Suncraft Premiere “Charlatan Killer”; Welcome to the Coven Out Nov. 21
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on November 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If a city could have a sound, Suncraft could hardly be more Oslo in my mind. The five-piece next week (Nov. 21) release their second album, Welcome to the Coven, through All Good Clean Records, and it is identifiably Norwegian in its meld of punk, heavy metal, heavy rock, black metal, and so on. There are moments that are a party — plenty of them, actually, between “Love’s Underrated” early and the one-two punch later of “Charlatan Killer” and “High on Silence” — and places where a desert-riffed charge gives over to angrier moods, but the fluidity with which Suncraft are able to inhabit these musical spaces is so prevalent that in listening by the time you get to “Forgotten Goddess,” it’s almost something you take for granted.
In the lyrical framing, pickslides, verse shouts and thrashy thrust, “Ragebait” starts the record with a modern, genre-aware feel and quickly becomes a blast. Of course there are gang vocals. Of course there are blastbeats. But it’s the way Suncraft bring “Ragebait” back down to mid-level intensity afterward that tells you they’re really in control, and as a herald for what’s to follow on the eight songs/39 minutes of the album, “Ragebait” shows them as all the more dangerous front-to-back. Their 2021 debut, Flat Earth Rider (review here), dug into a similar stylistic nuance, finding the places between where one imaginary genre line ends and the next begins, but Welcome to the Coven doesn’t feel coincidental in directly addressing its audience with the title. The message is that Suncraft learned from the first record and are applying those lessons here.
What follows the cymbal-roll intro of “Ragebait” bears that out, whether it’s the friendlier shove of “Love’s Underrated” winking at Queens of the Stone Age — it’s not the last time that happens, with “Charlatan Killer” later and some desert vibes in “Forgotten Goddess” at the finish — or the barking punk of “Greed Battalion” that turns to black metal and back, making the last turn the most satisfying. Suncraft make flexibility a strength, and without pretense — I mean that; the Ruben Willem (Villjuvet) recording sounds brings rare balance of energy and clarity — the band cast their style not as progressive navelgazing, but as a natural outcome of throwing everyone together in a room and seeing how it goes. The songs, in reality, are more complex than this, but it’s the casual air with which Suncraft obliterate genred ideologies that makes Welcome to the Coven so much gosh darn fun.
It would fall flat if the band didn’t have the confidence, performance or sense of craft behind what they do, but the pointedly-metal-as-frick ending of “Welcome to the Coven” — an apex of charge, at least until “High on Silence” a couple songs later — gives over to “Wizards of the Anger Magic,” and I swear I hear Bad Religion in that riff. It’s incongruous, you understand. On paper, that transition shouldn’t work. The reason it does in this instance is that Suncraft at no point set up an expectation of stylistic rigidity. The more they go wherever they want, in other words, the easier it becomes for the listener to follow them as they go. With this in mind, the momentum of Welcome to the Coven becomes all the more prevalent on repeat playthroughs. It’s even better when you know where the twists are going, and worth the effort of an attentive hearing.
As noted, “Charlatan Killer” and “High on Silence” are highlights, and that has both to do with the way their hooks toy with heavy rock, the former elevated by the standout vocal melody — there’s some processing/effects there, used well — and a major-key revelry that dares toward Torche while keeping early-Mastodon heft and the aforementioned QOTSA in the mix as well. They bring the forward drive of “Charlatan Killer” to a roiling culmination and return to the hook to push it over the top, thereby demanding as much volume as you can give, and clearly had keeping the movement going in mind in placing “High on Silence” immediately after. There’s a falsetto-topped rush in the second half, with another divergence into black metal (not out of place) and double-kick meeting a big-rock solo and a last run through of its chorus; Suncraft have a direction, a plan. They seem perfectly happy to make bludgeoning the crap out of you part of it.
They cap with the longest song in “Forgotten Goddess” (6:30), which ignites with a careen that feels notably ‘for the deaf’ while at the same time tonally thicker and more driven in its charge. A short time later, Suncraft will — while sounding like they’re having such a good time it should probably be illegal — be piling on layers until the real last push starts circa 5:40. They drop out and come back loud to bring the closer to a head and drop out, letting a roll on the ride cymbal be the last thing to go, as if in warning that they might crash back in at any second, or perhaps more, to call back to how “Ragebait” started off and give a warning for next time too.
Do not discount their songwriting prowess because they use it to sound like drunken marauders. In fact, that’s part of the plan too.
Enjoy “Charlatan Killer” on the player below, followed by some words from the band and more from the PR wire:
Suncraft on “Charlatan Killer”:
‘Charlatan Killer’ is perhaps the most unusual song on our sophomore album, Welcome to the Coven, featuring falsetto vocals and plenty of unexpected twists and turns. We wrote it as an antidote to imposter syndrome — something our singer, Rasmus, has struggled with in the past. The song playfully imagines a mystical killer of charlatans who’s out to get you and finally expose your deeply fraudulent, true self.
Sonically, ‘Charlatan Killer’ is a fast-paced, eerie, and droning track where we venture further into strange new territory than our usual blend of stoner and Scandi rock. It was recorded, mixed, and mastered by the eminent Ruben Willem, known for his work with Norwegian rock royalty like Kvelertak and The Good the Bad and the Zugly.
Oslo’s loudest troublemakers Suncraft are back with their new album Welcome to the Coven, due out November 21 via All Good Clean Records.
It’s a fast-paced genre party where stoner rock crashes headfirst into garage rock, black metal, and even a bit of pop punk, all wrapped up in fuzz, sarcasm, and serious rock ’n’ roll nonsense.
Produced by Ruben Willem (Kvelertak, The Good The Bad and The Zugly), this one’s heavy, weird, and wildly fun.
All Good Clean Records website
