WITNESSES was introduced to the world through a series of beautiful ambient soundscape albums that used primarily strings, synths and drums to create melancholic atmosphere driven art. Driven by the creative mind of Greg Schwan, with contributions from several artists, WITNESSES has transformed into a Doom Metal powerhouse, that still retains the elements of prior albums, building upon them to create some jaw dropping heavy tracks that are as delicate as they are powerful. Trading out the jazzy sax of their earlier work for deep toned fuzzy guitars and the occasional light burst of drums for booming double bass crashiness that fills in the cracks of the music with a pristine production sound.

The album opens with a crescendo of strings, building in volume and increasing in density as synths layer on top, it's an atmospheric precursor reminiscent of the bands earlier work and although it is simple it builds a really nice image of the mood that they're creating. It nicely leads us into "The Collapse," the titular track that explodes into life with the rumble of straight double bass and the fuzzy Doom guitars. The vocals performed by Anlaik serve the music excellently, his approach here is soft and gentle, understated like the instrumentation, allowing the production and lyrics to make the sound big. The song soon ups the intensity and aggression as the gentle voice become strained shouts and the drums move from the Ride to the crash. The vocal delivery and music at this point heavily reminded me of emo-Hardcore stuff like CITIZEN's earlier work, combining that with the patience of Doom creates for an interesting approach. The song comes to its conclusion with a noodling guitar solo that wails in much higher tones than we'd seen up to this point, giving the title track a punchy ending.

Despite the already short track length, two of those songs are the intro and the interlude, the former of which is a touching, melancholy piano ballad. Very few instruments can translate emotion into music as well as the piano can, and it's a welcome surprise after the unrelenting "Repose." Making up for the aforementioned track length, WITNESSES deliver a ten-minute Doom epic with "They Giveth and Taketh Away."

Following the sombre interlude with a much more aggressive and full on song. The guitars riff away in the midst of all their fuzziness and the drums are patient and hard hitting, taking the less is more approach. When the song density sharply drops out, giving the vocals room to breathe over the soft drums and sparse guitar notes, the silent build up is gripping as you wait for the song to pick back up again, and oh boy does it. Blowing up into a thunderous double time section with the vocals and instrumentation giving it their all to create a powerful and very memorable section that ends with a brilliant guitar solo that would make Kirk Hammett smile.

This album is incredibly solid throughout, incredibly engaging despite it never getting very heavy. The atmosphere is built masterfully owing to the band's roots, that blend perfectly with the Doom Metal, as well as the fuzzy guitars and washy drums, the dreamy vocal delivery and the occasional burst of aggression that will always leave you wanting more until the next burst. Its understated and powerful at the same time, some very memorable moments especially with the guitar work.