Concurrent to opening preorders for reissues of 2020’s Black Metal (review here) and 2016’s Nucleus (review here) both backed by the band’s new label, Heavy Psych Sounds, Sweden’s Witchcraft today unveil the first audio from their new full-length, Idag, out May 23. You can see below I wrote the bio, so I’m not going to pretend not to have heard it or that what’s happening sound-wise on it isn’t a big deal. In a song like “Burning Cross,” which is a swinging and classically dark first single, it’s the most in-conversation with doom Witchcraft have been in 20 years. That’s not minor in my mind.

I’ll have more to come — I hope — before May 23 gets here, but you can hear the song at the bottom of this post (Decibel had the premiere; I’ll never be that cool and I’ll always be insecure about it) and see what you think. If you want more of my take on the thing at this point, read ‘Album Description & Bio’ below.

Here’s how it came down the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce WITCHCRAFT new album IDAG – presale starts TODAY !!!

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the WITCHCRAFT upcoming brand new album IDAG !!

RELEASE DATE: MAY 23rd

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS353

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm#HPS353

TRACKLIST
SIDE A
Idag – 8:07
Drömmar av is – 2:55
Drömmen om död och förruttnelse – 3:24
Om du vill – 2:36
Gläntan – 1:02

SIDE B
Burning Cross – 4:59
Irreligious Flamboyant Flame – 3:54
Christmas – 6:07
Spirit – 6:30
Om du vill (Slight Return) – 0:44

ALBUM DESCRIPTION & BIO

More than 20 years after their debut, Witchcraft’s seventh album, ‘IDAG,’ is an awaited full accounting of who they are as a band. Those who have clamored for the return to an earlier sound rooted in ’70s classic progressive and heavy rock will delight to the strut of “Irreligious Flamboyant Flame” while the eight-minute opening title-track is the heaviest the band have ever sounded, and a succession of interspersed acoustic-based pieces helps create a vision of a new, soulfully folkish doom taking shape as they continue to move inexorably forward.

Founding guitarist/vocalist, Magnus Pelander, says of ‘IDAG’: “This album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones.”

These enigmatic few words from the Swedish band’s main songwriter give clues as to the songs’ intentions; a reference dropped to Coven’s 1969 album, ‘Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls.’ Coven also had a folkish, proto-doomed take at that point in their history, and that multifaceted nature has been a part of Witchcraft all along. On one level, Magnus is winkingly telling you it’s a Witchcraft record. The actual meaning of that becomes clear when you hear the album and find out just how much ‘a Witchcraft record’ can encompass.

The storyline of Witchcraft’s growth, from Pelander’s starting the band in Örebro in 2000 in the wake of his prior outfit Norrsken’s disbanding. A generational landmark of a 2004 self-titled debut helped spark a retroist movement that has become its own subgenre, but Witchcraft never stopped growing. 2005’s ‘Firewood’ and 2007’s ‘The Alchemist’ introduced more progressive sounds, and five years later, the pointedly modern ‘Legend’ established in 2012 that they had moved beyond the analog worship they had been a part of pioneering within the contemporary heavy rock and doom scene.

In 2016, the 2LP ‘Nucleus’ introduced fuller-toned doom, and 2020’s ‘Black Metal’ diverged into moody acoustic minimalism familiar to some fans from Pelander’s early solo work, but different from anything Witchcraft had done prior. ‘IDAG,’ then, is the tie that draws all of this – more than two decades of exploring and growth – together. Whatever they’ve done in the past and whatever they’ll do in the future, ‘IDAG’ feels like a nexus for defining who and what Witchcraft are. Even crazier, that might be the point of the thing. — JJ Koczan

CREDITS

Recorded and engineered by Johan Elander, Philip Saxin and David Storm.
Mixed and mastered by David Storm. Produced by Magnus Pelander.
All music and lyrics and guitars and vocals by Magnus Pelander.
Drums: Pär Hjulström. Bass: Philip Pilossian. Synth on track 1 by Björn Ekholm Eriksson.

Thanks to: Oscar Johansson for the pigtail and Pär and Philip for dedication and help. Anton Sundell for professional worship of audio files.
Very special extra thanks to: Sean Pelletier for driving the Wheels Of Confusion overboard then back starboards again. For making this LP happen. With peace in his mind. Forever in debt to your priceless advice.
Artwork: John Bauer.
Gatefold photo: Magnus Pelander.
Design: David Bååth.

www.witchraftswe.com
www.facebook.com/witchcraft
https://www.instagram.com/witchcraft.band/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Witchcraft, “Burning Cross”

Tags: Bio I Wrote, Heavy Psych Sounds, Idag, Örebro, Sweden, Witchcraft, Witchcraft Idag

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 at 10:19 am and is filed under Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.