Atomic Witch - Crypt of Sleepless Malice (2022)

 Atomic Witch definitely draws you in with their ridiculous, colorful cover art, which promises all manner of cult horror homages, and it looks like something you might have seen as a poster on the wall in some black-lit corner of Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses. But the music itself is no joke, a brand of semi-technical, semi-brutal death metal which hits a number of references to some of Cannibal Corpse's more intricate material in the Corpsegrinder era, mixed with a dose of clinical thrashing which bounces between the punchy crossover of a Municipal Waste and the proficiency of West Coast late 80s masters like Forbidden or Vio-lence. Hell, I'd even offer that what Vektor does for science fiction death/thrash, Atomic Witch does for horror camp.

But as spastic, intense and engaging as the musicianship is on this record, and it's quite well arranged without ever going too overboard with flashy noodling, it's the performance of the two vocals which puts it well over the top. One's got a snarky, cruel bite to the mid-range delivery, a common trope in thrash and crossover, but then the other has the propensity to hurl all these wild shrieks and screams at you, some of them slightly sustained and eerie, reminding me of anything from the King Diamond falsetto to the raving excellence of the late Warrel Dane of Nevermore, or if I'm being a bit more obscure, Watchtower's Alan Tecchio and Realm's Mark Antoni. Perhaps the band Them is also an apt comparison, though this doesn't feel quite as conceptual. My first time listening through Crypt of Sleepless Malice I picked up that slight vibe of parody, but it's really not; where a band like 3 Inches of Blood is just something I could never get used to, always seeming like a caricature, with this album it really enhances the theatrical insanity of the band's musical style.

There's also just a ton of variation here, beyond the death and thrashing you can occasionally hear a passage that has a melodic death or black metal vibe, and they also set up some great intros to tracks like "She Drifts" which build an instant atmosphere and mood before they spin-kick you in the fast with the verse riffing. The leads are pretty excellent, always appearing at the right second to amplify the mood, and when he lifts off into a scream after one, like in "Cemetery Mud", it melts your face. Now, to be honest, there are quite a few of the individual riffs which feel a bit like you've heard them before, and some of the more surgical sounding stuff doesn't always impress, but there are a good 4-5 tracks on this debut that showcase a truly formidable band, and considering they've only got a few years and shorter releases behind them, their future should prove positively atomic if they can maintain this level.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://atomicwitch.bandcamp.com/album/crypt-of-sleepless-malice