Lawr, you inspired me. I swear I’ll get that Graveyard concert review written one of these days, but for now, this.
Been way into a “new” band called Witchcraft (Swedish, of course – where the hell else would any good new music come from?). Was introduced to them by a guy who auditioned for guitar in our new band, Hard Rocks!, but we ended up taking someone else. This guy told me I needed the consensus Witchcraft masterpiece Legend and, boy, he was correct.
Just so happens they put out a new album Nucleus, in January and I snapped it up. Nucleus is LONG. I’m guessing it plays for almost an hour. And it takes some time to sink in. You aren’t gonna shuffle this and stumble upon Shake It Off. I’d say three or four BEGINNING TO END plays to be fair.
But geez, it’s a monster. My favorite (kind of obsessed with it lately) is a 14-minute little ditty that matches even Zep’s Levee for heavy (bonus rhyme), I think it’s about some guy losing his mind and is called Breakdown. I can’t even find it on youtube. Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t sit here listening to the whole thing if I put it up anyway.
I’ll give you this one instead, the first single (really, single that’s being played where?). More poppy, with some Jethro Tull flute and a lyric line about the economy. Not even sure what to think of that.
I’m kind of afraid to go to that new The Witch movie.
It does remind me of Jethro Tull, who were pretty damn good before the prog rock kicked in. So I called up this one, hadn’t heard it in decades, and damn if it isn’t better than I remembered:
I just put Nuclear Blast on my Spotify playlist and will give it an ear on the way to the links a little later.
Want more about Witchcraft, here’s my original post about them from last September: https://rockremnants.com/2014/09/04/night-music-witchcraft-witchcraft/
Interesting that you were onto this in 2014 already. I think I was so taken by The Electric Lightbulbs I didn’t pay as much attention as I should’ve.
Was talking to the main guitarist/leader? of Serpent Throne about Witchcraft at the Graveyard show (the article that may get written) and he said the first album is the best. That’s the one you wrote about; I don’t have that one yet.
Never makes me sad to know there’s something good waiting out there yet undiscovered by me. (You guys know there have been periods where I have serious doubts that there’s anything left. This is not one of those times. My discovery of the Philly hard rock scene has seriously rejuvenated me.)
The humor of talking to Serpent Throne about Witchcraft at the Graveyard show didn’t strike me at first.
I want to hear the real Graveyard review, but even more I want to hear about the Philly hard rock scene, with clips please.