Sometimes an album cover is all it takes for me to instantly love a band.  Even in the digital age where you only get a thumbnail preview, a good album cover will speak to me no matter the size of the pic.  Witchers Creed’s new full-length release Awakened from the tomb… brings that quality doom artwork that signifies this is a release that requires immediate attention. The Swedish band is relatively new to the scene having formed in 2016 shortly after the members left high school.  Based on a lot of repeated listens so far, the future is bright (or should it be dark?) for this doom band.

Witchers Creed mine the depths of classic rock, doom and proto-metal to form a modern take on a classic metal sound.  Raven’s Claw recalls early Pentagram with a chorus that sounds as if vocalist Dennis Blohm Hedlund was mentored by Bobby Liebling himself.  The band absolutely crushes through nine tracks climaxing with the song Monolith that is the heaviest track on the album.  Although it spaces out in the middle, the track ultimately falls back to earth with an instrumental groove that segues perfectly into the album outro.  Rather than layering on additional fuzz or distortion, the production is surprisingly polished allowing for the band to expose some of its jagged edges.  It is very early in the year, but I cannot see another release in 2019 dislodging Awakened from the tomb… from the top of my list.  And the cowbell, so much glorious cowbell!