I must admit that this independent British Stoner/Doom Rock trio has completely caught me by surprise at first, as I was under the impression from the name that I'll be writing about a Folk Metal band with a name such as CLAN and a title as Witchcraft for their debut album. Nope, not at all. The opening number "No Fairies" throws at you a nicely distorted and possibly downtuned bluesy intro that would remind you some of Tony Iommi's intros. It becomes quite uplifting as the second guitar layer comes in. The song itself deals with life's unfairness and nihilism in a very interesting way. The uplifting melody contrasts with the lyrics "All life is suffering/And you're a cosmic speck of nothing/Grab onto what you want to save/So you can drag it to the grave." First impression: these guys definitely know how to rock out.

"Leave It Be", a bass and drums driven song about the conflict between the love for a person and the love for a personal passion. "I don't need to be judged, it ain't the meaning of love! Dreams are all that I have." Bandmates here do a good job to let each have his moment and also fuse together at the choruses. Matt Pearce's vocals here are great. He sings with passion and sincerity, not with hubris.

"Little Headaches" is a great and catchy tune. Nice harmonies, the players definitely sound like they enjoy themselves. A very fun song to listen to and sing along to. The song itself is really relateable, especially when you're writing a review at five o'clock in the morning after a long day.

"Great Golden Sun" is a hard driven anti-religious number. Its intricate intro fuses the instruments together, it starts with the drums until you hear the wonderful synergy in the work here, it tickles your brain in a good way, it makes you feel everything. The solo and instrumental part of the song is a bit tedious, but eventually it comes to the second verse with the accented line "All the good men stand alone!", and eventually after chanting "Let the fire burn!" it goes off in style with a great blasting outro.

"The Aging Wizard" sounds like a nihilistic ode to Black Sabbath's "The Wizard", this song really shows the stoner and sludge influences of the group. Arguably one of the more remarkable songs on the album. The Wizard is tired of battles and wars, he lost his faith in magic, his solitude took its toll upon him, yet the war he's fighting is out there. Matt Pearce is pouring out his heart through his vocals.

The closing number bearing the name of the album "The Death of Witchcraft" is definitely a gem. It conveys the feeling of closure lyrically and melodically, it actually feels more of a book-end rather than a standalone, but here lies its merit, it shows the foresight in creating this album.

Throughout the whole album CLAN prove themselves to be a very dynamic and professional group who is definitely out to recreate the retro heavy magic and it does that with much success. The whole production is tight and seems well-thought, it definitely leaves a lasting impression of professionalism. There's not much repetitiveness in riffs and melody in the songs themselves and there are some fun rhythmic plays to notice, each instrument and player have their role and time to shine, while they also know how to work together in synergy and tickle your brain. The bluesy solos and great rhythmic work of the bass and drums are truly a strong point for the group. I think the true gems of this album are mostly in the second half of it, as I find some of the first numbers a bit too much of the same. But you can easily recognize the Black Sabbath influences this group has, and it's wonderful as they preserve the style very well, yet still have a distinctive voice of their own.

Despite the fact that this album sometimes feels too solid and uniform in its first half, by that I mean it feels too much made of the same substance, you can't deny that this substance is great. I can truly say I enjoyed this album and probably one of the best debut albums I've heard this year.