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Witchcryer Premiere “I Rise!”; When Their Gods Come for You out Aug. 20

Witchcryer

I’ll make this real, real easy for you. Austin, Texas’ Witchcryer release their new album, When Their Gods Come for You, on Aug. 20 through Ripple Music. The song premiering below is called “I Rise!” and it’s a burner. It’s got classic rock stomp to spare, attitude out the wazoo, and songwriting to back up the performances of its players. The vocals of Suzy Bravo feature alongside Jason Muxlow‘s guitar, impeccably mixed for an organic feel, but the weight of Marilyn Monroe‘s bass and Javi Moctezuma‘s drums is a grooving presence not to be understated. Across the span of the record, they move between hard-doom Sabbathian roll and Scorpions-style drive-at-night rightonnery — looking at you, “Nemesis, the Inevitable” — and in “Quetzalcoatl” alone, there’s enough swagger to carry the entirety of the record were it called upon to do so, which, guess what, it’s not.

But as an initial public offering from When Their Gods Come for You, they chose well in “I Rise!” even aside from the title’s inherent exclamatory excitement, but you should note, if they’d picked “Hellmouth” instead, I’d be sitting here praising the choice just the same for the low-end P-U-N-C-H of the bassline and severity of the still-melodic vocals. And if they’d gone with “Sisyphus (Holy Roller),” well, aside from the immediate points for cleverness, the clean, efficient and proto-metallic-but-modern-in-its-delivery Witchcryer When Their Gods Come for Youpath the track takes to its apex is an argument in favor of itself. Even opener “The Devil and the Deep Blue See,” though more atmospheric and serving as an intro to the record as a whole, would work. And of course any number of these or the rest of the tracks might show up between now and August, I’m just saying “I Rise!” is a standout among standouts. It represents Witchcryer‘s sophomore LP well in its sound and style — on the album, it leads into the purposeful stretch of the closing duo “Blackfoot Creation Story/Spirit Power” (7:38) and “When Their Gods Come for You” (7:34), which are the two broadest cuts included — but is by no means the sum-total of all they have to offer. You’re gonna want to be friends with it.

“I Rise!” has a guest appearance from Steve Colca from Destroyer of Light — speaking of underrated — in the chorus. The two are bandmates in Temple of Love and, even more crucially, married, and they complement each other well with Colca backing Bravo to add to the impact of the hook. And as you can see below, When Their Gods Come for You takes its lyrical foundation in a purposeful range of creation mythologies, and I’m not going to minimize the stories being told throughout — they are, after all, epics — but even the theme doesn’t outshine the songcraft, and Witchcryer‘s sound refuses to be bogged down by anything in the progression of the album’s 47 minutes. There are ebbs and swells, naturally, and the final two tracks reveal a deeper patience than anything prior, but even there, the songs move and are rife with intent and clarity of method. I feel I could go on, but you should probably just listen to the fucking song.

So do that. And if you want to know much, much more, there’s copious PR wire info below to dive into.

Album’s out Aug. 20. Witchcryer will be at RippleFest Texas 2021 on Aug. 7. More info on that via Facebook.

Enjoy:

Witchcryer on “I Rise!”:

“I Rise!” is first out the gate and it’s an uptempo stomper that tells of the resurrection of the vengeful mythological Greek Titan god Menoetius. Menoetius (“doomed might” in Greek) was known as a violent hot headed and prideful god. He was eventually struck down by Zeus with a bolt of lightning and banished to Tartarus. Menoetius was impetuous to the very end. In the song Menoetius returns from Tartarus threatening to destroy all humans and gods by harnessing the thunderous might of Zeus. Backing vocals in the chorus by Steve Colca from Destroyer of Light.

Preorder: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/

Witchcryer was created by guitarist Jason Muxlow during his time with Chicago doom band, Earthen Grave (Ripple Records) and became his priority when he moved to Austin in early 2015. That summer, he began co-writing songs with drummer Javi Moctezuma and vocalist/lyricist Suzy Bravo joined the band later that year. The band’s demo, The Preying Kind was released that year to strong reviews.

With the final addition of San Antonio bassist Marilyn Monroe (Pillcrusher, Las Cruces), Witchcryer played its first show in April 2016.

In 2018, Witchcryer’s proper debut, Cry Witch was released on Ripple Records. Containing nine songs of classic doom produced by the band & Brant Sankey (recording & mix engineer). The band toured the Southern states with Italian doom band, Messa, made their way north to Chicago on their own later in the year, and played regularly throughout Texas.

In the fall of 2019, the band headed back to producer Brant Sankey’s new Studio E facility in San Antonio to begin working on the new album. Basic tracks were cut in two days. Guitars, vocals, and guest appearances were recorded between shows all the way up to the start of the pandemic, with the final mix and master delivered in the early months of 2021. This time out, the sound is bigger, grander, and more epic, and the band covers far more musical ground, leaning into their rock and metal roots with special guest vocals by doom metal vocalists Gary Rosas (Ungrieved, Mala Suerte) and Steve Colca (Destroyer of Light).

“Their Gods Will Come For You” is a conceptual album that features songs about gods across various ages of civilization throughout time. The album starts with “Devil & The Deep Blue See,” a Faustian tale of a damned soul swallowed whole by an apocalyptic leviathan, Hellmouth and the narrator’s attempt to fight for their life by climbing out of the fish’s mouth. The album continues with the song “Hellmouth” in which the narrator is now the Anglo-Saxon depicted demon fish itself. The album continues with songs about mythological Greek gods and titans with their tales of pride and punishment, a Mesoamerican sun deity that teaches its doomed warrior people to fly, a Roman goddess seeking justice for crimes against women, the tale of the Blackfoot creation god, and then the title track, “When Their Gods Come For You”. The title track comes full circle proclaiming that if one does not stand up for what they believe in, someone else will do the believing and choosing for them.

The album will include a digital download of a digital mythological book to accompany the concept of the album with album lyrics and artwork from artists that contributed their renderings of each god featured in the album. Artists include; David Paul Seymour for drawing “I Rise!”, John Michael Bowley for “Hellmouth”, Daniel Augustus Marschner for drawing “Nemesis, the Inevitable”, Gerardo Quetzatl Garcia for “Quetzatlcoatl”, and cover artist, Kyle Otto.

“On a personal note. This is the album that I’ve been writing in my head my entire life. When I was about 7 years old in 1983, my grandmother took me to the Aztec theatre in San Antonio to see a double feature of “Hercules” starring Lou Ferrigno and “Clash of the Titans”. I fell in love with Greek mythology and stories about these mighty gods. I would obsess over encyclopedias around the house and find every book I could about gods from every religion. I became a Jehovah Witness by myself when I was about 8 or 9. I used to read my yellow “Children’s Book of Bible Stories” and recite every story to memory. I’ll never forget how dazzled I was by the illustrations. I became a Christian when I was 11 years old all by myself. I would go to churches by myself and even got baptized by myself. I knew that whoever I wanted to be, I had to figure it out by myself. In high school I briefly got into Buddhism and then a teacher loan me a book called, “If You Meet the Buddha On the Road, Kill Him”. I was taken aback and was offended by the title. But, when I read the book, the book taught me that it was okay to question religious hierarchies. This is a very personal album, but I’m not trying to tell anyone what to believe in. Overall, the album is just my chance to tell a bunch of great stories with great illustrations.” -Suzy Bravo

Witchcryer are:
Suzy Bravo – vocals, lyrics
Jason Muxlow – guitar
Marilyn Monroe – bass
Javi Moctezuma – drums

Witchcryer website

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Ripple Music on Instagram

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

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