Hellwitch
Syzygial Miscreancy

And here I am again, after another long break, this time almost a year, I wanted to return to this site that, I admit without much hesitation, has always held a special place in my heart. I must say it feels like yesterday when I wrote my last review, I remember closing (in style? Who knows) with the jewel “Extravasation” by the legendary Russians Aspid, and today I decide to start again from the technical, chaotic, and I'd even say absurd thrash line of Hellwitch.

We're back in the dear old USA, East Coast, 1990, debut album “Syzygial Miscreancy” (I've become quite practiced at writing it fairly quickly by now). After several demos, which continued in fact even after the album, the band led by the rather hysterical Patrick Ranieri produced their first record, a punch of six songs (plus an introduction) for just 25 and a half total minutes. The intent, apart from stringing together as many complicated words as possible, is evident from the first listen: the classic slow introduction “The Ascent” leads us indeed to the chaotic first solo of “Nosferatu”, where the band members begin to showcase their technique, without worrying about making anything sensible. It's roughly the same sensation that you perceive throughout the entire course of the song, a burst of thrash mixed with death mixed with look-how-fast-I-am, seasoned with Ranieri’s voice truly screaming like a maniac (even Darren Travis would be impressed), making us fear another five completely identical songs. In reality, there is some variation, albeit small, from the more typically thrash manner of “Viral Exogence”, one of the best, to the extreme “Purveyor of Fear” that closes the album, via the ultra-technical “Mordirivial Dissemination”, which includes a typically death metal central section, but also some stranger solutions, like the almost folk hint towards the end. Generally, the whole album flows easily, moreover predictably, crossing other tracks always suspended on that ever-changing and undefined boundary between thrash and death, united by a technique and speed well above the line; the equalization, although “flat” and with a somewhat muffled drum, works well. But don’t expect to find something even remotely akin to progressive…

I’ve been brief this time, it might be that I’ve restrained myself to celebrate my return to activity (who knows for how much longer), but at least I grant you a little final story about the band. “Syzygial Miscreancy” remains for many years the only album of the band: in the immediately following years Hellwitch will simply focus on various and already cited demos and EPs, where I also recommend the songs “Torture Chamber” and “Fate at Pain’s End”; they will also undergo a breakup, presumably around 1998; the return to action is instead traceable around 2004, which will then lead to the second, and for now last, album of the band, “Omnipotent Convocation” (2009), much more oriented towards death, but still a good listen. The new lineup consists, in addition to the indefatigable Ranieri and Joe "Witch" Schnessel, also of Craig Shattuck on the four strings, replacing Tommy Mouser, and an additional guitarist, J. P. Brown; noteworthy is also the appearance, albeit brief, of the omnipresent Alex Marquez (!) on drums. The extreme spirit of Hellwitch has remained after all still alive and little concealed despite the passage of time, listen to believe. And who knows, maybe in another twenty years, they’ll make a new album.