Hello Temple. Today I have the pleasure to review the new EP by SKELETONWITCH called "The Apothic Gloom". This EP features 4 songs and is a massive hit to promote their upcoming album. This Melodic Death Metal band from the United States is working hard to provide us with their 6^th Full-length album.

I have been following SKELETONWITCH for a while now and I must say this is probably their best work so far. Obviously it isn't a full album, but the sample of songs here is impressive.

We start with the title track "The Apothic Gloom". The melody is at the centre of this song and Adam's vocals are what you would expect from him, which is neat and ok, but most of the feeling in this song comes from the instrumental melody. This is a great way to introduce their new upcoming album for sure.

We move on to "The Well of Despair", a faster paced, relentless song that brings some brutality and more melody from SKELETONWITCH. This is a very well rounded song without much of a hook or standout moments. The guitars are doing most of the work to bring this song to life, especially in the later half of the song.

"Black Waters" comes back to a slower paced, more melodic sound, but Adam's voice stays at the same level. I think that my one problem with those songs is that the vocals are stay pretty much the same throughout the album. Although the guitars and drums are really the life of this band, I'd love to have a few different intonations on top of it all. It is still a very good song with a beautiful sound to it.

Last but not least, "Red Death, White Light" is probably my favourite song out of those 4. The 7-minute song includes some crazy guitar solos and great riffs from start to finish, all within a beautiful melody. It also has some sort of Progressive feeling in that it moves from fast to slow and back again a few times.

My overall feeling about this EP is very good; all 4 songs are worth listening to a bunch of times. As far as EPs go, this is one of the best I've ever heard. I will be waiting impatiently for the full album though, for these guys are evolving quite nicely and I can't wait to hear more from them.