Review Summary: Get in loser, we're haunting this kingdom.
In my endeavor to broaden my musical horizons over the last decade or so, I’ve discovered hundreds, if not thousands of different bands across all sorts of genres. However, Old Corpse Road may be one of the most unique bands I’ve stumbled across. Based in the U.K., the band consists of six members who all go by pseudonyms and all share vocal responsibilities. On top of this, the band is borderline obsessed with British folklore, and this couldn’t be more apparent than on
Tis Witching Hour. This is black metal with the haunting atmosphere and theatricality dialed up to eleven.
Despite the album’s ten-track length, you could argue there’s only five
real songs since the rest of them are interludes that, as alluded to before, mainly serve to build the creepy, macabre atmosphere. In most cases I would think this many interludes (which mainly consist of epic, cinematic string arrangements accompanied by spoken word lyrics) is overkill, but
Tis Witching Hour manages to avoid the common pitfalls of interlude-heavy track lists such as poor, inconsistent pacing.
Interludes aside, the five core tracks on
Tis Witching Hour are mostly terrific.
Glassensikes at Witching Hour, for example, features the band’s many vocalists playing off of each other nearly perfectly. The high-pitched shrieks, demonic growls, and spoken word lyrics all combine with crushing guitar riffs and pounding drums to deliver ten minutes of expressive and memorable black metal.
Hag of the Mist is another example of the band at their best, and is borderline terrifying at moments. The Wanderer (the member responsible for spoken word portions) sounds distraught as he makes desperate calls for his wife and child throughout the song’s runtime.
Regarding
Tis Witching Hour’s drawbacks, If there’s any specific issue that I think is worth mentioning, it’s that there are times where the band could’ve afforded to trim the fluff just a little bit and slim down their songs. The most glaring example of this is in the album’s first “real” track,
The Cauld Lad of Hylton. Around the midway point of the song, the energy comes to a grinding, but temporary, halt, and is slowly built up again only to culminate in an underwhelming conclusion that features an awkward chanting section that isn’t like anything else on the album. Moments like these thankfully aren’t common, but still worth mentioning.
Tis Witching Hour does not disappoint. It may take a few repeat listens to fully soak up the themes and atmosphere of the album, but the music is captivating and brutal enough to make this not feel like a chore. With a little bit of fat-trimming, this could’ve been something truly special, but even as it stands this is an album I would readily recommend to both fans and non-fans of black metal, as well as anyone who’s a sucker for theatrics and concept albums.
4 out of 5
