Masters of infernal metal since their inception 25 years ago, Swedish blackened Thrash Metal pioneers WITCHERY are soon to return with their 8th studio album “Nightside”, to be released on July 22nd, 2022 worldwide via Century Media Records.
A new single featuring the album’s fierce opening track “Witching Hour” has been released today in a video directed by Martin Hultgren / Gryt Film AB, with post-production handled by Eduardo Hidalgo / E2h Design Studio & Maciej Pieloch / MPieloch.com, to be seen here:
WITCHERY mastermind and guitarist Jensen checked in to comment about “Witching Hour” as follows: “And so, the ‘Witching Hour’ has finally arrived…This, the opening track of the new concept album “Nightside”, kicks off a story of unreal nightmares, demonic possession, inquisitional witches’ trials and then dives into the really dark stuff, haha. First try for us to create a concept album and we are very happy with how it turned out. We worked hard at creating songs that followed the dramaturgy of the story (which was more work than we ever realized, but a challenged we accepted and overcame!). We’re pretty sure that ‘Popecrusher’, and now ‘Witching Hour’, will pique your interest in hearing the full story of “Nightside”!”
A first single for the razor-sharp track “Popecrusher” was previously released in an animated video clip created by Eduardo Hidalgo & Maciej Pieloch / MPieloch.com & E2H Design Studio here: https://youtu.be/aGyJbj0IWYo
Following 2017’s much acclaimed “I Am Legion” album, “Nightside” was recorded with the WITCHERY line-up consisting of Jensen (Guit., The Haunted / ex Seance), Rickard Rimfält (Guit., Seance), Angus Norder (Vox, Nekrokraft), Victor Brandt (Bass, Dimmu Borgir / ex Entombed A.D.) – who now officially replaces longtime bassist Sharlee D’Angelo – and Chris Barkensjö (Drums, LIK / ex Kaamos). The album was once more mixed and produced with Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames, etc.), comes with artwork by Andreas “Diaz” Pettersson (To be seen below!) and features the following track-listing:
WITCHERY – “Nightside”
1. Witching Hour
2. Don’t Burn the Witch
3. Storm of the Unborn
4. Er steht in Flammen
5. Popecrusher
6. Left Hand March
7. Under the Altar
8. Churchburner
9. Crucifix and Candle
10. A Forest of Burning Coffins
11. Nightside
Explaining about the upcoming “Nightside” album, Jensen added the following: “I started to write this album without any general direction of idea in mind, but somewhere in the middle of the writing process I remembered that I’ve always wanted to do a concept album, so I decided to give it a shot. Little did I know that writing a concept album puts a lot more pressure on each and every song turning out great. This might seem a norm (and I guess it is in some way) but usually you write 12-14 songs and choose the songs that turned out the best after they’ve been mixed and mastered. Sometimes even what you thought was going to be the first song on the album gets pushed to somewhere else because another track turned out sounding more like an opening track. Also, out of those 12-14 songs you can choose to keep a few a bonus tracks. With a theme album, songs can’t swap places. The story needs to work (no one wants to do a new “The Elder”!), so the opening track really needs to hold up as an opening track etc., thus the extra pressure of “no surprises” after its all recorded. The album tells a story of demonic nightmares, unexplainable pregnancy, witch trails and an escape from the Old Country to the colonies in the west and what happens once the child is born. Guests on this album is, for starters, our permanent guest of honor Hank Shermann, but also guest solos by Maciek Ofstad of Kvelertak and Simon Johansson of Wolf (also the studio owner of SolnaStudio where we recorded the album. We also had the honor of having Jeff Walker of Carcass do guest vocals on the song “A Forest of Burning Coffins”. All in all, we are very happy with how the album turned out and with again thrilled over Daniel Bergstrand’s killer production…”
As previously mentioned, “Nightside” features brief guest appearances on vocals by Jeff Walker (Carcass, on “A Forest of Burning Coffins” as well as guest guitar leads by Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate, on “Left Hand March”), Simon Johansson (Wolf, on “Crucifix and Candle”) and Maciek Ofstad (Kvelertak, on “Don’t Burn the Witch”).
“Nightside” will be released in the following formats: Jewelcase CD, 180g. vinyl LP (either as black vinyl or as limited transparent red vinyl of 500x copies via CM Distro/Mailorder) and as Digital Album. The pre-order for “Nightside” is available here: https://witchery.lnk.to/NightsideID
Full Image
Previously, WITCHERY’s early catalogue has been re-issued by Century Media Records in 2020 on CD, LP and digitally, finally making “Restless & Dead” (1998), “Witchburner” (EP, 1999), “Dead, Hot And Ready” (1999) and “Symphony For The Devil” (2001) available worldwide again. Check here to complete your collection: https://www.cmdistro.de/Search?q=witchery
Look out…WITCHERY’s “Nightside” is heavy metal witchcraft at its best. The witching hour has arrived!
WITCHERY – “Nightside” – Line-Up:
(From left to right on photo above by Per Addenbrooke)
Rickard Rimfält – Rhythm and Solo Guitars
Victor Brandt – Bass Guitar
Angus Norder – Vocals
Jensen – Rhythm Guitars
Chris Barkensjö – Drums
