Sunday 4 September 2011

Worthy of Your Time: Iron Witch



I’ve been wading plenty in the sludge and doom metal live scene for well over two years now since serving time with the 'Dwarf, and in that time, I’ve seen plenty of evidence to show that UK sludge/doom metal isn’t just in rude health, but might actually be on the rise as well. One such band making a name for themselves in this grimy, muddy scene is one we played with recently, Iron Witch. Hailing from Liverpool, their brand of whiskey n’ booze soaked sludge tore Wakefield a new one that night and it’s likely most other venues in the UK haven’t been the same since.

The band consists of vocalist Chris, guitarists Dan and Sam, bassist Rick and drummer Will. They wear their influences proudly – Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Sleep, Eyehategod - all names synonymous with fat, grease-laden riffs in one form or another. And following in that great tradition, Iron Witch have been serving them up in spades with some Northwestern bile to relish, and have been making great strides since their 2010 demo.

They’ve just released their debut EP, ‘Single Malt’, on Witch Hunter Records, featuring cracking songs like ‘A .45 To Pay the Rent’ and ‘Booze Blues’. It’s available on a pay-what-you-want basis from their official Bandcamp page, as well as on a strictly limited-edition gatefold CD. They also recently got featured on the covermount CD of the latest American edition of Metal Hammer with ‘A .45…’, along with numerous other UK sludge bands flying the flag for grim ol’ Blighty.

We’ll have a review of ‘Single Malt’ up soon enough, for now, check out 'A .45 to Pay the Rent' below. Get behind these guys (and UK sludge) and get yourself covered in a real quagmire of quality 100-proof sludge metal.

Peter Clegg


Iron Witch - A .45 to Pay the Rent


Previously in this series:

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