Rote Hexe’s newest release is like the feeling of being slowly bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe, directly across the face. The LA duo has found the prefect concoction of sludgey doom, blood splatters of 90’s post-punk, and a healthy dose of raw hatred. There is no shoegazey downtempo guitar, and no passages of misanthropic pondering here, just the better parts of every Buzzov*en, and Acid Bath album mixed with tincture droplets of Hot Snakes, here and there, to make one ferocious record, fit for the not-so-chill beard set. Elizabeth Gordon’s drumming keeps the stereotypical doom plod, but always to drive the pace forward, and never to fall back against it. Meanwhile, Aaron D.C. Edge’s guitar falls somewhere beneath the dungeons of drop D, and has all the fury of a buzzsaw gnashing bones. All of which is sewn together by Aaron’s glass hammered, fury ignited vokills.
The four tracks on,”Red Witch,” ease deceptively in with a phonograph laden sample from Alfred Hitchcock’s,”Music to Be Murdered By,” before punching you straight in the face with the full force of, “The Brightest Decaying Star.” More samples lead the way for the sophomorial, “Journey of the Forsaken Monk,” which creeps in, but keeps the unrelenting brutality prevalent throughout the album, especially when it comes the meat cleaving vocals. The record’s, “Red Witch,” namesake has a definite metal-cum-90’s-post-hxc feel to it, but that only adds to the dynamic and variation of Rote Hexe, who are clearly making excellent music based on their own wants and needs. Even when the track breaks down, it never gives way, with the drums and guitar still beating a bloody pulse under Aaron’s feral voice. We leave the witches to burn with a sludge-merchants southern-riffed wet dream, in the twisted body of, “Through Bramble, Thorn, and Thistle,” which happens to be the very hole I dwell in. All in all, it’s an eclectic, organic, and unified sound that the duo of Rote Hexe has thrown down on the, “Red Witch,” album. It is most definitely worth taking your time to wrap your fingers around this bleak treasure, which is soon to be released on Cricket Cemetery out of DC.
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1.-The-Brightest-Decaying-Star.mp3|titles=Rote Hexe – The Brightest Decaying Star]
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/4.-Through-Bramble-Thorn-Thistle.mp3|titles=Rote Hexe – Through Bramble, Thorn & Thistle]
New Comments