WITCHCRAFT is a psychedelic rock/doom outfit based out of Örebro, Örebro, Sweden. The band was formed back in 2000 and this is their sixth full-length released entitled "Black Metal", released back on May 1^st 2020, through Nuclear Blast Records.

My history with this band has been relatively recent, as my best friend asked me the age-old question, do you like beautiful clean vocals in a doom/rock project? The answer was obvious and I was introduced to these guys. What I enjoyed was their throwback rock sound going back to the 1970's and the album that really got me hooked was "Legend" that came out in 2012. Now even though the album happens to be called by a very legendary musical style, it has nothing to with the Norwegian sound. This is an acoustic album from start to finish, with no bells and whistles, no fuzz and distortion. Now that we have made that part clear to everyone, let us proceed with the review itself.

 The opener "Elegantly Expressed Depression" plays on melancholy in its very loud finger-picking but especially in the emotion-driven vocals of Magnus Pelander. You can hear the heartfelt despair in the vibrato and even in the lower notes. In terms of its overall message, I would easily compare this to ANATHEMA when the legendary "Judgement" album was released in 2000. It is followed by a much more dark folk-oriented number "A Boy and a Girl", which is much more somber piece than the preceding one. There is a bit of a western side to this song. I could definitely picture a song of this stature as the ending theme of a spaghetti western movie. The song is extremely short, but it conveys its message extremely well and has the same magnitude as some of the darker tracks of THE MOODY BLUES.

"Sad People" uses some higher notes with a more crystal effect. Again the song is relatively slow in tempo and just oozes JOHNNY CASH in its prophetic envelope of sadness and anguish. While the song is certainly not of the uplifting category, it is very beautiful in its execution. One of the longer numbers on the album is "Grow" that feels more like a journeyman's song, with its criticism of society, and as much as it paints a portrait of the outside world, it also speaks quite a bit of the soul and that search for identity and truth.

In contrast you have a song that is filled a lot more hope in "Free Country" as the title would suggest. What is the most striking about a song usually is the vocal delivery. Every word that is spoken here (you could almost say at times it feels like spoken-word) has a purpose. The words are slowly sung where you can almost hear a deep breath every 10 seconds. Musically, it is a bit faster but the vocals make sure to keep the song nice and slow.

I find one of the more accessible songs (if one could really say that about tear-filled acoustic tracks) on this album is "Sad Dog" which for some reason reminded me of Eddie Vedder and his acoustic work. Maybe it just embodies the same kind of passion that made those songs so memorable. Now it is important to keep note that the entire album is acoustic, with very few tempo changes. The overall flow of the record remains consistent, just as the way the vocals are sung from song to song. It is an acquired taste to listen to an album of this type and while I am not necessarily used to this style, it is very relaxing and well performed by one of the most unique and talented singers in the doom/psychedelic genre today.