darkness. This is their most captivating sermon yet and, quite possibly, the best UK Doom Metal album since ELECTRIC WIZARD’s “Dopethrone”.
“We are the damned
Grief enraptured
Rise from the grave
Forever doomed”
10/10
Links:
www.FaceBook.Com/WitchsorrowDoom
www.Instagram.Com/Witchsorrow
Tracklist:
01. Omnia Finiuntur
02. Bacchus
03. Hades Chains
04. Altar
05. In Triumph We Rot!!!
06. Lamentation
07. A Quintessence Of Dust
Lineup:
Necroskull - Guitar, Vocals
Emily Witch - Bass
Scott Taylor - Drums
David Wilbraham - Drums (on album)