Paralyzed is the second album from Witch, who – for better or for worse – are probably best known as “that band with J Mascis in it”. Don’t expect a clone of Dinosaur Jr., though, because Mascis doesn’t play guitar in Witch – he plays the drums, which were actually his original instrument of choice when he started out in music.
So Mascis has an important part to play, but it’s far from being all about him. The voice and face of Witch is avant-folker Kyle Thomas of Feathers, whose hazy drones, strangled wails and shrieks and twangy guitar work lend Paralyzed its most immediate character.
That character owes a lot to the more psychedelic end of the stoner rock spectrum, but Witch are a long way from being Sabbath clones in tie-dye. Instead, Paralyzed belies its name by crackling with motion, energy and speed, coming across with a punkish velocity that is emphasised by the garage-style production.
Mascis plays the drums loosely, much the same way he plays guitar. As the driving rhythmic force of Witch, his languid but hard-hitting beats propel the songs with an angsty slouch that belies his age. To be honest, Paralyzed could easily pass for the work of a younger band, because it has that rawness and passion that characterises first albums.
Alongside Mascis’ backbeats run the simple rolling melodies of Dave Sweetapple’s basslines, and topping the two is the jangling distorted guitar work of Thomas, the sound of old single-coil pick-ups pushing through battered amps, playing chords that stagger out of the garage reeking of bong water and craving for junk food. Witch haven’t forgotten what makes rock’n'roll so much fun when you’re young … and when you’re not so young, too.
Paralyzed also has that devil-may-care attitude that can’t be faked, a wild combination of fun and seriousness that sounds impossible on paper. And this is where the magic of Witch truly lies; in a musical environment where tightness and polish is the order of the day, hearing music as slack and playful as Paralyzed is a real breath of fresh air.
For those old enough to remember, it’s the same feeling that we got when grunge appeared to sweep away the Hollywood excess of hair-metal. “You don’t have to hit the right note every time,” Witch seem to be saying. “It’s OK, you can have fun with music - it doesn’t need to be life-and-death serious all the time”.
And Paralyzed is full of this very flippant approach to metal: brash and full of itself, but knowingly aware of its contradictions and cliches, revelling in them and laughing at them at the same time. “1000 MPH” jams its tongue in its cheek with its repeating lines of “one thousand miles an hour / she’s a speed demon” coupled with cod-flamboyant chromatic lead lines, scraping discordant almost-solos and mock-Maiden punk riffs, while “Psychotic Rock” does exactly what you might expect, celebrating freak-out metal by spoofing it … or is it the other way around?
Whichever way you slice it, Paralyzed is a glorious racket of an album - full of fire, fun and attitude. Whether the time is right for Witch to sweep aside the slick pseudo-punk and glossy metal of the moment in a wave of gritty fuzz remains to be seen. But we can rest assured that, whatever they may achieve, Witch are having a whole lot of fun doing it.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: garage, grunge, J Mascis, Paralyzed, psychedelic, punk, stoner, Witch
