One of the awesome qualities of writing about music through the years is the art of discovering new bands that you may have otherwise passed up. Take this Austrian quartet WITCHRIDER - recently signed to TRUCKFIGHTER's own label Fuzzorama Records on the strength of a self-titled EP release last year and a split single with TRUCKFIGHTER earlier in 2014. Now we have a debut full-length album, the oddly titled "Unmountable Stairs" and a sound that takes into account a mix of Alternative, Occult, and Stoner Rock schemes.

The first thing that captures my attention is the emotional, gritty nature to the vocals of Daniel Dorninger. He's probably heard more than a few times his resemblance to Dave Grohl of FOO FIGHTERS, but I also thing he has a little more of a morose, melancholic nature during songs such as "Black" or the bouncy, BLUE CHEER oriented "Far From You". The bass and drums form this sonic punch to elevate Hans-Peter Leitner's distortion guitar style to another groove like nirvana, exuding Stoner energy and alternative, hypnotic vibes - right out of the gate on "OCD" you just gain propulsion through his simplified, groove intuition.

Then you get a little of that old Occult Rock feeling in terms of the haunting, laughing background vocals and feedback on certain tracks like "1 For 5" or "The Cabin", which I'm sure will appease those that like throwback oriented material. And at other times the band hit almost Doom oriented songwriting, as "The Fog" just slithers along while Daniel navigates up and down his morose register. The production appears to be as natural as you can get, very analog and as in your face as imaginable.

The sign of a great album to me is that when it ends, you want to return to the first song immediately - as if you couldn't get enough. That's certainly the case for my love of WITCHRIDER. Austria has another winning act here, and I'm looking forward to what they cook up next for a follow up.