Closet Witch – Closet Witch (Review)

Closet Witch are a grindcore band from the US and this is their debut album.

Now here’s a band that don’t mess around. The music on this album is savage and vicious, as well as being pretty damn relentless too.

The band’s songs are crazed and dangerous, bristling with spiky punk energy and devastating in the mayhem they cause. This is violent, angry music. This is the kind of ferocious modern grindcore that leaves scars.

Closet Witch’s music isn’t just simple insanity, however, as there’s a complex method involved here. Elements of technical hardcore and mathcore can certainly be heard in their sound, which manages to somehow increase both its impenetrability and its appeal. Uncompromisingly aggressive this may be, but I like the added depth that the band throw into their songs in the form of this extra layer of complexity and intricacy.

The singer’s voice is razor sharp and insectile. She has the kind of passionately roaring scream that sounds as if it could peel skin with ease, so serrated is her delivery. Top stuff.

If you strip out all of the nicer, softer, introspective parts from a band like Cloud Rat, and then cross this with the sheer intensity and technicality of a band like Discordance Axis, then you’ll have an idea of what Closet Witch sound like. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Highly recommended for any grindfreak.