(New York, NY – July 22, 2022) – Masters of infernal metal since their inception 25 years ago, Swedish blackened Thrash Metal pioneers WITCHERY have just released their 8
th studio album Nightside, worldwide today via Century Media Records. To celebrate the release, the band have just dropped the lyric video for “Storm of the Unborn”, created by Cloud Music Typography,
HERE.
“The day of the “Nightside” album release is upon us, and along with it we have a lyrical video chosen to show the diversity of the album. “Storm of the Unborn” is a slower, more atmospheric track compared to the two previously released videos from the album. It also comes with more atmosphere-setting sound fx, something I grew to love from listening to other great concept albums (perhaps best exemplified by Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime”). So, get a glass of your favorite beverage, find some shade from the current sun-on-steroids (at least here in northern Europe at the moment!) and enjoy this our first endeavor of creating a concept album of our own,” states WITCHERY mastermind and guitarist Jensen.
WITCHERY previously released video clips for the razor-sharp track “
Popecrusher” and for the fierce album opening track “
Witching Hour”.
Following 2017’s much acclaimed I Am Legion album, Nightside was recorded with the WITCHERY line-up consisting of Jensen (Guit., The Haunted / ex Seance), Rickard Rimfält (Guit., Seance), Angus Norder (Vox, Nekrokraft), Victor Brandt (Bass, Dimmu Borgir / ex Entombed A.D.) – who now officially replaces longtime bassist Sharlee D’Angelo – and Chris Barkensjö (Drums, LIK / ex Kaamos). The album was once again mixed and produced by Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames, etc.) and includes artwork by Andreas “Diaz” Pettersson, which can be seen above.
Nightside tracklisting:
1. Witching Hour
2. Don’t Burn the Witch
3. Storm of the Unborn
4. Er steht in Flammen
5. Popecrusher
6. Left Hand March
7. Under the Altar
8. Churchburner
9. Crucifix and Candle
10. A Forest of Burning Coffins
11. Nightside
Jensen adds, “I started to write this album without any general direction of idea in mind, but somewhere in the middle of the writing process I remembered that I’ve always wanted to do a concept album, so I decided to give it a shot. Little did I know that writing a concept album puts a lot more pressure on each and every song turning out great. This might seem a norm (and I guess it is in some way) but usually you write 12-14 songs and choose the songs that turned out the best after they’ve been mixed and mastered. Sometimes even what you thought was going to be the first song on the album gets pushed to somewhere else because another track turned out sounding more like an opening track. Also, out of those 12-14 songs you can choose to keep a few a bonus tracks. With a theme album, songs can’t swap places. The story needs to work (no one wants to do a new “The Elder”!), so the opening track really needs to hold up as an opening track etc., thus the extra pressure of “no surprises” after its all recorded. The album tells a story of demonic nightmares, unexplainable pregnancy, witch trails and an escape from the Old Country to the colonies in the west and what happens once the child is born. Guests on this album is, for starters, our permanent guest of honor Hank Shermann, but also guest solos by Maciek Ofstad of Kvelertak and Simon Johansson of Wolf (also the studio owner of SolnaStudio where we recorded the album. We also had the honor of having Jeff Walker of Carcass do guest vocals on the song “A Forest of Burning Coffins”. All in all, we are very happy with how the album turned out and with again thrilled over Daniel Bergstrand’s killer production…”
Nightside features brief guest appearances on vocals by Jeff Walker (Carcass, on “A Forest of Burning Coffins”, as well as guest guitar leads by Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate, on “Left Hand March”), Simon Johansson (Wolf, on “Crucifix and Candle”) and Maciek Ofstad (Kvelertak, on “Don’t Burn the Witch”).
Nightside is available in the following formats: jewelcase CD, 180g. vinyl LP (either as black vinyl or as limited transparent red vinyl of 500x copies via CM Distro/Mailorder) and as digital album. Purchase Nightside,
HERE.
Previously, WITCHERY’s early catalogue was re-issued by Century Media Records in 2020 on CD, LP and digitally, finally making Restless & Dead (1998), Witchburner (EP, 1999), Dead, Hot And Ready (1999) and Symphony For The Devil (2001) available worldwide again. The re-issues are available to purchase,
HERE.
Look out…WITCHERY’s Nightside is heavy metal witchcraft at its best. The witching hour has arrived!
