EP Review
Witches - WitchesWitches - Witches

Witches are a six piece band from Oxford, they have been making music since 2005 and they state that they are influenced by a wide variety of bands such as Radiohead, The Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Faith No More and you can clearly tell that they are influenced by many more bands such as Tool and 568.

These guys are currently writing their second album which is due to be released sometime in 2009 and at the moment they are circulating five brand new tracks, some which may appear on their second album once it is released in 2009 but in the meantime they are releasing the 5 tracks as a promo only EP to give people a taster of what they can expect from the new album.

The 5 tracks on the self titled Witches promo EP are all really listenable, the good thing about Witches is the fact that no two songs by them are the same, their style and sound changes for each song which shows just how hard Witches are trying to have a unique sound.

The EP starts with 'There's A Darkness', the song is a mid-tempo song, the guitar riffs are really intense, the vocals flow well sounding slightly like Thom Yorke from Radioheads style of vocals in places but more melodic most of the time, especially as the song builds up towards the end with the huge trumpet sounds running highly over the vocals. The arrangements of the whole song is spot on, it starts off really chilled out and builds up well to a more heavy sounding outro whilst still keeping things mellow.

'Stammer' see's the band take a totally different direction from the first song as they head out in a full blown electronic journey with keyboard sounds and various different synths leading the song, the vocals are more upbeat and fastly executed, the sound here reminds me very much of the London based band 586.

Midway through the EP comes 'Leave' the song is a slow-tempo song and to be honest is the weakest track from the EP, the only saving point for the track is when it reaches just over 3 minutes in length, a beautiful piece of music from the trumpet comes in and adds a bit of excitement to the song.

'Church Bed's' is a really interesting song, the music running throughout the song is outstanding and so is the lead vocals, they sound quite eerie and spooky, the instrumental work during this song is amazing and you can clearly tell that The Witches love to experiment with instruments and 9 times out of 10 they come up smelling like roses with their final result.

The last song on the EP is 'BOK' the song is very experimental sounding and it reminds me so much of 'Vicarious' from Tool especially with how the song opens with marching band style drumming, twangy guitar riffs and various different soundscapes that build up in volume the longer the song runs for, when the vocals come in they are quite eerie sounding and so similar to those of James Maynard Keenan from Tool, without a doubt this is the strongest song from the EP and a song that Witches just have to include on their forthcoming second album.

Witches were a complete new band to me until I gave this cd a listen and I have to say that I am very impressed with them, they are a really ambitious band who know how to write perfect sounding songs, the songs are full of passion and emotion and the band have such a strong creative edge as each song sounds different from the last.

A lot of great bands have come out of Oxford and hit the mainstream and Witches have the potential to be the next if they continue in their creative ways.

4/5

Review by Trigger
 Band Members

Coming Soon
 Track Listing
1. There's a Darkness
2. Stammer
3. Leave
4. Church Beds
5. B O K
 Band Related Links
Wicthes Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?