Following on from their well received debut EP “Celosia” this London based outfit return with follow up release and first full album, featuring 11 tracks of doom laden riffs and bass heavy foundations. “Sleep” with its rattling simple snare drum and haunting vocals has a die for catchy chorus as the song slowly builds and falls before returning to where we started off. Title track “Melancholy Disco” with its industrial sounding Queens Of The Stone Age rhythm races along, then with a dramatic change of tempo we are introduced to the haunting track “Snake” with some eerie lead vocals from “Tom Reynolds” who has one of the most distinct voices I have heard in a long while.
“Afraid Of The Dark” with its Dave Grohl sounding vocals chugs along with lots of fuzzy bass and a beat that is irresistible to ignore. Its refreshing for the band to throw in such a change of pace for the spooky “Keep On Moving” which slowly builds up from the ground first with quiet touches then as it builds the band go head first into an almost psychedelic rampage.
After playing this album 3 times I found it more compelling with each listen, example being the wonderful sounding “Syncing” with its hypnotic trance like pace and backing synths it is one catchy as hell song. The heavy as a ton of bricks “Spiders” shows a slight down tuning of the guitars and a vocal displaying a wider range and I can imagine if the band can replicate this on stage then it will be ball crushing. The one thing “Witchingseason” has achieved with this album is they have produced a really heavy piece of work without sounding like Slayer or any hard rock band they have a unique style and many mellow moments such as “Celebrity” that clocks in at just over the 6 minute mark. This is not meant as a criticism when I say that this 3 piece have a very strange style throwing in Stoner Rock, Alternative Rock, Doom Rock, Psychedelic Rock, which has paid huge dividends because not only has this album been a nightmare to review but I just want to keep returning to it and play it again and again. I will certainly be catching them when they next play a gig because if the songs on this album come over half as good under the lights then I will be a very satisfied customer.
Review by :Steve Bruty
